OverDrive - OverDrive - June 27, 2025 - Hour 1

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

Join Mark Roe, Frankie Corrado and Dave Feschuk for Hour 1 on OverDrive! The guys dive into the Raptors' dismissal of Masai Ujiri, the impact on the franchise and his foundation of success in Toronto, the Maple Leafs signing John Tavares to an extension and Noah Dobson's deal to the Canadiens. ESPN NBA Analyst and Former NBA Player Danny Green joins to discuss Masai Ujiri's conclusion in Toronto, his bond in his career and the influence for the franchise and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. out of the lineup against the Red Sox.

Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Bryan Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the Glorious Sons. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada.

The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app. This Hour of Overdrive is powered by FanDuel. FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score.

I think our biggest challenge today is mailing it in. This is, it's a Friday, we're relaxed. The regular voice of this show is not the one that's speaking to you right now, but other than that, we have loads to talk about. We welcome you into Overdrive on TSN 1050 and TSN 4. Mark Rowan for Brian Hayes alongside Frankie Carrato and Dave Fezchuk from the Toronto Star. Where do we begin?

What's up, boys? That's the biggest question. It's so typical, isn't it? I texted Hayes, I'm like, go figure, you're off the show and here we go. Everything has happened today. Yes. I'm telling you, there's a conspiracy theory here for the Overdrive superfans. Oh, yeah.

Is Doogie leaking Hayes' schedule to MLSE? You know what I mean? Yeah. He's connected. I wouldn't put it past Doogie. Is this an inside job? Yeah, I think so. I think we can confirm that at this point and

Hazy bees on a golf course, I believe somewhere so I think how do you defend yourself? Doogie he's connected with all the higher-ups. He knows No answer to that boys. Oh Neither confirmed or denied. I can't confirm it or deny that sounded a little Keith Peli ish over there I can either confirm it or deny that. It sounded a little Keith Pelly-ish over there. I can neither confirm or deny that. Okay, we might be honest. Something here, fellas. So what is the big story? Like there's a lot of big stories, but what screams to you? Is it JT, the former captain, someone finally taking a hometown discount? Is it Masayu Jerry mutually parting of the ways between him and the Raptors, as I use air quotes, maybe on that term. Is it, is it Noah Dobson getting traded to the Montreal Canadiens?

I guess it depends where you live and what your interests are, but that is a, that is a, is that not a huge fundamental change for the Toronto Raptors that Messiah is now out? I get that Bobby Webster is going to be here and they're probably going to search for another president, but this is the guy who basically orchestrated a championship for this team and built them into a, you know, a year after year contender. Now, it hasn't been the case the last five years or so, but Masai changed the course of the Toronto Raptors

for the better, for the best. They won and now he's gone. And that is, like, that is a massive massive story Frankie you couldn't be more right I mean it's easy to forget how bad it was before Masai Ujiri got here and took over this franchise you know like they were synonymous the Toronto Raptors with irrelevance incompetence futility and you know they had their moments they had you know Vince Carter came and went and Chris Bosh came and went but you know the first almost two decades of the franchise's history they won one playoff series you know Vince

Carter had a shot to get him to an Eastern Final and missed it and then Masai arrives and Tim Laiwiki brings him here and Laiwiki comes with that winning is everything guys this This isn't about a pension fund piling money atop money anymore as had been the case at Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment there for quite some time. This is about us pulling out all the stops to try and win and this is my guy who understands that his name is Masai Ujiri and things changed. There is no subtlety to the way that he operated where it come like you can think back to 2014 and the the F Brooklyn, the trade to Kawhi Leonard, you know trading Demar

DeRozan who at the time, you know that that had a ripple effect within the fan base. He was a beloved guy who wanted to be here. He was one of the best players this franchise has ever seen, wins a championship, and sort of it almost feels like the 2.0 of the Raptors under Masai and the job's clearly not done and he's not gonna he's not gonna see it out and Keith Peli it's it's a real fascinating way to begin this job for Keith Peli because Brendan Shanahan is out, Masai Ujiri is out. Keith Pelly is the message to both of those firings. I can't sit here and say he's the one that made

the so-called firing or not, but he is the face of both of these moves. Yeah, and today, I mean, what stood out to me with Pelly today, fellas, and I don't know how you saw it, Frankie, he didn't really give a reason why he fired Masai Ujiri. You know, you could listen to a lot of the clips in the press conference. He talked about the stability in the roster, in the coaching staff, in the front office.

He used the word stability and in the same breath said, we're moving on from our star executive. Those two things didn't add up. Okay, so why don't we just hear from Keith Paley and then we'll react to what he said regarding this major news as Masai Ujiri is no longer the president of the Toronto Raptors. Today's not an easy day, but as you know change is never easy. Masai Ujiri has had a monumental impact on the Raptors and on our community during his 13 seasons with this organization. His legacy will be indelibly etched in our city in perpetuity based on him playing such a

significant role in bringing the 2019 NBA Championship to our brand and worked through the Raptors to create a connection with so many fans in Toronto. We owe Messiah a great deal of gratitude and I wish him the very best moving forward. One thing we know, wherever messiah ends up he will be successful to me that sounds like a guy who isn't owning the decision and whether he should own it or not i i don't know but obviously mlsc is going through some major changes we all know the ownership structure and how rogers and in particular ed rogers is calling the shots as as the one owner

and there's obviously been speculation that he didn't always see eye to eye with Masai Ujiri and maybe that's an understatement but you know Keith Peli sitting there I don't come away going well Keith Peli fired this guy. Yeah well look it's more than speculation right like the Toronto star my colleagues Christine Dobby and Doug Smith reported in 2021 around the time when the Raptors were endeavoring to sign Masai Jiri to a contract extension that Edward Rogers was the member of the board that objected to him signing that contract extension, him being signed to that extension

and essentially tried to sabotage it. Didn't want Masai Jiri to be the president of basketball operations anymore. Felt the franchise could be run perfectly fine with Bobby Webster at the helm, cheaper, more streamlined. And fought it and Larry Tanabom, the chairman of the board of governors of the NBA and obviously a minority owner in the MLSC situation,

used the technicality in the NBA rule book to essentially overrule Rogers, even though Tanabom is not a majority shareholder and used his power as governor to get the deal approved against the legal objections to Rogers. So there's a real history here for this. This did not start today, it did not start the day. It's an understatement to say that those two didn't see odd eye. Exactly. There's more more more layers i'm sure that the one thing i do find interesting is

within m l s c now it's like there's a general manager any report to pally and they've eliminated some presidents but why would it be that the raptors still want higher president just not my side and for the tron a may beliefs there's no president ball

it's a great question. I mean I think the easy answer since we're in Canada is that everybody thinks they know how to run a hockey team in this country and I think and Keith Pelly included. I mean a former member of the the the formerly named Ryerson University hockey team was Mr Pelly. He played a little bit as a as a younger man and I'm not saying he considers himself NHL general manager material but I think he's like a lot of people in this town like how hard can it be? Like he would have a good pulse on it wouldn't have the same kind of finger on the pulse with basketball I guess that's

that would be the thing. Like NBA is a different world right at the end and that's what makes Masai Ujiri such a commodity. That's why we've written stories for years about other franchises coveting his services, because he's such a unique character. He's so uniquely positioned as an international guy with ties all over the world in England, in obviously Africa, which is near and dear to his heart. He's a guy that can call up a former president of the United States

Barack Obama you know he's he's transcended the sport in a lot of ways um... and he has incredible credibility in the NBA with agents with general managers with players Well that's the thing how like now is there a team that says we're firing whoever we have because we need to we need to hire Masai like the like what happened with with Jim Montgomery this past year in hockey with the st. Louis booze like that guy was available for five days right how like what's the over under on how many days Messiah is available for

it's a great question it can't be very many it would let I think it would be up to him if he wants to jump right back into the fire which I imagine he would like that's we've seen it how competitive that guy is as as upper management as an executive i'm sure if there's an opportunity for him to jump back in he will do it look he's gonna have that choice ready to get paid on his current deal through next season uh... according to the term that he was the richest executive highest paid

executive in the nba yeah i mean they're by most estimates I mean obviously we don't know the exact but but a team would have to at least match that if they were gonna jump on him right now I mean I guess everything's negotiable Mark but it does it does feel like him taking a pay cut for a team that really wants him would be a stretch yeah well once upon a time the Washington Wizards really wanted him days after or what minutes after they won the the NBA title I don't know if they come circling back and strutting aside I mean he's gonna be able to write his own ticket he's got I mean the other thing about Messiah that is is significant in in the terms of this

conversation about he doesn't necessarily need the money because he had an incredible structure in his current deal that paid him essentially a percentage of the franchise value increase during the tenure of the deal. So by my rough back of the napkin calculations, the franchise has gone up from something in the range of two billion to more like four plus billion until recently. And then the Lakers got sold at a valuation of 10 billion, and which was something in the range of a 30% hike

from the previous sort of Forbes valuation of what the Lakers were actually worth. So if you take that to mean that the rising tide lifts all boats and all NBA franchises are suddenly worth 30% more because the Lakers are sold for 10 billion and that was 30% more than we thought they were worth then the Raptors are suddenly worth what you know like 30% more than four and a half you're getting into the seven billion dollar

range I mean it's it's a you know he's a rich man let's put it that way because he's getting a I believe something in a range of 2% of the franchise increase it's gonna be like you know anywhere between 50 to 70 million dollars Well the the height of his tenure with the Raptors was 2019 when he won a title and Danny Green is gonna join us In about 20 minutes. He was obviously a member of that team. He's now working for ESPN So we'll get his thoughts on today's news and also what's going on throughout the NBA and we just saw the draft a couple days ago The other big news when it comes to teams under the MLSC umbrella, John Tavares, and this is the guy that usually sits in this chair, Brian Hayes, has been hammering that the Leafs need to

win a negotiation. I think a lot of people after today are saying the Leafs finally want a negotiation it's a four-year deal for for John Tavares at four point three eight million dollars per season. So the former captain is back at a number that So if he if he becomes your third line center, you're okay with that number and a guy who scores 38 goals last season could have made a lot more money if he went to them to the free agency A guy who scores 38 goals last season could have made a lot more money if he went to the free agency market on July 1st. And so it's a day where a lot of Leaf fans not only are happy about the news, but I think a guy who is already popular is even more popular in the city. Yeah, this is I think there's a few different layers to this. First of all, yes, the Leafs won the negotiation.

John Tavar is clearly wanted to stay. But you have him at a number now where if he starts next year as your second line center, it's okay. It's fine. But as the duration of the contract moves on, you can easily slide him to the wing or be your third line center. And quite honestly, 4.38 for a third line center is going to be seen as very, very cheap in the not so distant future. So they did great that way.

As far as John Tavares goes, like people will point to the DNA needing to change in a way, like it should be pointed out, this is a little bit of a change because he didn't get every last penny's worth. He left a lot on the table now. So you could say that, you know, the days of the star guys kind of holding the team hostage John Tavares has said, that's not, that's not the case anymore, at least for him. So that's significant as well. This is a really very positive news

for the Toronto Maple Leafs on a number of different fronts here. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, this is groundbreaking stuff by Brad Trelimy. Forget about John Tavares leaving something on the table. Like, it takes two to tango. And for Brad Trelimy to get him at 4.38 million cap hit, which includes the deferred money, which is a nice little structure there where he's going to save some taxes by getting his

money deferred down the road. And obviously it helps the Leafs in lowering the cap number. I mean, this is what we've all been clamoring for. This is what this team has deserved. The respect that it means something to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs and you have to price that in. Like if you say, I want nothing more than to be a Leaf, put your money where your mouth is.

And Brad Tree Living was actually the first executive in this town in the core four era to say, put your money where your mouth is. Understand that to wear this crest means something. Understand by the way we can talk about the financial sacrifice but don't cry too hard for John Tavares because being a lifetime leaf living in this town as a retired leaf very lucrative business. Especially if you ever win something. And you know what we probably won't talk about the 11 million dollar deal anymore. We're going to talk about John Tavares leaving a lot on the table on this one because there would have

been teams that would have paid him $7.5-8 million. For sure. For sure. And in the same division, they would have paid him that much money. And meanwhile, Tavares said, you know what? I just want to be in Toronto. And like the Matt Duchesne contract came up when he signed for four and a half with Dallas and now Tavares is in an area that has much higher tax and he took less money. So we like throw that comparison out the window like this John Tavares did did himself some favors here as far as like what his PR the optics are going to, how he's viewed moving forward. Yeah, and again, like, you know, we talk about the no tax state advantage.

We've made a lot about that because the Florida teams have done really well in a no tax state in Florida. Dallas has done well in Texas with a similar situation. But you know, I spent some time last week talking to tax guys and financial services guys, and there's ways to mitigate your taxes in Canada. So the idea that these guys are paying through the nose, if you get signing bonuses, which this deal includes, you pay a lower tax rate. If you get deferred money in what they call a retirement compensation agreement in RCA,

that is taxed at a lower rate. So there's ways you can kind of make up for what is perceived as just this blanket disadvantage that Canadian teams have and high tax state teams have. But if you're creative, which is what this deal is, you can make the player whole to use that sort of financial term by using those vehicles,

as long as the guy at the table bull across from you in the player is being reasonable and understanding that if he wants to stay here he's got to play ball. And that works because of his age too right with the bonuses? No so he'll get the signing bonuses like he'll get all kinds of money upfront of signing bonuses he can't find the 35 plus deal yet because he's not 35 yet like Claude Giroux can do that. Taze could have done that. Ben just did that. Ben, yeah, exactly.

But you know what else this helps with? It's a little bit more Matthew Nye's insurance when it comes to the offer sheet, right? Because even if you had to capitulate a little bit to Tavarez and say, okay, we'll get you up to five, call it 5.38 just for easy math. So another million, you've essentially saved a million dollars flexibility for, you know, now you can spend on July 1st and not

feel like you're as, you know, worried about the offer sheet. You have a little more flexibility that way. So he's given them some Matthew Nye's insurance and he's basically given them a little bit of wiggle room to say, okay, you can go out and try and spend an extra million dollars on a UFA that you think is really gonna help us because we know Mitch Marner's leaving. And the point about the tax mark is that the signing bonus, like his first year, for example,

next year, this season coming, he's gonna make a base salary of a million and the signing bonus is worth 4.5. So that 4.5 is taxed at a much lower rate than your regular income as a Canadian playing in playing in the NHL. So anyway it's it's it's boring stuff but but this whole thing about you know the no tax states or have this you know sort of unmanageable advantage that everybody else is suffering from there is some truth to

that but there's also ways to mitigate it. So excuse my ignorance why don't you just do that with every player then you keep all this is you know first of all you have to have the financial wherewithal to pay those signing bonuses which very few teams do but the Leafs do Leafs do so they use that advantage and but obviously yeah it comes down to negotiations and how players want their contract structure not everyone has that kind of leverage to say on July 1st every year I'm picking up this many million dollars you know what I mean? Yeah. It's just not everyone gets afforded that. Right and there had to have been some urgency to

try to get this done by the end of the weekend going into Tuesday knowing what you've committed to John Tavares and what you can play around when it comes to free agents. Like that's the other thing that you know JT could have really dragged his heels here and say, give me a couple more weeks. It's like, well, then by that point, Marshan signed and Eklat is signed or whoever, you know, whoever else they're going to need. Yeah. You need to have your cost certainty, right? Like I thought the Leafs, I don't know what you thought, Dave, but I thought the Leafs were already in a good spot, like to

mitigate their risk against NICE. Like they have what? $25 million in cap space with 17 guys signed. Like they were already in a good spot. But now to have the cost certainty of Tavares and like know what you can and can't spend, it's, they've done a good job kind of hedging their bet here. Yeah. And I think, I think the point you made about this being, you know, at least a small part of that DNA change. I think it's significant. Just the change in mentality here from get mine and give me my max, get every nickel,

to now saying hey, this means something to me. I wanna be here, I wanna be a part of the solution, I don't wanna be part of the problem. John Tavares can look people in the eye and say those things in all seriousness and it's not just lip service It means like he's actually done it. He's actually gonna be good next year. Like he's still gonna be a good player He scored 38 goals last year. He's gonna play on the power play, which is fine He gets his production there

Like he's this is gonna be one of those contracts at least for the first couple years where the Leafs Get more than there's money their money's worth like's going to be a bargain for a couple of years where we'll see how it ages out ultimately after the four years, but they're going to win on the side of production as opposed to how much it costs here the next couple of years. I guess the benefit is the things that he's always relied on, he'll be able to rely on throughout most of this contract, which is hockey IQ, good hands, power play, face-offs. Like he's never been a dynamic skater and while the game is fast and there's times in the playoffs where you looked at John Tavares and

thought he's really slow and you probably shouldn't be on the ice in these situations, with this contract at the number that it is now, maybe you're getting someone who's in that situation and is playing in those spots. Well, let's, they better hope, right? They better hope. I mean, he is 34 years old and we all know how diligent he is as a worker and keeping himself in great shape. But yeah, the fall off in the playoffs was, was considerable. It could just be a bad year. Maybe he bounces back, but they better hope he does because obviously he's got to be a contributor. But you don't look at it through the 11 million dollar lens anymore. You look at it now moving forward as the you know not even four

and a half million dollar lens and like think about it you could spend four million dollars on way worse players than John Tavares at this point. I don't care how old he is. Like Trent Frederick just signed in Edmonton for 3.8 million. Like different players but you're not eight years. And eight years right like you've you've got John Tavares who still can be your second line center and can score you 30 goals next year at 4.38 like this is this is a huge win for Toronto and to improve their lineup there's a good chance it comes via trade and we've we've seen so many you know I mentioned very briefly that the Noah Dobson trade, I'm just reading now that it looks like Miles Wood and Charlie Coyle have been traded as well.

The Columbus. The Columbus. So they lost out on Dobson and now they get some forwards. That is, Columbus is making moves, man, and they have a lot of money to spend. And they're in on, I don't know if he'll go there, but they're in on Marner, it sounds like. I would imagine they would have a lot of interest there For sure right because they they they have the money to incentivize him and kind of say like we're on the upswing not We're Anaheim of the East not different than and I don't know anyone has ever called Columbus But in terms of like they're on their way up and maybe they're

Sniffing a playoff spot the last hundred point player that was a UFA was Johnny Goudreau and he chose Columbus. So, it's not far-fetched to think that someone of Mitch Marner's caliber of play would choose Columbus but I would still think it's lower on the list. If he's sick of the noise, Columbus is the place to go. And we've heard those rumblings that sometimes the noise can get the best of that guy. We have seen Utah very active this week at chris armstrong is the president hockey operations in a join us at six oh five mike johnson is going to join us at five oh five

um... get your quick thoughts for take a break no adopting going to the muncher all canadians uh... for the two first-round picks so now there's speculation that the islanders will use those two picks and move up by the way there is an initial draft tonight i guess we buried that yet hard-working of a day uh... all this is happening though there's speculation that they're going

to try to move up for top five picking in hagen's is the the local guy on top of getting matthew schaeffer who we all expect to go first overall but and the high means also going the other way but you covered the montreal canadians pretty much on a game by game basis during the season. What does Noah Dobson do for them? Well, he gives them an element on defense that they they need. Like they need a marquee defenseman outside of Lane Hudson because, you know, on the on the left side, it's Hudson

Gouli, you know, for now Matheson. But, you know, it's like who would you rather have Alex Carrier or Noah Dobson playing on your top pair? Right, like so and David Savard is obviously gone, but outside of all of that Noah Dobson is He's a marquee defenseman who's gonna play big minutes on a team that wants to get back to the playoffs again and year after year And I think this does this kind of shows that they're trying to do that they're trying to accomplish that um you know is he the perfect

defenseman no if he's coming off the season he did a year ago at 9.5 million a year it's a steal you're you are banking on the fact that you want him to be the 70 point guy not the 30 whatever point guy we were talking about him on the Four Nations team possibly. Yeah. Now he did not have that kind of year. And maybe it was just a bad year on the island. But at some point you have to say we're willing to pay a price to kind of move the needle here and you know, you get what you pay for.

So they've paid a lot for Noah Dobson and they hope that he can bring a lot to the table for them. Lots to talk about. By the way, we don't have to worry about an NHL lockout for a while. That they've extended the CBA at the National Hockey League. The Blue Jays are in action, an important series against the Boston Red Sox. We have some news when it comes to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his status tonight. We'll get into all of that. But coming up next, Danny Green, a member of the 2019 NBA champion Toronto Raptors. He will react to the news that Masayu Jerry is out as president of the team. His overd Raptors. He will react to the news that Masai Ujiri is out as

president of the team. His overdrive continues on TSN 1050 and on TSN 4. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. Malad in Friday is brought to you by Boston Pizza, Canada's favorite sports bar. for it. TSN for Mark Rowen for Brian Hayes alongside Frankie Corrado and Dave Fezjuk from the Toronto Star.

The three of us have done this show a lot, I would say more often. It's, what are we going to talk about today? There's some golf going on, the Jays playing. Argos red blacks. Argos red blacks. Today's not one of those days. We tried to cover pretty much all of it in that first block, at least a little bit with John Tavares signing his new deal. Noah Dobson's a huge trade in the NHL, the

CBA being extended in the National Hockey League and oh by the way, Masayu Jerry is out as president of the Toronto Raptors, mutually separating. Yeah, mutually I'm not so sure about. It's always a mutual thing. Have you ever read a press conference where the team's like we have fired so and so. You know what that feels like? It's like we would be okay if you left and it's like yeah I'd be pretty happy with not having to deal with you anymore. Right. That's pretty. I think that's as mutual as that would be. Right. Based on what we've heard. Based on what we've heard and the friction between the parties involved in look i mean this is this is kind of a pattern like like of what we see that m l s e with the president's being picked off one by one

from bill maine to mister shanahan and out to you g re you know though the one thing is an obvious tension is the fact that larry tannibon has gone from very influential as sort of the mediator when you had this 37.5%, 37.5% triumvirate where Bell and Rogers own the 37.5% each and Larry Tanabom had the 25%. And so it was a three-way democracy

and he was the swing vote, right? And he was also very loyal to Shanahan which explained in a lot of ways why Shanahan stuck around as long as he stuck around in the face of repeated failures, to put it very kindly, in the playoffs. He's obviously very close with Misayi Jiri, which is why I think you could argue is part of the reason why there was that tension between Edward Rogers, who objected to the contract extension Messiah

Yergeri got in 2021 and Larry Tanabom who did the end around to get that contract extension pushed through for Messiah. It's gone from a democracy where Larry Tanabom was very influential to what is going to be essentially a dictatorship where Edward Rogers is the only vote that matters. Yeah and it's very very uncommon for someone like Musaid Jari in his position to get let go in between the draft and free agency and I think that's what also hit a lot of people pretty hard today that in terms of the timing and especially with one year left in his deal. Well Bush League timing this it, Bush League timing.

It was Bush League timing. Right. I mean, it's supposed to be about the players who just drafted, isn't it? Yeah. The day after the draft. You might want to maybe focus on the players who just drafted, but they chose another route. Well, speaking of players, Masayu Jerry's tenure will be always highlighted by that

title in 2019 and a member of that team is joining us now. You see him on ESPN, obviously had a decorated career in the NBA Danny Green joining us on Overdrive. How are you Danny? Good, I'm good. How you guys doing? Great to have you on especially with your relationship with the Raptors and with Masai Jerry and we're just trying to unpack What has been massive news for I wouldn't even say the city. I would say the sport in all of Canada So let's just get your reaction to Masaiu Jerry who's out now as president of the Toronto Raptors. Yeah I was a little shocked by it man as you were saying and

explaining how big of an important piece he was and stapled to the country of Canada and the Toronto Raptors and he's done so many great things and was in the midst of making some good moves to turn it around So, I mean, I know he's been there for a long time and it seemed like his tenure was coming towards the end But seemed a little bit abrupt for it to happen like right now. But yeah, he's been amazing man. Everybody loved him He was a player's, you know type of guy He all the coaches loved him, you know staff front office and um, you know He was the type of guy that said you could trust him to turn some things around and recruit some big-time players

To be there so I was a little shocked by it Danny put that in perspective a little bit more elaborately if you would I mean you you've obviously been in the trenches as a championship player for multiple franchises now you're working in the media like what is the Overriding perception of Masai Ujerry in the wider world of the nba i think you know the perception that people of the one of my i think you have a pretty good pick of the letter where you want to go next up on my assuming anyway a lot of people you know

influence they respected they they they value it i think you very valuable people i think whoever is looking for front-office person i think it is top of the list you know take us a little bit behind the curtain as far as you know your first maybe interactions with miss i usually and uh... you know what you took away from those experiences i mean the first

to win the press conference you know it was great he welcomed the open arms me and kawai and uh... you know you know to fill a home welcomed me open arms me and Kawhi and uh you know he made us feel at home and I only spent one year there but it's a place I can call home because of him and Bobby Marks like you know you know Bobby Bobby has done a great job as well of making things easy and comfortable so those two guys have really uh made me feel at home and embraced. Danny Green joining us on Overdrive Danny Danny, you talked about his ability to recruit players. So how does the perception of the Toronto Raptors change today following this news? Say that again, I'm sorry. Just how does the perception of the Toronto Raptors throughout

the league, whether it's players, whether it's other executives, change following the news that Masayu Jerry's out? I don't know if it's as much of following the news that miss i jerry's out i don't know that uh... as much of a desire defamation out of the city's amazing the people are making their well without my father's hard i think it will talk about the get the matter of play from that this is good of not better to recruit those type of guys but what's my father you know you're big and and and beyond board of the basketball and then and the

africa so you could recruit guys from those parts of the areas and certain different foreign players like Ayanna Santacumpo. So it's gonna be tougher to try to get those type of players or lure them there without Masai being there. Danny, I mean, they've talked about hiring a search firm to find a replacement for Masai Ujiri.

I mean, at that level, I mean is there anybody that pops to mind that they should be targeting or should they poach an executive from another team or at least try to? How would you approach it if you had to replace a guy as indispensable and as you point out as influential as a Masai Ujiri? Yeah that nobody comes to mind that's free. You're gonna have to try to approach somebody like what the Knicks are doing. You're gonna have to try to go to front office with, you know, and Rosson or Danny Aves in Utah.

You're gonna have to go somewhere that people make good decisions, you know. It's gonna be hard to replace that type of guy. But you talked about the, you know, the difficulty that it could be as far as recruiting players and, you know, Masai was always aggressive. And I think as a player, sometimes you really, if you're on the team you

Appreciate that because you're like this guy's willing to do everything that it possibly takes to win You know, how did you kind of how did you take that? I guess mindset that Masai had did you appreciate that as a player? Very much so yeah I mean he did what was necessary and if it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't have been there because you probably would have kept the team together and tried to win with the guys that they had. But, you know, he took a chance and taking a risk on a guy like Hawaii and myself, not knowing that we might not be there for a long 10 years after that year,

but thought it would be worth it to get a championship and trading tomorrow. So, you know, for him to have the guts to do something like that, just shows you how aggressive the risk taking is. What he's willing to put on the line to make winning happen. Well, it's certainly a new era for the Toronto Raptors moving forward and we haven't even hit officially free agency, but we just wrapped up the draft and Danny, obviously to no surprise, Cooper Flagg went first overall to the Dallas Mavericks. And it's not a typical situation for a number one pick

as he joins the team that just two years ago went to the finals. They have Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving is expected to return from his injury in the second half of the year. How close now are the Mavs to where the Thunder are, or at least where the elite teams of the Western Conference are, given that they've just drafted a guy who people have labeled as a generational talent. Very close,

and they are an elite team, when healthy, at full strength, but they have to get there. We have to see Kyrie come back. They do need some depth at the point guard position, so we'll see what they do when that happens, but they're very close to being a top team because of the front court that they have with the size and the length That is super flag to that, you know, Anthony Davis lively gaffer PJ Washington they have such a Abundance of great bodies at that position which makes you do you know dangerous in this league? So at full strength, they're very very and very healthy. They're very dangerous and Our contender,

but they have to get there. Danny, and I guess one of Masai Ujiri's last acts as team president, the Raptors select Colin Murray Boyles with the ninth overall pick, and he had an interesting reaction that the ESPN cameras picked up, appeared to mow the next split, and sort of shake his head. I don't know how you interpreted that would what did you make of it I mean he I think you further explain that it was part of the excitement but I don't know what the reaction was maybe it was something he forgot you know that draft day is kinda like

I wanna say like a wedding day where it's something you know something's gonna go wrong where you forget something happens maybe he forgot something before you went on stage, that's what I'm hoping, but he said it was a love of excitement, so we'll see. I mean, how he embraced it, he said he was gonna love it, and you know, your first reaction, a lot of things can be interpreted wrong when you get the camera. Well, and I don't know if Ace Bailey's any happier going to Utah, and much was made of the fact that he didn't go through the workouts and that there are particular teams that he wanted

to play for. And we've heard, whether it's former players or current players, be very vocal about how he's approaching the start of his pro career. If you had a sit down with him, what would your advice be for a guy like Ace Bailey? Just be professional, man. And keep it at what it is, what you say it is. Let your actions match your words. If you come in here and it's just about basketball and you want to play basketball, do that. Regardless of what team drafts you or where you don't want to be, come in and do your job, be professional, and don't be entitled, man. It's a blessing to be in this league and have an opportunity to play in this league and make some money because

nobody's bigger than a game of basketball and as fast as you got in, it's as fast as you can get out. So enjoy, embrace it, and be professional. I think that's a message that resonates with pretty much every fan of this league and with a lot of players throughout the league as well. Danny, on a day like today, it's great to have you on to get your perspective on not just the NBA draft, but obviously the news that Masai Jerry's out as president. We appreciate you coming on and all the best moving forward. Appreciate you guys man, thank you. There you have it, Danny Green, former Raptor, multiple NBA champion but the one that we always think of obviously is 2019 and some you know pretty transparent when it comes to what

the Toronto Raptors are following the news of Masai Jerry you know pretty transparent when it comes to what the Toronto Raptors are following the news of Masai Ujiri you know being essentially fired by the Toronto Raptors. Right and Danny Green making the point that I've heard from a lot of NBA people today you can fire Masai Ujiri good luck replacing him right like he is not an easy guy to replace and nobody popped the mind for Danny Green who's as connected as anybody who's played for some of the great franchises in the league uh... does not mean the pops the mind of that heft that the other thing that i guess is is scary now is you know my side was such an influential person in the league

and he's rightly he could make aggressive moves he could recruit players in ultimately that was a big reason why they were able to win a championship whoever's coming in now like they're they're working from behind in that regard recruit players and ultimately that was a big reason why they were able to win a championship. Whoever's coming in now, like they're working from behind in that regard. And so now Toronto's got a lot of work to do as a franchise to kind of reestablish that. Whoever, you know, that's going to fall onto Bobby Webster for sure. That's going to fall onto whoever replaces Masai, but that is not an easy thing to replace.

Well, and he was one of the superstars of this team, right? And you think of, whenever you lose a superstar in any sport, you always wonder how do you replace them? And it's often the case is, well, the reason, you know, we had the superstar is because, you know, we drafted them and we developed them and it took time and eventually they became the player they are and then we lost them because of free agency or whatever the situation. That's Masai Uiri with the Raptors right like he worked his way up went to Denver for a couple years you're they were able to get him back and He became you know the GM and then the president that he was That that's if you're asking how do we get the next Masai Ujiri? I hope everyone has patience

Yeah, exactly Except if you've got a lot of money and they do, right? Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment is built on a pile of money down on Bay Street. So, you know, to Danny Green's point, maybe you got to look at doing what the New York Knicks are doing and calling other franchises to ask about the availability of... Hopefully you get a different answer. ...executives. Now, that feels a little James Dolan-esque, doesn't it? And not necessarily what I would call a great plan, but is it really a plan to let the guy

walk out the door that was your star executive without an obvious person to replace him? I wouldn't call that a great plan either. Or is it just simply Bobby Webster? Is he the replacement? Like is he the heir apparent to Masai Ujiri? But if he was, why do you call a search firm into the into the process which and what is the search from do you guys assert like you got a little experience with that we've had many executive searches in Toronto over my tenure

writing about sports in this town and what is the search front do that well they're an agency connected to an agency they've got clients they're gonna interview a lot of their clients they're going to have interests in installing certain people. That's how these things work, right? Why would you, if you really wanted Bobby Webster to be that guy and you saw him as that guy, I'm not sure you'd bring in the executive search firm to kind of identify, oh, he's right here sitting next to us, his name is Bobby Webster. Is that not the other issue then, facing this team team is that you have, I don't know if I want

to call him a lame duck GM, but a guy who certainly doesn't know what the security of his position within the organization is. And he's the one that now without Messiah Jerry, it's left to him to continue this rebuild or whatever phase they are in this rebuild right now as they try to become a playoff team again. I could be wrong, but it feels like there's gonna be more responsibility and trusted with him. Like, didn't you get the sense that we would always talk about Maasai?

Maasai wants to acquire this player. Maybe Maasai can do this. We never really said like, oh, if Bobby Webster goes out and gets player X. Now it's gonna be- He's always in Maasai's shadow. Right, like now it's gonna be, can Bobby Webster, like even I think if, well it depends who comes in as the president, or maybe no one comes in, we'll see, but it could just be like now Bobby's the front-facing guy,

and he's got to be the architect, and so I think he's gonna have more responsibility, which, you know, should leave him to, I don't know, like have more, I guess, longevity here if he's able to execute on it. If he doesn't, then I guess we'll get our answer. The competing narrative with that, Frankie, and I think you lay out a very good case of what could happen, the competing narrative would be if you do hire a president, why would that president

want Masai Ujiri's right-hand man to be his or her right-hand man? Exactly, yeah. And that's Bobby Webster. Like you cannot talk about Bobby Webster without talking about Masai Ujiri. He's been at Masai Ujiri's right hand for the majority of his tenure here and you don't know how Bobby Webster is going to function without, you know, the majordomo in charge. Yeah. Josh Lundberg is going to join us at 630 so we'll get his thoughts and what he's hearing within the organization today on what is a huge day as they now go into free agency without

the man who has signed off on every deal in the last over a decade now is Masayu Jury. He's out. Mail It In Friday is brought to you by Boston Pizza Canada's favorite sports bar. Enjoy $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree, a side and a drink and you'll get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston Pizza. Mike Johnson's going to kick off the five o'clock hour Chris Armstrong from the Utah Mammoth at 6.05 as Overdrive continues on TSN 1050 and on TSN 4. Unmistakably Canadian.

It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Brian Adams. Hey, my name is Brett Emmons. I'm from the Glorious Suns. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada. The station that champions Canadian music.

Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports for the best. from the glorious suns. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada, the station that champions Canadian music, loud, crowd and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app. Well, we are just over 50 minutes into the show and on a normal day we would have gotten to this already but the Blue Jays are about to kick off a series against the Red Sox where, you know, we're still in late June, but it seems one of those series where the Blue Jays can make a statement if they win it against Boston and really kind of push down a team that has

been underachieving when it comes to their expectations going into the air, speaking of the Boston Red Sox. But Keegan Mathison reporting that Vladimir Guerrero jr. Is out of the lineup tonight in Boston after taking that pitch to his right forehand Forearm yesterday in the game against the the Cleveland Guardians and we saw that back and forth with Kevin Gospin throwing at Jose Ramirez in the in another chapter of the unwritten rules that are major League Baseball and Stephen Boat didn't like the fact that they hit Jose Ramirez in the arm. You know that Vladimir got hit in the arm. The unwritten rules, if someone could just

write them it'd be a little simpler, but anyways not great news that Vladimir is out of the lineup today. We should point out that the x-rays were negative so the hope is this isn't significant. I love the the unwritten rules that we all know exist and then the the absolute lies after the game where they say oh didn't mean to do it oh yeah no he didn't mean to do that. The ball actually slipped a lot that game yeah both ways too pretty evenly. Retribution what are you talking about that's just a wild pitch what are you gonna do yeah it's I know but we've seen a lot of it this year in Major League Baseball you saw the Padres going at Shohei Otani and you know and obviously the Dodgers going back at

Tatis in right you know it's it's interesting stuff how you got these guys like Gladys a 500 million dollar player mm-hmm Shohei is what a 700 million million player with deferred money, I guess maybe not quite as much, whatever it is. That's a lot of money to sort of be throwing a 100 mile an hour fastballs at. While you throw out my $500 million player, I'm throwing at every single guy you possibly have.

You know what I mean? Like you kinda, I guess that's the enforcer in baseball to a certain degree. Well, and there's a reason why it was Jose Ramirez. Yes Oh, of course, right like it had to be except that no Don't you ask that question in the press conference? You're not getting a straight answer Wow, but yes, I understand that obviously if you admit to it then then you're really gonna get in trouble for it But man, I mean you talk about if you're if you're the guy that wrote the insurance policy

Contracts like and you're seeing those pitches go up and in on massive, half billion to nearly a billion dollar assets, I mean if you want to call them that, they're human beings, but they also are insurable assets, it's scary times. It feels like a good time for the Jays to kind of make a little headway here, like they've been a 500 team for the last little while boston hasn't

been playing very well and the chase were on a roll and i think if if you could get them playing five hundred for a bit that's okay like you still want to see them go in any kind of tailspin or nosedive and they haven't done that and now it's a good opportunity for them to take advantage of the tea of a team that's kind of doing that themselves and the eighties are running away with the division so if you can just at least keep pace there,

and I don't know if you need to be more worried about Tampa or not, but those are the three teams that seem to be the class of the division. The expectation is that Boston will eventually find their way. But then again, it might just be one of those years. Because we said the same thing about Baltimore, and their seasons are right off already. I didn't see that coming with Baltimore.

I don't know, Dave, if you saw that coming, but Baltimore, especially after the season they had last year where they had drafted all these great young players, and it was like, this is gonna be a machine moving forward, I didn't see this coming. Well, I felt like they kinda took a step back in the offseason where they should've doubled down

on a really promising team. They sort of lost some pieces maybe out of budget-conscious Baltimore behavior, which is very good for the Blue Jays but you're right Frankie like this is a big moment in the season you got Boston for three and then you got the Yankees coming to town for four yeah so you could you could really swing you know the standings in a big way here in this next seven days all right looking forward to that series against the Red Sox reminder overdrivers brought to you by FanDuel,

bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Mike Johnson will kick things off for the five o'clock hours. Overdrive continues on TSN 1050 and up on TSN 4. You've been listening to Overdrive, powered by FanDuel. FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now, learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love.

New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.