It’ll be 25 years next month since Richard Peddie was named CEO of the Toronto Raptors, back in the nascent days of the local NBA franchise.
And it was only a couple of years later that Peddie figured he was getting fired from the gig. Called to a meeting by the club’s new owners in early 1998 after cleaning out most of his office in anticipation of a pink slip — this after the company that owned the Maple Leafs bought the Raptors and then-under-construction Scotiabank Arena — Peddie was instead given a chance to prove his worth as interim CEO of what would become Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.