Masai Ujiri and Kawhi Leonard collectively once more.
If that doesn’t give Toronto Raptors followers a nasty case of FOMO, I’m undecided what would.
It’s not on an NBA court docket, although. The previous 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 competition that suggestions 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 rejoice Ujiri’s mission to assist African youth by way of basketball, a venture now in its twenty second summer time.
For the second time, the GOA format — which beforehand concerned internet hosting a transferring collection of basketball camps throughout totally different international locations — will as a substitute contain an Olympics type, single-destination competition, bringing collectively 320 girls and boys from 20 African international locations for ability improvement classes, a event, cultural and academic programing, all culminating with a live performance on Aug. 2.
Leonard can be making his first GOA look and can act as a mentor to campers, assist open a brand new basketball court docket — GOA has helped construct practically 40 throughout Africa — and host a abilities clinic in one in all Kigali’s most underserved neighbourhoods.
“This time we’ve invited extra individuals, extra NBA gamers, extra artists, it’s going to be huge, it’s going to be cool,” mentioned Ujiri in an interview with me whereas he was nonetheless with the Raptors.
Once I was in Las Vegas for Summer season 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 primary half has been well-covered, however the latter not as a lot.
The brief reply to that’s: no matter he needs.
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 in a position to negotiate some important long-term incentives that observe the rise within the franchise’s worth. He gained’t have to work anytime quickly, and I can be very shocked if he takes a job within the NBA this season.
Long run? He could be a gorgeous candidate to go an enlargement group, which is now firmly on the NBA’s radar, or might be an intriguing option to run the NBA’s proposed addition of an NBA-sanctioned league in Europe. Within 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 Warmth, provided that Warmth president Pat Riley just lately turned 80.
However for now, Ujiri gained’t have an issue protecting busy.
Along with the work his basis has been doing for the previous twenty years in Africa, he’s developed some important enterprise pursuits there, along with being a minor investor in BAL, the Basketball Africa League.
The GOA Competition coincides with the opening of Zaria Courtroom, a sports activities leisure city improvement model the place Ujiri is without doubt one of the lead buyers. The flagship location is within the coronary heart of Kigali’s ‘Sports activities Metropolis,’ which is dwelling to the newly constructed nationwide soccer stadium and a brand new NBA-quality enviornment. Zaria Courtroom options an 80-room lodge, a pair of five-a-side soccer pitches, a basketball court docket that doubles as a live performance venue, a well being and health centre and different facilities.
It is 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 impress African expertise, funding and development in a continent that Ujiri sees as having limitless potential, given the surge in Africa’s center class.
“It’s extra about — and this sounds silly to say — however it’s extra about truly doing it to have it, than earning profits,” he advised me. “I’ve cash, I’ve made cash. However in Africa, we don’t perceive sports activities as a enterprise. They see sports activities as recreation and competitors. We prepare for Olympics, and we have now bodily training in colleges, you recognize? However we don’t see sports activities as a enterprise, however we have now the exceptional expertise, we have now the artists, the cooks … we have now all the pieces we have to do something we need to do, to replenish any enviornment.”
However for Ujiri, it begins with empowering generations of youth: “I at all times say Africa’s largest jewel is the expertise of the youth,” he mentioned in a current interview with the Related Press. “One out of each 4 individuals on the planet are going to be Africans by the 12 months 2050, and the median age is 20. We ought to be investing within the continent.”
There hasn’t been loads of discuss round MLSE’s seek for a brand new president to switch Ujiri, although numerous league insiders I’ve spoken with imagine that the group’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 throughout the MLSE and throughout the NBA, so why mess with it? — was onerous to discern.
Webster is within the job, which is step one. Shifting Webster up a peg to president explains why one supply mentioned that the names that they had heard that the search — led by CAA Government 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 total horsepower working for somebody like Webster quite than in a group president position.
However there are some candidates with lengthy and assorted NBA expertise, additionally. One identify that MLSE has finished background work on is Chicago Bulls normal supervisor Marc Eversley, a Brampton native who was an assistant normal supervisor with the Raptors underneath 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 a few of the duties of a group 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 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 am advised one other NBA determine of notice 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 in all its most profitable runs in franchise historical past.
However an attention-grabbing identify to observe is Kevin Pritchard, the long-time Indiana Pacers president who led the membership to the NBA Finals this previous June and the Japanese Convention Finals in 2024. One league insider instructed to me that the Pacers govt is MLSE’s most popular alternative, though lateral strikes when executives are underneath 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 season League — the newborn Raptors have been undefeated and had the league’s greatest defence and greatest level differential earlier than dropping to the Kings within the semifinals — there was some temporary downtime, however issues will ramp up once more quickly.
The Raptors’ youthful core skilled in Toronto for many of Might, along with heading to Austin, Texas, the place Jamal Shead hosted a gaggle of 10 gamers, together with coaches and coaching workers, for a four-day coaching camp in his hometown earlier than Summer season League.
The veterans have been additionally in Las Vegas for a mini-camp. The following step is a team-wide mini-camp in Madrid in the course of the first week of August. The Raptors held the same gathering final summer time on Spain’s southern coast in Fuengirola, understanding of the NBPA’s European coaching facility. This time round, the Raptors can be coaching on the modern services loved by one of many richest golf equipment in European sports activities, Actual Madrid.
