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Ujiri's comments about "selfish" play rubbing Raptors fans the wrong way

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
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Oct 2 2023, 7:17 pm
Ujiri's comments about "selfish" play rubbing Raptors fans the wrong way
Dan Hamilton/USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Raptors hit the press conference podium for their annual media day today, with plenty of buzz about their upcoming season.

Team President Masai Ujiri, newly hired head coach Darko Rajaković, and five of the team’s players — Pascal Siakam, Gary Trent Jr., Jakob Poeltl, Scottie Barnes, and O.G. Anunoby — met with the media for individual press conferences outlining their offseason and a look ahead to the 2023-24 campaign.

But while the media day was relatively routine in many capacities, a particular set of comments from Ujiri didn’t exactly appear to sit well with much of the Raptors fanbase.

Ujiri said he hasn’t talked with Pascal Siakam about a contract extension, though he preached optimism toward getting a long-term deal done. Siakam comes into the season making $37.9 million in the final year of his deal, more than $18 million more than any of his other teammates.

“We’ve always taken care of our players here and we’re going to see how that plays out,” Ujiri said. “We’ve got time to discuss with them or take whatever direction we’re going to take.”

Given his resume — a two-time NBA All-Star and a two-time member of the All-NBA team, it isn’t exactly clear why Siakam and the team haven’t been speaking much about keeping him around this past season.

Recent history shows that optimism hasn’t always worked out for this front office, with the team losing Fred VanVleet to the Houston Rockets in free agency this past summer.

After making the playoffs as a fifth seed in the 2021-22 campaign, Toronto is coming off a 41-41 year where they ultimately crashed out of the postseason race by way of a homecourt loss to the Chicago Bulls in the 9/10 play-in game.

Pressed again on why the team hadn’t offered a long-term deal to Siakam, Ujiri reiterated comments from his end-of-season press conference last year that the team had the tendency to play “selfish” at times.

“We do believe in Pascal. We do believe that a lot of our players didn’t play the right way last year, and we want to see them play the right way,” Ujiri said. “I said that we were selfish. I’m not running away from that. We were selfish and we did not play the right way. So, let us see it when we play the right way.”

It seemed odd for Ujiri to deflect a question about contract talks for Siakam to talk about the team’s selfish playstyle, with many Raptors fans not exactly understanding Ujiri’s intention behind the comments:

Siakam himself wouldn’t comment on any long-term talks with the Raptors.

“I’m under contract. I’m a Raptors player. That’s what I’m focused on. I’m focused on the present,” Siakam said of possible extension talks. “I’ll leave those types of questions with the people who represent me. So I don’t have to answer that.”

As for his president’s comments on the team’s selfish play? Siakam said it’s not in his game.

“I’ll speak for me, personally — I’ve never been a selfish player in my life, always played the game the right way, and that’s from the first time I started playing basketball,” Siakam said when asked about the comments. “I’ve always been a team player. All the things that I do on the basketball court is about our team, and I’ve always done that my whole career.”

If the whole set of press conferences was just a misunderstanding, perhaps Siakam will end up signing long-term will smooth everything over. But on the surface, it at least appears odd the way the franchise is going about dealing with their lone remaining All-Star heading into a contract year.

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