Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri says the reigning NBA champs can go back-to-back without the services of Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard.
Ujiri believes Toronto “learned how to win” last season and adds that Leonard, who bolted for the LA Clippers this summer, “taught” the Raps how to reach the mountaintop.
Masai also holds no ill will towards Kawhi for wanting to live and work back home in Cali.
Per CBC News and Yahoo Sports Canada:
Raptors president Masai Ujiri’s optimistic answer to that is simple: “100 per cent,” he said in an interview with Adrienne Arsenault, co-host of CBC’s The National.
“I look at what this team has done and what we can learn from it. We learned how to win. And Kawhi taught us that. He brought us into that space,” Ujiri said.
While he is obviously disappointed in the end result, Ujiri doesn’t harbour any resentment toward Leonard. He completely understands that the superstar wanted to return to his roots.
“If he wants to go home, he’s gone home,” Ujiri said. “If there was a team in Lagos, Nigeria or Zaria, Nigeria, if there was an NBA team there I don’t know if I would stay in Toronto. There are some callings in life and some things that pull people one way or the other and I completely understand that.”
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