Raptors Notebook: What’s subsequent for Masai Ujiri and Toronto’s entrance workplace search?

Masai Ujiri and Kawhi Leonard collectively once more.

If that doesn’t give Toronto Raptors followers a foul case of FOMO, I’m undecided what would.

It’s not on an NBA courtroom, although. The former Raptors president — nonetheless a wierd phrase even a month after the membership fired Ujiri with one 12 months left on his contract — and the MVP of the 2019 NBA Finals will reunite in Kigali, Rwanda, as a part of Ujiri’s Giants of Africa pageant that ideas off Saturday.

Leonard is a part of a battery of stars drawn from the ranks of the WNBA, NBA, worldwide soccer, media and leisure to have fun Ujiri’s mission to assist African youth by basketball, a undertaking now in its 22^nd summer time.

For the second time, the GOA format — which beforehand concerned internet hosting a transferring sequence of basketball camps throughout totally different nations — will as a substitute contain an Olympics model, single-destination pageant, bringing collectively 320 girls and boys from 20 African nations for ability growth periods, a event, cultural and academic programing, all culminating with a live performance on Aug. 2. 

Leonard shall be making his first GOA look and can act as a mentor to campers, assist open a brand new basketball courtroom — GOA has helped construct practically 40 throughout Africa — and host a abilities clinic in one among Kigali’s most underserved neighbourhoods.

“This time we’ve invited more people, more NBA players, more artists, it’s going to be big, it’s going to be cool,” mentioned Ujiri in an interview with me whereas he was nonetheless with the Raptors.

When I used to be in Las Vegas for Summer League, the primary questions anybody from different organizations or different NBA media had for me centred round Ujiri: why MLSE president Keith Pelley determined to let him go and what Ujiri will do subsequent.

The first half has been well-covered, however the latter not as a lot.

The brief reply to that’s: no matter he desires.

He had one 12 months left on a five-year deal that averaged round $15 million per season, and coming off essentially the most profitable run in Raptors historical past, he was capable of negotiate some vital long-term incentives that monitor the rise within the franchise’s worth. He received’t have to work anytime quickly, and I shall be very stunned if he takes a job within the NBA this season.

Longer time period? He could be a horny candidate to move an growth staff, which is now firmly on the NBA’s radar, or could possibly be an intriguing option to run the NBA’s proposed addition of an NBA-sanctioned league in Europe. In the meantime, Ujiri could be an apparent candidate for management roles as they open throughout the NBA, with some league insiders keeping track of the Miami Heat, on condition that Heat president Pat Riley not too long ago turned 80.

But for now, Ujiri received’t have an issue holding busy.

In addition to the work his basis has been doing for the previous 20 years in Africa, he’s developed some vital enterprise pursuits there, along with being a minor investor in BAL, the Basketball Africa League. 

The GOA Festival coincides with the opening of Zaria Court, a sports activities leisure city growth model the place Ujiri is without doubt one of the lead buyers. The flagship location is within the coronary heart of Kigali’s ‘Sports City,’ which is residence to the newly constructed nationwide soccer stadium and a brand new NBA-quality enviornment. Zaria Court options an 80-room resort, a pair of five-a-side soccer pitches, a basketball courtroom that doubles as a live performance venue, a well being and health centre and different facilities.

It’s a format Ujiri hopes to duplicate throughout Africa, and one thing he sees as a logical complement to the work GOA does: using sports activities to provoke African expertise, funding and progress in a continent that Ujiri sees as having limitless potential, given the surge in Africa’s center class.

“It’s more about — and this sounds stupid to say — but it’s more about actually doing it to have it, than making money,” he instructed me. “I have money, I’ve made money. But in Africa, we don’t understand sports as a business. They see sports as recreation and competition. We get ready for Olympics, and we have physical education in schools, you know? But we don’t see sports as a business, but we have the remarkable talent, we have the artists, the chefs … we have everything we need to do anything we want to do, to fill up any arena.”

But for Ujiri, it begins with empowering generations of youth: “I always say Africa’s biggest jewel is the talent of the youth,” he mentioned in a current interview with the Associated Press. “One out of every four people in the world are going to be Africans by the year 2050, and the median age is 20. We should be investing in the continent.”

There hasn’t been a number of discuss round MLSE’s seek for a brand new president to interchange Ujiri, although plenty of league insiders I’ve spoken with imagine that the staff’s normal supervisor, Bobby Webster, is the main candidate for the position. “Bobby’s to lose” was a line I heard round Las Vegas, although how a lot of that was knowledgeable hypothesis and the way a lot was deductive reasoning — Webster is a popular and well-respected govt each inside the MLSE and throughout the NBA, so why mess with it? — was laborious to discern.

Webster is within the job, which is step one. Moving Webster up a peg to president explains why one supply mentioned that the names that they had heard that the search — led by CAA Executive Search — had reached out to have been some lower-tier executives, most of whom would make extra sense as additions to the Raptors entrance workplace’s general horsepower working for somebody like Webster quite than in a staff president position.

But there are some candidates with lengthy and diverse NBA expertise, additionally. One title that MLSE has accomplished background work on is Chicago Bulls normal supervisor Marc Eversley, a Brampton native who was an assistant normal supervisor with the Raptors beneath Bryan Colangelo earlier than stints in Philadelphia, Washington and now Chicago.

Eversley is a board member with Canada Basketball and has a long-standing relationship with Webster and the expertise to undertake among the duties of a staff president, even when Webster was president by title. Eversley was a key determine within the Raptors drafting DeMar DeRozan. One supply mentioned that Eversley’s ties to the Raptors and Canadian basketball have been intriguing, along with his background with a number of NBA groups. Indiana Pacers normal supervisor Chad Buchanan can also be on MLSE’s radar.

Former Raptors head coach and present Detroit Pistons govt Dwane Casey has thrown his hat within the ring and has met with MLSE president Keith Pelley, per sources. I’m instructed one other NBA determine of observe Pelley has met with is former Sacramento Kings normal supervisor Monte McNair. The 2022-23 NBA govt of the 12 months was let go by the Kings in April after main Sacramento to one among its most profitable runs in franchise historical past.

But an fascinating title to observe is Kevin Pritchard, the long-time Indiana Pacers president who led the membership to the NBA Finals this previous June and the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024. One league insider instructed to me that the Pacers govt is MLSE’s most popular selection, though lateral strikes when executives are beneath contract with different groups are sometimes more durable to execute than when there’s a promotion.

Raptors low season by no means ends

After a extremely profitable stint on the Las Vegas Summer League — the child Raptors have been undefeated and had the league’s finest defence and finest level differential earlier than dropping to the Kings within the semifinals — there was some transient downtime, however issues will ramp up once more quickly.

The Raptors’ youthful core skilled in Toronto for many of May, along with heading to Austin, Texas, the place Jamal Shead hosted a bunch of 10 gamers, together with coaches and coaching workers, for a four-day coaching camp in his hometown earlier than Summer League.

The veterans have been additionally in Las Vegas for a mini-camp. The subsequent step is a team-wide mini-camp in Madrid through the first week of August. The Raptors held an identical gathering final summer time on Spain’s southern coast in Fuengirola, figuring out of the NBPA’s European coaching facility. This time round, the Raptors shall be coaching on the modern amenities loved by one of many richest golf equipment in European sports activities, Real Madrid.