Masai Ujiri’s passion should help Mavericks finally move on from Luka Dončić (original) (raw)

Do you remember the news conference, introducing Kawhi Leonard as a Toronto Raptor, when the mercurial superstar said he was a “fun guy” and laughed the laugh that launched a million memes? Of course you do. It was precisely the type of viral moment the NBA is so good at producing.

That’s not what Torontonians remember that news conference for, though. They remember it as Masai Ujiri’s TED Talk about civic pride.

“Believe in this city. Believe in yourselves. First of all here in Toronto, we have to believe in ourselves,” Ujiri, then the president of the Raptors, said after Leonard and Danny Green had answered a question about changing the perception of Toronto as an NBA outpost. “We should stop talking about … (players) not wanting to come to this city.”

That is the superpower of Ujiri, who met the media for the first time in his new job as president and alternate governor for the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday. He understands the fans of his teams. And to some degree, he sounds like the fans of his teams. The reason he struck such a chord with Raptors fans that day was because he knew the history of the NBA in Toronto, with the Raptors feeling like an outpost compared to the marquee franchises of the league. He wasn’t the first Raptors boss to pitch Toronto as a potential sleeping giant because of the Raptors’ status as the only non-American team in the NBA and international feel, but he was the first to talk about it with verve in his voice.

He perpetually gets the situation. That’s why the most resonant thing he said on Tuesday was one of the shortest.

“I hope to bring calm,” Ujiri said.

For all the challenges that the Mavericks face, even with Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg in-house, they will never have to guess whether Ujiri has a clue about what is going on around him. The last two years for the Mavericks have been crazy, something no Dallas fan needs someone from Toronto to tell them. As big of a sin as trading Luka Dončić was, the communication around it was nearly as large of a problem. Nico Harrison’s (misguided) cold calculation that defense wins championships and a new ownership group lacking local ties fundamentally misunderstood how much Dončić, the basketball player and the human, meant to Mavericks fans.

For obvious reasons, it was hard to picture the Mavericks making the same move if Mark Cuban, the former owner who was routinely decked out in team merchandise and getting fined for yelling at the referees, had still been in charge. In a manner, Ujiri will fill that void.

Before the Raptors’ first playoff game during his era, Ujiri yelled “F— Brooklyn” during a fan rally outside the arena, for which he had to arrange an impromptu media scrum at halftime to apologize. The moment of unbridled passion, the appearance of backing up the team and city, meant a ton to Raptors fans. He was standing up against the Raptors’ opponent, a star-laden team at the time, the type of team the Raptors could never dream of building.

Accordingly, when he made a controversial decision — like firing Dwane Casey or trading DeMar DeRozan, both of whom predated his taking over — he largely got the benefit of the doubt.

That helps explain why so many Raptors fans were frustrated with Ujiri’s departure from Toronto last June. There were plenty of nits to pick with his post-championship stewardship of the franchise; however, they knew they would never find a lead executive who seemed to care as much as they did. And when you are owned by a corporate monolith, as so many NBA franchises are, that is no small thing. You don’t want it to feel like the executive’s decisions are governed by emotion, but you want to know that the emotion is there.

“I have to look to the future because winning is what we have to do here,” Ujiri said Tuesday when asked to evaluate the Dončić trade. “And winning is a responsibility for me.”

In that sense, he is the perfect shield for Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont. If Dumont and his ownership group were the interlopers from Las Vegas who just didn’t get it, Ujiri will give off the opposite vibes — that he has 10 toes down in Dallas.

Make no mistake: Ujiri, in addition to knowing how to run a basketball team, is a political creature. The passion is no act, but he’s aware that it is a strength of his, to be wielded at the right times. He will use it to buy himself time, which he might need given the Mavericks’ unclear roster-building situation beyond Flagg. He has a reputation for taking big swings, but he was often measured and patient in Toronto, sometimes to a fault.

The Toronto media liked to joke about how long it would take Ujiri to say “We will win in Toronto” during one of his sessions on the mic. It became a slogan, of sorts. After the Raptors won in 2019, it became “We will win again in Toronto.” He has never been shy in the personal aspect of that — his situation with a sheriff’s deputy in the immediate aftermath of the Raptors title tainted the first one. There is something human in that desire.

Well, it didn’t take long for Ujiri to play the hits in Texas.

“We will win in Dallas,” read the last line of Ujiri’s quote in his press release announcing his new job.

Whether or not he accomplishes that remains to be seen. As Ujiri pointed out, this is a difficult league, even if you have a player as promising as Flagg. Thankfully, with Ujiri in charge, Mavericks fans won’t have to wonder if he’s as obsessed with the team winning as they are.

Jun 10, 2026

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