Masai Ujiri on fans’ feelings moving on from the Luka trade and building around Cooper Flagg: “In Africa we say when kings go, kings come. And a king went, and we have a little prince here that we’re gonna turn into a king.”
clip farming on day 1 š£ļø
Nice that Dallas finally realized they should hire someone who’s capable of talking to the media for more than 3 consecutive minutes without causing a massive fan revolt or proving himself a bumbling idiot
“Nico, how do you think the team handled Steph tonight?”
“You mean Steven, Steven Curry?”
Let me consult my Kevin Durant PowerPointĀ
I thought it was Kevin Dumont?
Shades of “What’s his nameā What was his birth š¶ nameāIt wasn’t Coachā½ļø, it was BenjaminšØ”
He means Stephon Curry
Always reminded of that Abe Simpson/Burns interaction where Burns asks Abe can’t you go 5 seconds without embarrassing yourself?
Doink! Pants fall down
“have I mentioned I knew Kobe” didn’t work for the last guy?
Ngl legendary quote because he is complimenting both players massively.
+1000 rep
Thank you for not lying
and also hilarious to compare two white basketball prodigies to african kings lmaooo
āHold up!! His writing is this fire???ā
Masai āI rip and I rhyme, I rhyme and I ripā Ujiri
Masai has a lot of banger quotes from his days in Toronto
Super charismatic to boot too
I donāt pay his salary, but I was gutted he got let go. And for what? Nothing
Believe in this City. Believe in yourselves.
Straight FIRE
Legit the complete opposite of Nico when answering questions I love him already
Real gms edit farm for their players
That man is a treasure. Please take care of him.
You guys bagged a good one.
I’m 32.. what’s clip farming?
Kinda like purposely trynna say something that will blow up on social media for attention
Post it the day LeBron leaves the lakers (could be this summer)
Honestly I love it lol
Inject this into my veins!!
“There’s an old saying in Africa, I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennesse, that says, ‘Fool me once, shame on…shame on you.’ Fool meāyou can’t get fooled again.”
Now watch this drive
I canāt believe that clip is realĀ
Proceeds to pipe it down the fairway
It’s funny that in any other world that would be his most iconic sports related moment, but the first pitch down the middle after 9⁄11 gotta be number one.
The shoe dodge feels like it’s sports adjacent
His reflexes were other worldly in that moment lol.
His grin right afterwards is so funny, “alright nice try buddy but you really fucked up”
Itās a great microcosm of how far weāve fallen.Ā
Today there would be grand jury hearings about the liberal-antifa terrorist who planned to harm as many people as possible with his shoe-bombs inscribed with LGBTQ agenda on the soles that said āUnder Armorā as in, he was trying to get underneath the armor of secrect service agents and inflict maximum casualties.Ā
Well also it shows how far we’ve fallen that no one has tried throwing a shoe.
Yeah, Bush immediately defended the guy as a democratic display
https://youtu.be/_RFH7C3vkK4
Meh. It happened in Iraq. If Trump goes and does a press conference in Iraq rn I’m betting he’s getting endless shoes hucked at him. We do a better job repressing free speech here in the US through coercion than the average Joe realizes specifically because of the crap you mentioned.
He grinned because it’s fun and hoping to see the other shoe coming his way.
“com’on, I know ya got one more, dubbaya is ready for it. As they say, I was already born.”
Man turned into The Flash in that moment
America needed that pitch so badly lmao
The mental fortitude of that man on that mound. To get it right down the the middle from the rubber in the first game after 9⁄11, just amazing no matter what you think of him. I was 6 but I can remember it so clearly, how my mom reacted, my brother.
That’s one thing I noticed upon rewatching it… he freaking walked up to the pitcher-level rubber despite the other in place for him.
Feel like the president should always be at least somewhat athletic. Clinton, Bush, and Obama all were.
I feel like most have been and guys like Trump, Taft and Cleveland are the exceptions.
Gerald Ford played center for Michigan and they went undefeated for two seasons. He turned down NFL offers to go to law school.
W ran marathons and was a cyclist.
Lincoln was a wrestler.
Eisenhower played linebacker in college.
Teddy Roosevelt played pretty much every sport, he was a wild one.
Even Nixon was an avid bowler.
Lincoln wasn’t just a wrestler, he’s like in the hall of fame isn’t he?
I remember one quote he apparently said after a match or something. “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you wanna try it, come on and whet your horns”
Record is like damn near 300-1 or something
You have to adjust for era tho, Lincoln wrestled against railway workers and textile merchants
And it was from the actual pitching rubber, not the one they put down a couple feet in front of the rubber.
I’ve seen people assert this multiple times and I can’t understand it - GWB makes solid contact, but you never see where the ball actually goes.
Pretty sure it’s a terrible drive. His lean, someone says “you can hit another one”, and he’s pulling another ball out of his pocket when the clip cuts
literally what won him his election
Dude was incompetent as hell but he is an awesome person to hangout with and no one thought 2000 would be a significant election lol
His brother stealing the vote for him in FL is what *literally* won him the election
Yeah it was definitely his brother who has been proven to be an idiot, not his dad who was second in command at the CIA ;)
His dad was actually the head of the CIA before becoming Reganās vp
I mean itās kinda crazy to gloss over the fact that HW was POTUS.
“Now watch this drive” was ‘02, so it couldn’t have affected the ‘00 election.
Actually the Republican majority Supreme Court abdicating its responsibility to America (common theme one will notice) is what won him the election.
I just remember the debate around the hanging chads for some reason
There’s a blog post from one of his cabinet members or something saying how his affect was carefully manicured and he was actually one of the smartest motherfuckers alive.
www.keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter
Bush is clearly smart. Smart doesn’t mean competent.
George Bush can be the smartest person on the planet but his administration was an incompetent mess with no clear strategy around it.
That’s a wild thing to say in this day and age because one could say as bad as his administration was…it’s leaps and bounds above the current mess we see in DC right now. I guess one could say the current strategy is grifting, gas-lighting, implementing right wing and southern baptist strategy but overall the administration itself is an utter mess the likes we havent seen in generations.
Also the cheating. If the recount isnāt fucked with by Roger Stone and was allowed to continue odds are he loses.
You know the ball š
Keeps shooting 3ās.
Fucking Celtics game plan the other night.
FOOL ME THREE TIMES FUCK THE PEACE SIGNS
Load the chopper let it rain on you.
Uncle Phil?
āWhen kings go, kingsā¦ kings come. And a kingā¦ you canāt get a king again.ā
“Fool me one time, shame on… shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again”.
Bro realised he was about to say shame on me which would have been played constantly.
Just so hilarious to me that saying “shame on me” 25 years ago was like…the worst thing a President could say as far as a sound byte is concerned.
But nowadays…when sound bytes and memes are 1000x more popular….our President says shit 1000x worse with no repercussions.
Howard Deans entire Presidential run ended because he said “Yahhh” in a weird voice. (Before the pedants come at me…I’m well aware his campaign was winding down anyway and he still would’ve lost. But that was clearly the nail in the coffin).
Fool me three times fuck the peace sign load the choppa let it rain on you
Now watch this drahve
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I wish we could go back to that level of accepted stupidity.
But Masai is my rolemodel
He should hold up Cooper Flagg like baby Simba.
Showing up to game 1 of next season with that red clay mark on his forehead.
Nants ingonyama bagithi baba
Ahhh always wondered what they were saying!
[removed]
LOOK ITāS A LION
Cooper Flagg to Sacramento confirmed
I’ll allow it
making the playoffs is our super bowl
I mean Luka should’ve be ours to begin with so I’ll just consider this the timeline restoring itself
Probably shouldn’t have hired a massive idiot to run your team.
You’re going to need to narrow it down, I’m afraid.
This applies to the last 20 years of kings basketball š
You really want to narrow it down to 20?
Sadly the massive idiot that actually runs the team only had to meet one criteria to get that position, and it was having enough money to buy the team from the last massive idiots
Lmaoo
Don’t you dare put that stank
Lmaooo underrated joke! š¤£
Cooper “Little Prince” Flagg
ceci n’est pas un supermax
dessinez-moi un supermax s’il vous plait
What a deep cut - I tip my rose to you
Well it is one of the top 5 best selling books of all time, so maybe not that deep lol
Reminds me of when the Christopher Nolan Odyssey movie was announced and people were like āwhere does he find this stuff š¤Æā
reading books and r/nba is quite a niche demographic, so it is quite a deep cut.
Le Petit Prince!!!
If he were French that nickname would hit so well. In hindsight that should’ve been Tony Parkers nickname.
Yessss!!!!
Cooper “Tutankhamen” Flagg
Little Big PrinceĀ
Ben āYoung Kingā Simmons
Social Lite King
Itās already on his Basketball Reference page as one of his nicknames.
That could stick
Masai my king :‘)
Fuck Ed Rogers
Why did he leave the raptors? Or was he fired?
He got fired! Fuck Rogers!
Didnāt they just let his contract expire? He was also getting a huge bonus per year based on the value of the team. Yes he increased their value, but team valuations have increased 5x over the past few years. Classic rogers move to save.
Nah they axed him with a year to go I think.
Good executives are hard to find and whatever the bonus, Rogers can clearly afford it. The Leafs just closed their window due to a shitty GM and decisions like that can last decades.
The just got blessed by the lottery gods :/
Honestly insane.
Fired, Ed Rogers thought he was overpaid. Probably some personal dislike of each other behind the scenes.
Ed Rogers is low key racist as well.
He got fired. The new owner had an issue with the amount of money he was making.
Toronto fans also will never acknowledge that he mismanaged the team for 5 years post championship.
Cuz no one from Toronto with a right mind thought the raps were ever winning a chip. He brought us one,that changed the city. We wonāt forget.
I mean he won y’all a championship, Toronto may never see that for the rest of their lifetimes
Raptors “fans” are the worst when it comes to expectations. Before winning one it was all I would trade 1 chip for 40 years of no playoffs. Now it’s fire the coach or trade Scottie Barnes after every loss.
hell no
if we lose for the next 10 years it literally won’t bother me, ive seen my beloved jays win twice and now raps. im literally good for the rest of my life
you must be talking about young fans
The whole mismanaged thing is so dumb. Once you win most other teams aren’t doing you any favors in trades, and keeping your guys are expensive. Look at where every single championship team is since 2019.
2020 Lakers: could not keep Caruso, KCP, Dwight, etc. Lucked out on Luka but still not a true contender.
2021 Bucks: gambled on Dame with no results, Giannis trade rumors every month.
2022 Warriors: failed 2 timelines, paid $140m over 2 years for Jummy Butler to win 1 playoff series.
2023 Nuggets: overpaid MPJ, Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, etc. Early playoffs exits.
2024 Celtics: had to fire sale role players to stay under cap, got exposed by underdogs 2 playoffs in a row.
2025 Thunder: TBD, will run into cap issues soon.
We absolutely could’ve kept them all if we didn’t trade for fucking Westbrook.
I’m worried that might have been Bobby more than Masai
Masai was the decision maker man, do you seriously think any move was made without Masai when he was here?
Hahaha thinking Rogers cares about a “mismanaged” team. If that was the case they would have dismantled the leafs front office a while ago.
Bell wanted to keep him, but they sold their share to Rogers.
Masaiās aura is off the charts
Got me doing the Wakanda Forever X
well that’s the most weirdly racist thing i’ll read today
You have to understand itās endearing from a Texan
Just told my 10yo daughter we hired Masai. She had tears in her eyes. And then she did the Wakanda pose and said āFlaggkanda foreverā ā which is the sort of pop culture cross-over that I can celebrate.
So are your Kinsey Scale results
As a Luka-fan-lakers-fan-still-mavs-fanā¦ this is how you fn address the media.
After years of gaslighting, blabbering and awkwardness, finally an adult in the room.
perfect comment. was a 20 year mavs fan but im no longer one after the luka trade but i hope masai can turn it around for them.
I really donāt know even with Masai if I can stomach watching them next year. Especially with the Adelsons being giant pieces of shit.
Between the owners and the gambling promos there’s a kind of scummy haze over the whole thing. Even if you just love the game it’s always there.
Cuban was also a giant piece of shit. Or do we only care when it’s political donations and not routinely overlooking sexual harassment. Why don’t you ask Cuban for his thoughts on Israel before you bring up that can of worms.
I don’t root for Jerry Jones and Miriam Adelson. I root for Dallas professional sports.
Damn that would get me pumped as a fan
i felt like running through a wall
WE WINNING THE 2025-2026 NBA FINALS WITH THIS ONE
Me too and Iām a fucking Celtic fan!
Itās barely been a day since Masai got here and Iām so fucking hyped
Youāre in great hands and its the least you deserve after what Mavs fans have been through
I like Masai but F this team until there is new ownership.
Yup. Iāve watched 1 game since the trade and that was with Lukaās debut against the team.
Iāll take it a step further, new owners and Cuban gone.Ā
It’s definitely got me feeling some shit
Getting rid of Nico made me not hate watching the mavs. Listening to this made me actually WANT to watch them
Spitting bars
FR!!!
Everything the light touches is your kingdom Cooper.
“What about that shadowy place?”
“That’s Oklahoma. You must never go there, Cooper”
Thatās it get Nico backĀ
Cooper getting the nickname Little Prince to cap off his ROTY run would be hilarious
If only Nico would have explained the trade using ancient African proverbs, he would still have his job. Wouldnāt hurt if he was wearing a kufi, too.
Cooked
God damn bro has so much aura from that
Cooper “The Little Prince” Flagg
Masai is a fantastic speaker and leader. He is the perfect gm to help change a lot of fans perception of the mavs FO. He’s really good at creating positive narratives.
I used to look forward and watch all of his pressers.
He’s also fantastic at winning in the margins, finding value players will the mavs will absolutely need to do as their next few picks are all involved in swaps but they already have their franchise player, they’ve gotta hope they can get their number 2 this draft then let Masai fill out the roster with steals and projects
He started off as a scout and has made his way up while keeping that eye for talent
is bars is bars. this is a bar.
is it true? i dont know lol but if i was a dallas fan, id be glad to have him as gm!
Look itās a lion, OMG
Im already willing to run through a wall for him
fire
nico
Turn him into a king and then trade him to the Lakers in 7 years so he can play alongside LeBron
Good idea, he can carry in the regular season so that Lebron can stay fresh for the 2033 playoffs
This makes me feel a bit better.
Good for dallas honestly
I miss Masai, already š¢Ā
the little prince who was promised
“there’s an old saying in Africa: Fuck Brooklyn”.
That little prince is gonna make people forget about Luka
Dallas needs this!
Ngl prince would be a hard nickname for Cooper Flagg.
Toronto lost a King. Hope Bobby proves himself to be the next one.
I always forget Masai Ujiri isn’t Japanese. Am I the only one who thinks the name sounds Japanese?
Many Nigerian names look/sounds Japanese, especially when written, because their language has similar word groupings, vowels, and flow compared to some Nigerian languages. Other countries too, I know a South African with a very Japanese sounding name for instance. Still, I am confused how you saw Ujiri and ever thought he was Japanese, lol.
That dude spittinā
I cant even imagine how bad the situation would’ve been with the Mavs and their fans had they not been gifted Flagg by the lottery gods.
The day Mavs hired him I popped by their subreddit to let them know that despite all current doubts, they will be ready to run through a wall for this man in short time. Hes got an extremely magnetic personality and I see that hes repeating all the hits he used to say to us š
āLittle princeā is wild tho lmao
Mandate of Heaven here we come.
Or this is Flaggās manifest destiny
I really wish Masai with still with the raptors. You guys got a good human here.
good hire. idk why the raptors even let him goā¦
Masai is as passionate as they come. He is the perfect guy to make a fanbase believe again.
A Nigerian man (I know he’s multi cultural but stay with me now) will always have some fire bars.
He’s absolutely flexing his Nigerian part of him, and I’m here for it
Masai is like Thanos, every quote out of his mouth is a banger
The Mavericks got incredibly lucky which doesn’t change the fact that the Doncic trade was stupid. You can say all the pretty words you want, but the facts stay the same.
Cooper ālittle princeā Flagg it is.
Heās treating Luka with respect and also a respecting Cooper. WOW. He actually can talk to an audience
Billionaires spending money and do what they can to change people’s opinions.
If I was a mavs fan, I would’ve let it go.
I will never forgive Ed Rogers