Raptors president Masai Ujiri (left) celebrating winning the 2019 NBA championsip. Photo / Getty
Raptors president Masai Ujiri (left) celebrating winning the 2019 NBA championsip. Photo / Getty
As a kid growing up on the outdoor basketball courts of northern Nigeria, Masai Ujiri dreamt of one day winning an NBA championship.
He made the journey to America in high school but it quickly became clear his talent wasn't at the same level as countryman Hakeem Olajuwon and after an uneventful college career and a stint playing professionally in Europe he was back in Nigeria working as a youth coach.
But a fateful return trip to the US with a young Nigerian player opened a door to the NBA, where he was given an unpaid scouting job with the Orlando Magic.
He quickly converted the opportunity to a paid gig with the Denver Nuggets as an international scout and after four years in that role was hired by the Toronto Raptors, where he started as director of global scouting but progressed to assistant general manager in 2008.
Again it was the Nuggets who provided Ujiri's next breakthrough as he took the reins of the team as its general manager. In 2013 — after building a 57-win team two years removed from the departure of star forward Carmelo Anthony — he was named the NBA's executive of the year.
The Raptors wanted their man back and handed him a $15 million deal to return and he immediately built the NBA's only Canadian team into a perennial Eastern Conference contender. In 2016 his contract was extended to act as the team's president.
But a third consecutive playoff defeat against LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers forced Ujiri into drastic action. He fired the NBA's reigning coach of the year Dwane Casey and shipped the franchise's most popular player to San Antonio in exchange for a player, Kawhi Leonard, who would be able to leave after just one season.
The rest is history as Leonard led the Raptors to last year's championship, but Ujiri's crowning moment was stolen from him by what he says was a racially-motivated attack.
Raptors president Masai Ujiri (left) celebrating winning the 2019 NBA championsip. Photo / Getty
As the clock wound down on a title-clinching 114-110 win against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, Ujiri left his seat and began walking around the outside of the court to a point where credentialed staff could enter.
New video footage released this week showed Ujiri begin to pull his security pass out of his suit jacket as he encountered a law enforcement official guarding access to the court.
The Raptors president was slammed in the chest and shoved backwards in a shocking moment. Ujiri returned the favour before others intervened and ushered him onto the court, where veteran guard Kyle Lowry embraced him.
But you can see in photographs of Ujiri being congratulated by both his team and their opponents how the clash tainted the moment for him.
Instead of a broad smile the 50-year-old's expression is one of shock — and that shock only worsened when in the wake of the incident Ujiri discovered he was being sued by the deputy.
Alan Strickland lodged a lawsuit in February claiming Ujiri had struck him and left him with lasting bodily and psychological injury.
It's only now footage of the post-game moment has emerged Ujiri is speaking out. Ujiri, who has countersued Strickland, said in a statement issued through the Raptors he believed the incident was racially-motivated.
"The video sadly demonstrates how horribly I was treated by a law enforcement officer last year in the midst of my team, the Toronto Raptors, winning its first world championship," Ujiri said.
"It was an exhilarating moment of achievement for our organisation, for our players, for our city, for our country, and for me personally, given my long-tenured professional journey in the NBA.
"Yet, unfortunately, I was reminded in that moment that despite all of my hard work and success, there are some people, including those who are supposed to protect us, who will always and only see me as something that is unworthy of respectful engagement. And there's only one indisputable reason why that is the case — because I am Black."
I hope we can truly appreciate the full context of this hug, the massive one Kyle Lowry gave to Masai Ujiri right after winning the Championship pic.twitter.com/dcl20vUfm7
Ujiri's countersuit, filed in the US District Court in Oakland, California, alleges Strickland falsified the encounter and attempted to portray Ujiri as "the initial aggressor and an inherently violent individual."
It calls Strickland's account "a complete fabrication" that has been contradicted by video footage.
"What saddens me most about this ordeal is that the only reason why I am getting the justice I deserve in this moment is because of my success," Ujiri said.
"Because I'm the President of an NBA team, I had access to resources that ensured I could demand and fight for my justice. So many of my brothers and sisters haven't had, don't have, and won't have the same access to resources that assured my justice. And that's why Black Lives Matter."
Ujiri closed his statement by invoking the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain, black Americans who died at the hands of law enforcement officials and whose deaths have fuelled the Black Lives Matter movement.
Ujiri said it was important to demand justice for those three, "for far too many Black lives that mattered" and "for Black people around the world, who need our voice and our compassion to save their lives."
