Friday Night Party (NBA Intel-style): All the latest out of Toronto plus fresh developments from the trade and free agency fronts
NOW the weekend can start
Around-the-league notes on a Friday?
On the last Friday before NBA free agency begins?
To lead off a weekend that will be filled with NBA coverage from The Stein Line?
You know it!
To the latest from my notebook on the sudden Friday morning ouster of Raptors vice chairman Masai Ujiri, numerous pressing trade talk items and free agency forecasts and some coaching rumbles, too:
The Raptors' dismissal Friday morning of Ujiri after his 12 seasons north of the border will be painted by many as an inevitability. Ujiri was entering the final year of his contract and has been repeatedly asked in recent years about reported friction with his new bosses within Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which he has always sought to downplay.
The timing of the move, though, gave it an undeniable shock element no matter how loudly some will say that we all should have seen this coming. Firing the lead decision-maker of an NBA team on the day after the draft — particularly one who assembled the only championship team in franchise history — is hardly a common occurrence.
Yet there were, in retrospect, some telling signals.