Masai Ujiri, the Toronto Raptors’ President of Basketball Operations. is just one win away from winning the 2019 NBA Finals. If the Raptors can do it in Game 5 on Monday, Toronto would win their first NBA championship. And it would also be the first NBA championship won outside of the United States. This is worldwide news!
Apparently, the Wizards still want to talk to Ujiri, which would be why they didn’t name Tommy Sheppard the interim President of Basketball Operations as the permanent leader.
Ben Standig of NBC Sports Washington reported on Saturday that Wizards owner Ted Leonsis doesn’t necessarily want to talk to Ujiri about a role limited to being the team’s President of Basketball Operations.
Like what Leonsis did to attract Michael Jordan as the team’s President of Basketball Operations in 2000 when Abe Pollin was the majority owner, Ujiri may also get an ownership stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
And Leonsis could offer Ujiri the opportunity to run MSE itself.
That goes on top of any other reasons why Ujiri may want to go to Washington.
This is a high-risk, high-reward move. It will be very hard for Ujiri to leave Toronto, regardless of their free agency situation. And running the Wizards is different than running the whole empire. But it looks like the Wizards Monumental Sports & Entertainment is trying to pull out ALL THE STOPS to see if Ujiri can come to Washington in any capacity, not just for one team.