Game two between the Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards is tonight in Toronto. Raptors General Manager Masai Ujiri was fined $35,000 by the NBA and the Raptors were docked $25,000 because he used a curse word while speaking to fans before the teams’ playoff opener on Saturday. According to ESPN, Ujiri told a cheering crowd outside the Air Canada Centre, “People want me to say something about Paul Pierce, but we don’t give a s— about it.” The Raptors lost game one, 93-86. Is this really a big deal?
This is not the first time Ujiri has been fined by the league for using an expletive. Last year he was fined $25,000 for saying “F— Brooklyn!” at the end of a speech to fans outside of the arena before game one of the 1st round against Brooklyn, a team that Paul Pierce was also on. The Raptors lost that series 4 games to 3.
Ujiri seems like a fiery guy. He needs to tone down his language. He said, “I have the deepest respect for Commissioner [Adam] Silver and the NBA, and while showing passion for our team and fans I will choose my words more carefully in the future so as not to indicate otherwise.”
Adam Silver, the Commissioner of the NBA, attended game one. He said that the language Ujiri used was not appropriate. He should have learned from last year when he was fined. Ujiri also shouldn’t have gone after Paul Pierce. That gives bulletin board material to the Wizards. This should fire up the Wizards to win this series. According to ESPN, Greivis Vasquez the Raptors point guard wasn’t happy with Ujiri’s comments. He said, “If we keep talking about Paul Pierce, this is going to be a Paul Pierce series, not the Wizards. What he’s doing is motivating his team, talking trash, so why would we talk trash? We don’t have any trash talkers in our locker room.”
Paul Pierce has taken the high road with Ujiri’s comments. Pierce said, “Typical Ujiri. You heard what he said last year when I was in Brooklyn. I could really care less. I think I can play the psychological war a little better than him.” Pierce doesn’t seemed concerned about what Ujiri has to say and wants to win this series.
A fan would have thought that Masai Ujiri might have learned from last year when he was fined by the league. His comments did seem to fire up the crowd watching the game outside the stadium. Next time, hopefully, Ujiri will use cleaner language when addressing fans.
What can the NBA do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?
How much does $25,000 really mean to someone making a big salary.? I don’t think he will stop but the commissioner will keep trying.
Nothing! This boorish behavior and language won’t go away. Fines are meaningless. These people do what they want to do, when they want to do it. Some even think they need to do it in order to project a macho persona. As long as fans hold these people in high regard, they can pretty much do or say what ever they want irrespective of consequences. Stupid fans create stupid sports personalities.