Ace Yahoo! reporter with a weird name thinks Masai is probably gone. Nuggets look inept.
“the Nuggets could have stepped up last summer with a halfway decent contract extension and avoided being in the situation that they are in now. But they didn’t.”
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Adrian Wojnarowski has a weird name. Also, he is reporting that Masai Ujiri, who also has a weird name, is in “serious talks” to bail on Denver. Toronto is ready to hand Masai the keys to the Raptors organization and to pay him some serious scratch.
Of course, the Nuggets could have stepped up last summer with a halfway decent contract extension and avoided being in the situation that they are in now. But they didn’t. The Kroenkes aren’t in the habit of lengthening unexpired contracts and, despite the fact that Josh Kroenke and Masai Ujiri are close friends, the family seems prepared to move on without him. That’s what the reporter with the weird name thinks, anyway.
It’s hard not to get the impression that Josh Kroenke is almost a little jealous that Ujiri was getting all the attention. He told Scott Hastings on 104.3 the Fan today that he didn’t anticipate all of the media attention that the GMs potential departure has garnered. He also gave off a vibe that said “hey, I know what I am doing, too”.
Let’s hope Josh does know what he’s doing. For all the love he got this week for getting the band back together on the hockey side, he will be in very hot water with Colorado fans when Ujiri leaves … if he leaves. There’s no question that it will leave a welt on the Denver Nuggets, a team that has been tantalizingly close to getting over the top for a decade now.
Masai is special. There aren’t many human beings like him in our society and even fewer executives like him in the NBA. He loved being in Denver. Had Kroenke Sports Enterprises shown him that he was a valued asset and a priority there’s no question that he would have buckled in here. They didn’t and now it looks like he won’t. That’s just sad. Josh Kroenke is confident that he can get another GM in place who can keep the Nuggets on track. He knows what we know, though – that he can’t find another Masai Ujiri, the manager with the weird name and the NBA Executive of the Year trophy.
