[REPORT] Masai Ujiri Likely to Stay with Toronto Raptors

Following today's press conference between Masai Ujiri and local Toronto media, it's seeming more and more likely that 2013 NBA Executive of the Year will be staying put in the 6ix for the foreseeable future. 

While Ujiri didn't explicitly say he would stay in Toronto, or jettison to another city, he did mention that chatting with MLSE ownership would be a key in returning to Toronto, where he orchestrated an NBA Championship run in 2018-19. There are many things Ujiri wants to address on top of the length and monetary particulars of a new contract, specifically how ownership will advocate for the only Canadian team in an American dominant league.

Masai Ujiri says his conversations with ownership about what he wants to see change in Toronto will determine whether he decides to return to the Raptors next season.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) May 19, 2021

In a wide-ranging 45+ minute interview, Ujiri discussed the difficulties the Raptors faced being the only team in the NBA to play away from home (not to mention out-of-country), the performance of his players, the state of the team within the NBA construct and even pointing to a future conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about playing in Toronto next year. He also spoke of interests outside of his role as President of Basketball Operations, specifically as the creator of Giants of Africa. 

I have a lot of interests in this world but I’m not naïve not to understand that sports is an incredible platform, my position is an incredible platform to talk about a lot of the things that I want to do, a lot of the things that I’m interested in, and we’ll go from there. There are a lot of options that I have to consider. There are a lot of things that we are really going to talk about here moving forward and how we make this organization even bigger.

In a touching moment, Ujiri listened to some words from Nick Nurse, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet that brought him to tears. 

Masai Ujiri got emotional today after hearing some of the praise he received from members of the Raptors.#WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/Pa9WnXyyAj

— Tim and Friends (@timandfriends) May 19, 2021

Ujiri has been the most talked about executive around the NBA for quite some time, and has been linked to a variety of teams in the past -  including Washington, which was rumored to pay him a handsome salary as well as a minor stake in ownership. Now that he is actually a free agent, MLSE will want to wrap up negotiations as quickly as possible. 

Tom's Take: Masai will re-sign in Toronto for the largest deal ever struck by an NBA executive. 

Photo Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports