Ujiri a true man of his word
Wiggins promotion shows he’s dealing with issues of importance
It was three weeks ago when Raptors president Masai Ujiri launched into one of his impassioned pleas about the monumental problems facing society today. Racism. Social injustice. Women’s rights. LGBTQ rights. Police brutality. All of the issues at the forefront today, all the problems that need to be addressed, all the ills that need fixing and the momentum that exists to make tangible efforts at improving the world.
“We’re going to tackle this matter as hard as we can, because it’s so important to us, and the momentum is now,” he said that day. “People are concerned, people are engaged, and we have to be, because there is a huge problem and, as I said before, people have to address it.
“We have to address racism. It’s also in Canada; we’re not immune to it. There is an issue here, and we’re going to pay attention to it and attack this matter the best possible way that we can.” A man of his word. As always. The Raptors announced Monday that they have hired John Wiggins, a well-respected native of Mississauga who had been running the G League Raptors 905, as vice-president of organizational culture and inclusion. It’s a new position and a tangible step toward addressing nationwide issues that are so firmly in the general consciousness these days.
“With this position, we can directly impact change,” Wiggins said. “That’s what excited me so much about the role — the chance to impact change directly in my organization, my community and my country.” The Raptors know how powerful and important their voice is across the country, more than any other sports franchise. Hockey, football and soccer teams are generally regionalized and the Blue Jays have not been nearly as proactive on social awareness and causes as the Raptors have.
Ujiri’s work with students in the tiny north Saskatchewan town of La Loche in the wake of a school shooting there in 2016 is a perfect case in point.
“We throw a party and three million people come,” Wiggins said of the team’s coast-tocoast reach. “We feel that responsibility from Vancouver to Halifax and want to change things across Canada.”
Citing far-ranging issues affecting women, Indigenous Canadians and the LGBTQ community, Wiggins knows the work cannot be limited to Toronto and issues of race. There are too many areas where the Raptors can make a difference with support, funding, aid of any kind.
“We want to affect change on a global scale, and that has to begin at home,” Ujiri said in a release. “John knows this community and he knows the people who live in this community. He understands how to get things done and how to build consensus.”
The job now is to move quickly. There are business plans to develop, financial commitments to be carved out and a national panel of experts to bring together. It will come under the aegis of Wiggins in his newly created position, and continue throughout the larger MLSE family.
“We’ve just hired at the vicepresident level … and MLSE has got a job opening for a vice-president of racial equality and those things are impactful,” coach Nick Nurse said.
“They’re coming in at executive levels and having somebody in charge and thinking about that 24 hours a day.”
It should not be lost that the promotion of Wiggins and the ascension of Courtney Charles to vice-president of basketball and operations for Raptors 905 adds two Black men to the highest levels of the organization. It’s a step Ujiri vowed to take, and he took it.
“At some point, humanitywise, treating everybody equally, giving opportunities to males and females, people of colour, having a body of work is the key,” said Charles, who spent the past five years as director of basketball operations and player development with the Raptors. “John’s put in the work with the G League, I put in the time with Raptors and now we get to be put into leadership positions, which is really all social justice is talking about.
“If people have earned the right, how do we then put them in positions to display that to others, so people can believe it and see it and can look up and say not only is Masai a president but John’s a vice-president, Courtney’s a vice-president and they lead people to be successful.”
While Wiggins puts his plans in place — he’s been mulling it over since the process of his promotion really took hold a couple of weeks ago — the team itself gets ready to use its platform once games begin in Florida, starting with Friday’s scrimmage against the Houston Rockets.
They will work on ways to get messages to fans in both Canada and the U.S., and they are evolving.
“We’ve got a little subcommittee that Kyle (Lowry), Fred (VanVleet) and Marc Gasol are on that gives everybody a forum to take ideas and action plans to,” said Nurse, “and then it comes to our other subcommittee that includes myself and Bobby (Webster) and Masai and Pat Mutombo, one of our assistants, Fabulous Flournoy, another one of our assistants, Rae-Marie Rosant, who works in our front office.
“We meet every week, as well, just trying to keep not only the ideas going but plans of action and getting them executed, because it’s getting close to time.”