BURNABY, B.C. — Bringing a title to Toronto will always be the top line of Masai Ujiri’s resume in the NBA. He has done many great things, with the Raptors, the Denver Nuggets before him and especially with his Giants of Africa charity. Putting together that team, capped with two audacious trades for a pair of likely future hall of famers, is what will linger most strongly for the most number of people.
Not a minor accomplishment, though: making the Raptors relatively normal. To be fair, this started under the tenure of Bryan Colangelo, who brought Ujiri to Toronto, as the director of global scouting, for the first time. Colangelo didn’t win as many of his battles with the Raptors’ corporate ownership structure as his successor, but he saw the Raptors were behind in many facets and started bringing them to the attention of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s board of directors.
It was Ujiri, who was lured away by new (and brief) MLSE chief executive officer Tim Leiweke, who got the Raptors to modernize. Maybe it took the wasting of Bruno Caboclo’s first year to make it happen, but the Raptors got their own D-League (now G League) team in 2015. They got a new practice facility, OVO Athletic Centre, in 2016, replacing the gym and workout room tucked away on the third…
