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An emotional Masai Ujiri took the podium on Thursday afternoon having dealt away another franchise cornerstone.

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The Raptors president and vice chairman had worn the effects of tough decisions in the past — most notably when he gathered with the media after trading franchise icon DeMar DeRozan — but in the past month he has dealt two of his favourites, players he considers family, in OG Anunoby first, and Pascal Siakam on Wednesday (plus Precious Achiuwa, who he has known for years, and Malachi Flynn).

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“It’s not easy. It’s the same as DeMar DeRozan, the same as Kyle Lowry,” Ujiri began.

“I walked around a hotel two hours, two hours, in Kenya to sum up courage to call DeMar (to tell him he’d be dealt for Kawhi Leonard). And I’m a tough mother f—- … Honestly, the human part of this business is tough,” he added.

“My wife and my kids see me suffer. My son texted me and said:, ‘You traded OG?’ It’s tough, it’s really tough.”

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Ujiri also mentioned firing Dwane Casey and Nick Nurse, the two most successful head coaches in Raptors history, but said it all comes with the territory.

“To sum up the courage, I remember me and Bobby (Webster, the team’s general manager) sitting in my office and to walk from my office to coach Casey’s office, to walk from our office to Nick Nurse’s office, you know how hard that is? When you share a championship, coach of the year.

“Me and coach Casey were in Africa together this summer, with time, with DeMar, with time it heals a little but it’s not easy, man, It’s not easy because there something about the NBA — I don’t know if other leagues are like that but there’s something about the NBA that’s family,” Ujiri said.

“No matter how cold we can get, there’s just something about it. It remains the most difficult part of this business, trading a player and when a player leaves, it’s the most difficult thing.

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“Fred (VanVleet) said it, what did Fred say when they asked what was the most difficult thing. He said it was the call he made to me, I remember that call. It’s the most difficult thing in this business. You guys might look at it as simple or something that’s just done, two hours I was walking around this hotel, at 3 a.m., 4 a.m., trying to sum up the courage to call DeMar DeRozan.”

Ujiri said the good thing was he got to get some closure with Siakam in Los Angeles during the team’s recent trip when it was clear that Siakam’s days in Toronto were numbered.

“We had an incredibly good conversation prior to this, leading up to this, in L.A. so I think it prepared all of us maybe a little bit better for this and this time, having a good conversation.”

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Ujiri had to pause for nearly a minute to compose himself during the conference when asked what he’ll remember about Siakam.

“Yeah. Two moments. Yeah,” Ujiri eventually said. “Two African guys that won the championship. Share that with him. And I think of his dad (who died in a car accident in 2014). Pascal at Basketball Without Borders: A lot of people don’t know that Pascal came to Basketball Without Borders in South Africa, he had been admitted into a pastoral school in Cameroon, and he only came to Basketball Without Borders to see his sister, who lived in South Africa. And he was going to go back and go back to pastoral school.”

From there Siakam became “All-NBA, all-star, all everything, championship. And it’s not stereotype championship of (an) African waving the flag on the bench. Scoring, contributing, doing everything that you can think of. Again, I say to you guys that that guy’s success is my success, no matter where he is.”

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Ujiri also apologized for communications breakdowns with Siakam in the summer. TSN first reported the team cut off almost all communications with Siakam and his camp when contract talks were at an impasse.

“I think the lines of communication in the summer were not that great. Like, just because sometimes I don’t have answers. Like sometimes the answer that I’m giving you is the same answer that I’m going to give you the next time I speak to you, but based on my relationship, you know, like Pascal deserves that, I even gave him the over communication, which I didn’t, and I apologized to him for it,” he said.

“I apologized to him before the season started and I apologized to him again recently. Yeah, that part I’m not particularly proud of but there are so many things in our business that bring about this type of communication or non-communication.”

@WolstatSun

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