Even in the bad times, in private or in public, he would say it like it was a mantra, an article of his faith: We will win here. We will figure it out.
The mentality of Canadian basketball fans was always a source of consternation to Masai Ujiri, a mystery: Why so prone to defeatism? Why so insecure? Why were they conditioned to expect the worst, no matter what?
I would always tell him, experience. It was what they knew.
The Toronto Raptors are the NBA champions, and it doesn’t feel real, does it? The Toronto Raptors, the purple dinosaur crew, the team whose stars left because of no ESPN, or the weather — as if there isn’t winter weather in New York, Chicago, Boston, all over — or the peacock colours of the foreign money, or curling on TV, or taxes or the metric system or whatever else you wanted to give as an excuse … they’re the champs.