The final track of Kanye West’s 2004 album The College Dropout is titled “Last Call.” In that song, West has two lines that seem representative of what Toronto Raptors team president Masai Ujiri did this year to reconstruct his team:
I ain’t play the hand I was dealt, I changed my cards / I prayed to the skies and I changed my stars
Last summer, Ujiri had finally seen enough. Three straight embarrassments at the hands of LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers was too many. (And make no mistake, the 2016 conference finals were still somewhat humiliating, despite the Raptors winning two games.