Raptors’ Masai Ujiri responds to Donald Trump’s controversial comments

LT56 said:

Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri, the first African-born executive in the NBA, has spoken out against Donald Trump after the U.S. President reportedly made disparaging comments towards immigration.

On Thursday night, there were reports that Trump referred to some African nations and Haiti as “s***hole countries” while discussing immigration policies at a White House meeting.

On Friday, Ujiri addressed those comments in an interview with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

“This summer, I went to Kigali, and Nairobi and Lagos, and I went to Kampala and Abidjan and Dakar and Johannesburg and I saw great cities, and great people,” Ujiri told ESPN. “And I went to visit the refugee camp in Dadaab, and I met good people and good families with plenty of hope. If those places are being referred to as s***hole, go visit those places, and go meet those people.

“I don’t think it’s fair, and I don’t think it’s what inspiring leadership can be. What sense of hope are we giving people if you are calling where they live — and where they’re from — a s***hole?”

Ujiri was born in Nigeria and moved to the U.S. to play college basketball in 1993. After retiring as a player in 2002, he began work as a scout with the Orlando Magic. In 2010, the Denver Nuggets named Ujiri the first African-born general manager in league history. Ujiri joined the Raptors as GM in 2013.

Ujiri is also director of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders Africa program and the Giants of African program, which promote the sport across the continent.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the United States and Canada and I am grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been given by people, and the game of basketball, and the NBA,” he said. “As leaders, I think we have to give people in many places a chance to have success, not continue to put those people down.

“We have to inspire people and give them a sense of hope. We need to bring people along, not ridicule and tear them down. This cannot be the message that we accept from the leader of the free world.”




https://www.google.ca/amp/www.sport...-donald-trumps-controversial-comments/sn-amp/

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Bud Plug said:

Translation of Ujiri's remarks:

1. There are some pretty good basketball players we'd like to recruit from Africa, hopefully for cheaper than what we would have to pay American born college prospects.

2. Since a lot of people in Africa live in shitholes, I think it would be nice to give them some hope that maybe they wouldn't be living in a shithole some day.

p.s. Please forget about about my repeated fines for using obscenities at my news conferences. That sort of thing would have been A-OK in shithole countries.

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wigglee said:

That is not a translation... it is a perversion from your twisted mind. Ujiri is a class act and spoke a clear truth, which needs no interpretation by the likes of you. Trump is a terrible role model and he said so. Ujiri is also a great GM and has put together the best B-ball team this town has ever had. Meanwhile Trump's "team" is in shambles. The White House is currently a shithole.

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Kathleen said:

Again, this is only reported, and remains unverified.

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Bud Plug said:

Seems to me that Ujiri is speaking up to criticize Trump's use of specific crude language. A bit galling coming from someone fined multiple times by the NBA for using crude language in press conferences. You want Ujiri to be judged instead on the results the Raptors have achieved while he's been GM? OK, are you prepared to approach Trump the same way? My prediction is that you won't want to be consistent.

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wigglee said:

Ujiri might swear but he doesn't infer racist intent. And Trump is a failure in both words and deeds. Don't confuse a temporary bull market and a tax handout to the 1% as a successful economic policy.

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Bud Plug said:

To be clear, are you prepared to judge Trump by the outcomes of his presidency, rather than by whether he uses crude words? I doubt you'd like Trump any better if he used the most cautious of language.

p.s. I can't buy the idea that calling places that no one would choose to live "shitholes" is racist. Insensitive, yes. Racist, no. Nor is preferring immigrants from successful countries with well trained work forces.

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Bud Plug said:

To be clear, are you prepared to judge Trump by the outcomes of his presidency, rather than by whether he uses crude words? I doubt you'd like Trump any better if he used the most cautious of language.

p.s. I can't buy the idea that calling places that no one would choose to live "shitholes" is racist. Insensitive, yes. Racist, no. Nor is preferring immigrants from successful countries with well trained work forces.

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wigglee said:

If this was Trump's first offence, he would probably get a pass, but this is the same guy who felt the need to spread equal blame on the antifa ptotesters after a young woman was murdered by a racist terrorist.... and the same guy who is loved by the KKK.... and the same guy who was charged with discriminatory renting practices in New York, years ago.

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Bud Plug said:

Well, you went out of your way to avoid a clear answer, but I take you to be saying that you will judge Trump on his crude words, rather than his results. Not me. I'll be judging him on his results (or judging those who prevent the results he seeks).

Let me ask what you think the point is of this attempt to paint him as a racist. Even if he were a racist, would that make it bad policy to increase border security at the Mexico border? Would that make it bad policy to admit immigrants based on a merit system (like we do in Canada, subject to refugee admissions), instead of primarily based on chain migration? Would that make it bad policy to address trade imbalances and unfair trade practices which have decimated middle class manufacturing jobs by revisiting trade agreements? It seems that his opponents do not have winning alternative policy positions on these issues, so they try to attack the messenger instead.

From my perspective, this perpetual attempt to brand him as a racist is nothing more than electioneering. It's an attempt to drum up more minority votes for Democratic candidates in the mid terms. It's race baiting and identity politics, pure and simple.

Unless someone thinks that Democrats are somehow the only proper governing party (because they are just better human beings somehow?), I don't understand this need to try and hang a label on Trump that just won't seem to stick on a 70 year old man with connections and friends in just about every demographic group imaginable. There's no traction here. The only people believing the racism charge are those who were already never-Trumpers.

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Bud Plug said:

Well, you went out of your way to avoid a clear answer, but I take you to be saying that you will judge Trump on his crude words, rather than his results. Not me. I'll be judging him on his results (or judging those who prevent the results he seeks).

Let me ask what you think the point is of this attempt to paint him as a racist. Even if he were a racist, would that make it bad policy to increase border security at the Mexico border? Would that make it bad policy to admit immigrants based on a merit system (like we do in Canada, subject to refugee admissions), instead of primarily based on chain migration? Would that make it bad policy to address trade imbalances and unfair trade practices which have decimated middle class manufacturing jobs by revisiting trade agreements? It seems that his opponents do not have winning alternative policy positions on these issues, so they try to attack the messenger instead.

From my perspective, this perpetual attempt to brand him as a racist is nothing more than electioneering. It's an attempt to drum up more minority votes for Democratic candidates in the mid terms. It's race baiting and identity politics, pure and simple.

Unless someone thinks that Democrats are somehow the only proper governing party (because they are just better human beings somehow?), I don't understand this need to try and hang a label on Trump that just won't seem to stick on a 70 year old man with connections and friends in just about every demographic group imaginable. There's no traction here. The only people believing the racism charge are those who were already never-Trumpers.

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Aardvark154 said:

Would someone inform me what nationality/nationalities Masai Ujiri has?

He came to the U.S. on a student visa (two and half years), then was in Europe (six years), then briefly back to Nigeria, then to the U.S.A (six years), then to Canada (two years), back to the U.S. (three years), then back to Canada (going on five years).

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