Significant news dropped this week about the Toronto Raptors: Bell Canada, a massive telecommunications company in Canada that owned more than a third of the Raptors, was selling their shares of the team.
That may not seem like a move that matters much for the common fan, especially since those shares were purchased by Rogers Communications, who owned 37.5 percent of the team already. No new owners are entering the equation for the Raptors.
The reason it is significant is that Rogers now controls 75 percent of the team, purchased as part of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) which owns both the Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs. That puts Edward Rogers, the company's chairman, in the driver's seat for deciding the future of the team.
That does not bode well for the Raptors' President Masai Ujiri, who joined the team in 2013 as General Manager. Once viewed as one of the top executives in the game and still highly respected around the league, Ujiri's star has become a bit tarnished in recent years. This change in ownership is now a hammer waiting to drop.
Ujiri and Edward Rogers have had a "strained" relationship throughout the history of Ujiri working for the Raptors. Rogers has opposed multiple moves that Ujiri has made, and he was against a recent pay increase given to the team president. For that sort of internal company dynamics to become public knowledge speaks to a high level of animosity between the two parties.
Masai Ujiri has a wobbly track record
If Masai Ujiri was continuing to dominant as a front office executive and the Toronto Raptors were competing for championships it would be impossible to fire him. It almost doesn't matter who buys the Boston Celtics, for example; the work Brad Stevens has done to build a championship roster speaks for itself and grants him some bulletproof armor for at least a few years.
Once you could say the same for Ujiri, who pulled off multiple masterful trades and draft-day steals to build a championship roster that brought Canada its first ever NBA title. Now more than five years later, however, the track record is trending in the wrong direction.
Ujiri held onto the last hopes of that championship core for much too long, losing Kyle Lowry for peanuts, Fred VanVleet for nothing and taking a long time to embrace a retooling of the roster and thus likely selling low on Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby.
The Raptors have a fairly poor draft record over the past five or six seasons, shrewdly landing on Scottie Barnes in 2021 but otherwise missing out on game-changing players with their other picks. Their best free agent signing in the last five years has been...Dennis Schroder?
Sprinkle in some concerning allegations about those Masai Ujiri is connected with in Africa, including national leaders connected to horrific crimes, and it paints a picture of an executive who is not completely safe.
Masai Ujiri could be fired...and soon
What has always protected Masai Ujiri is his relationship with Larry Tanenbaum, who owns the remaining 25 percent of MLSE and has been his biggest proponent in the franchise, handing out his promotion to Team President and making him the alternate governor of the team.
The problem is that Tanenbaum is now out-owned by Rogers 3-to-1, with Rogers also having the ability to buy him out in 2026 if they so wish. While Tanenbaum remains the Team Governor, that may not be the case for long.
Could Rogers fire Masai Ujiri now, before the season? It's at least possible that he would want to clean house as he takes over majority control. More likely, he gives Masai a year to right the ship as he settles in, then has the leverage to fire him if it's another mediocre season. In a head-to-head battle between Rogers and Tanenbaum over Ujiri, it's hard to see Rogers losing.
Masai Ujiri would be helped by a breakout season for the Raptors and a run into the playoffs; that may be asking a lot, but it may be necessary to save his job. Unless, of course, he doesn't even get that far.