The Toronto Raptors president, Masai Ujiri, was carded by police as he tried to join his team on the court after their win.
What We Know:
- As we all know by now (or should) the Toronto Raptors won their first franchise championship this week.
- Ujiri was attempting to make his way into the court after the historic win to celebrate with his team when a deputy stopped him.
- An Alameda County deputy alleges he stopped Ujiri for a lack of credentials, which are normally needed to walk on the court.
- Allegedly the deputy asked for his credentials and Ujiri didn’t show them and attempted to get on the court to celebrate. The deputy then shoved Ujiri back and then alleges Ujiri pushed back back hitting him in the face.
- The Alameda County Sheriff’s office is investigating and plans to file a complaint against Ujiri for misdemeanor assault on an officer.
- Ujiri was not arrested on site and has not been officially charged with anything as of yet.
- Video and photos show what appears to be Ujiri holding credentials in his hand bringing about questions of validity to the reason he was stopped. Witnesses close to the incident stated they saw no hit to the deputy from Ujiri (video below).
- Ujiri became the first African-born GM in the NBA in 2010 when he was hired to run the Nuggets’ basketball team. He then signed a $15 million deal in 2013 for a 5 year deal as Raptors GM.
Just to note, in researching for this article we couldn’t find any readily available pictures of Ujiri wearing a badge. We actually couldn’t find ANY photos of GMs with credentials on so below is what we could find. Guess it hasn’t been urgently necessary in other situations. Interesting that it has caused such chaos here…
We will continue to follow this story as updates are released.
