Everything Masai Ujiri

[Scraptor]

Everyone hates Woj as soon as he reports something that is contrary to their team's interests. Then he is suddenly a paid shill and a terrible journalist etc etc.

The guy reports what he hears. He's the best in the business. Sometimes he get things wrong but I strongly doubt he is getting paid on the side to push agendas.

I doubt Masai would leave but I would understand if he did. Fortunately Dolan is probably going to do something stupid long before we reach that point. If he hires an agent as president we will be laughing at the Knicks for another decade or more.

[GOLDBLUM]

There's one potential problem I see. In a our basketball world, Masai should be spelled Messiah. But in the MLSE world, the Leafs are the golden egg. Now that may be changing. If you look at the Leafs hosting Anaheim Friday and the Raps hosting the Nets on Saturday, tickets in a random good section on stub hub (119) cost more for the Raptors than the Leafs. But the Raps are coming off a championship season. This may be more of a peak than a median. I don't know if MLSE will offer Masai the moon without feeling they have to offer Shanahan one of the planets (or at least another moon). I fear this is the case but I hope it is not.

I’m less worried about this sort of thing now... seeing as we had the biggest championship parade in the history of .... oh, let’s say the planet... I think MLSE is pretty woke to how much money lies for them in a strong Raptors organization.

[bertarapsfan]

Everyone hates Woj as soon as he reports something that is contrary to their team's interests. Then he is suddenly a paid shill and a terrible journalist etc etc.

The guy reports what he hears. He's the best in the business. Sometimes he get things wrong but I strongly doubt he is getting paid on the side to push agendas.

I doubt Masai would leave but I would understand if he did. Fortunately Dolan is probably going to do something stupid long before we reach that point. If he hires an agent as president we will be laughing at the Knicks for another decade or more.

He gets things right but i think its become pretty clear that Woj plays favorites with agents and franchises. If they let him in on rumor he rewards them with positive press or helps to drive up the price when they are looking to trade someone. We are historically tight lipped under Masai Regime and i think that plays into how Woj has reported on him. It is his business plan so its hard to hate on him for it. Shams is coming for his ass anyways. Woj lost a step since he went to ESPN

[S.R.]

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/st...22014663327746

Lmao the Knicks are just spraying machine gun fire everywhere at this point, such typical Knicks.

[slaw]

There's one potential problem I see. In a our basketball world, Masai should be spelled Messiah. But in the MLSE world, the Leafs are the golden egg. Now that may be changing. If you look at the Leafs hosting Anaheim Friday and the Raps hosting the Nets on Saturday, tickets in a random good section on stub hub (119) cost more for the Raptors than the Leafs. But the Raps are coming off a championship season. This may be more of a peak than a median. I don't know if MLSE will offer Masai the moon without feeling they have to offer Shanahan one of the planets (or at least another moon). I fear this is the case but I hope it is not.

So, I don't know what the current numbers are but Shanahan was signed initially for ~$2.5 million for 5 years back in 2014. He signed an extension until 2024-25 I believe but I don't know the dollar amount, though it would certainly be more.

Ujiri signed a three-year, $15 million deal when he joined Toronto. It's safe to assume his current contract is also worth more.

Based on that, it seems the league market rates matter far more than name recognition or matching salaries within MLSE.

[Zak24gege]

I don't like the fact that these clowns look at the Raptors as some minor league team though - that they can just snatch their top executives anytime they want. When the Spurs were winning all those championships, I don't remember RC Buford's name being floated around like Masai is now. Or how about Bob Myers? Sam Presti?

Raptors finally won a championship, and Woj first tweet was:

Now that he is with ESPN, he has to get more 'insider info' to spew into the camera. Every damn time the NYK front office is in play he puts out Masai's name as well. Best just to ignore him on this one. That said he is viewed as The Go-to-Guy when it comes to NBA breaking news.

[inthepaint]

Woj was right about Kawhi to the Clippers, though.

Yep, he spun it first, then reported it when it actually happened. He of course didn't make it happen per se (Kawhi decided of course), but he was part of the the spinning chatter, along with the rest of ESPN, that wanted Kawhi in LA so badly. It looks like Woj's got two different jobs now: generate rumours in the best interest of NY/LA (along the occasional Masai linked to the Wizards BS right after the raps won the title), and his traditional job of reporting trades when they actually happen (so he doesn't lose all credibility altogether)

[S.R.]

Yep, he spun it first, then reported it when it actually happened. He of course didn't make it happen per se (Kawhi decided of course), but he was part of the the spinning chatter, along with the rest of ESPN, that wanted Kawhi in LA so badly. It looks like Woj's got two different jobs now: generate rumours in the best interest of NY/LA (along the occasional Masai linked to the Wizards BS right after the raps won the title), and his traditional job of reporting trades when they actually happen (so he doesn't lose all credibility altogether)

I mean there's also just the inherent conflict of interest that as soon as a report/journalist/talking head puts "New York" or "LA" in the headline, they get 10x the clicks and views and likes and, sooner or later, get more money.

Nobody cares about long shot rumours about the Indiana Pacers, but piles of people will read any ball of spit about the Knicks or Lakers. It gets views.

[KeonClark]

I mean there's also just the inherent conflict of interest that as soon as a report/journalist/talking head puts "New York" or "LA" in the headline, they get 10x the clicks and views and likes and, sooner or later, get more money.

Nobody cares about long shot rumours about the Indiana Pacers, but piles of people will read any ball of spit about the Knicks or Lakers. It gets views.

You stole the words outta my mouth S.R.

people are making out conspiracy theories like he's on Dolans payroll, nah, Knicks get clicks.

[The Great One]

I mean there's also just the inherent conflict of interest that as soon as a report/journalist/talking head puts "New York" or "LA" in the headline, they get 10x the clicks and views and likes and, sooner or later, get more money.

Nobody cares about long shot rumours about the Indiana Pacers, but piles of people will read any ball of spit about the Knicks or Lakers. It gets views.

So how about the Wizards?

[inthepaint]

I mean there's also just the inherent conflict of interest that as soon as a report/journalist/talking head puts "New York" or "LA" in the headline, they get 10x the clicks and views and likes and, sooner or later, get more money.

Nobody cares about long shot rumours about the Indiana Pacers, but piles of people will read any ball of spit about the Knicks or Lakers. It gets views.

Oh for sure, there's no actual evidence that Woj is getting paid on the side by LA/NY, we're just spitballing here; what is common knowledge is this: he built a lot of credibility over the years by being an impartial guy that would first-hand tweet when a move happened. The "woj bomb" became something everyone looked forward to. Then ESPN got him. ESPN (which includes Woj as their staff) wants to increase NBA ratings by making NY/LA relevant at all costs. Ownership in NY/LA obviously also want that. So their interests are aligned. That's the inherent conflict of interest you referred to, and is real.

fwiw I don't blame him for joining ESPN at all, that was most likely the best move for his own career. But at some point you gotta decide if you want to have the cake or eat it. To me you're either an impartial but well connected guy around the league, or you're an ESPN talking head - hard to be both.

[007]

Marc Stein just put this out. Losing Masai AND Webster would be doomsday scenario, but again it's obviously difficult to tell what exactly is going on

[bertarapsfan]

When an executive is under contract there is no tampering. However teams must offer compensation to just "Speak" to someone with another team.What is raptors say give us next year first round pick to talk. And masai has been playing into this. He takes the meeting, says no and we get a top 5 pick.
A man can dream

[Mitchell Duong]

To quote the late Kobe Bryant. "The Knicks Suck"

[Jclaw]

To quote the late Kobe Bryant. "The Knicks Suck"

and the current Kevin Durant