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NBA all-star Pascal Siakam visited Gagetown, N.B., students and received an honourary doctorate on Wednesday. The 2019 NBA Champion with the Toronto Raptors was in town for a celebration of Data Dunkers, which is described as an innovative basketball and data science learning experience for students in Grades 5-to-12. The program focuses on activities which are designed to help students learn how to find the meaning in data, particularly by using data that is openly available from the NBA and WNBA.
Sources in Toronto say, in one meeting, Uncle Dennis asked for an ownership stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs, because that way he wasn’t asking for a piece of the Raptors. It was politely explained to him that both teams were owned by the same company, and that the request was impossible.
John Gambadoro: This story is fascinating. From what I know from sources - when Kawhi signed with the Clippers the Toronto owner Larry Tannebaum was beside himself because he believed he bent over backwards for Kawhi - including calling three sponsors to meet Kawhi's demand of an extra $15 million in endorsement money. This was brought to the attention of Adam Silver as a concern over the cheating going on in the league being out of control. But no action was taken as it was thought Tannebaum didn't truly understand the rules - only a promise to get more serious about it in the future.
Tornike Shengelia was an unstoppable force for the Georgians as the team's heart and soul poured in 27 points - 12 more than his combined total the first three games. He also collected 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Goga Bitadze added 21 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks while Sandro Mamukelashvili chipped in 5 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
The former Toronto Raptors president was appointed as a United Nations sustainable goals development advocate on Thursday, according a release sent out by Giants of Africa. Ujiri, who parted with the Raptors in June, will join a group of international leaders in the SDG group, which aims to end global poverty and hunger while increasing well-being and education.
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Sandro Mamukelashvili, Georgia notch their first-ever Eurobasket win over Spain
Sandro Mamukelashvili led Georgia to the 83-69 win over Spain in their Eurobasket opener for Group C with 19 points, seven rebounds, and six assists. It was the first-ever Eurobasket win of Georgia over Spain. Mamu was great, Goga Bitadze scored 15 points, sealing the deal in the end, Duda Sanadze added 11 points, while Georgia captain Toko Shengelia (photo) played in the game, despite being doubtful until the 11th hour, finishing with 13 points.
Masai Ujiri will spend the run-up to NBA training camps expanding his global horizons on another of his passions. The former president and vice-chair of the Raptors has been appointed a sustainable development goal advocate by United Nations secretary António Guterres, the group announced Thursday.
Jordan Loyd leads Poland to win over Luka Doncic, Serbia
Luka Doncic had 34 points, nine assists, and five steals. Poland still started the Eurobasket with a home win, since they are the hosts of Group D in the tournament. Playing in front of a sold-out crowd, Poland prevailed 105-95, and 2022 history repeated itself. The naturalized guard of Poland, former NBA champion with the Toronto Raptors and currently with EuroLeague finalists Monaco, Jordan Loyd, had a big night scoring 19 of his 32 points in the first half, on five out of six threes. In total, he made seven out of eight. His 32 points are the second-best performance ever in a Eurobasket for Poland.
Former Raptors player Matt Thomas signed with Spanish team Fundacion CB Granada for the 2025-26 season.
It didn’t come as a surprise to people around the NBA that the Raptors ultimately named general manager Bobby Webster their permanent head of basketball operations, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report said in a live stream on Wednesday (YouTube link). In fact, according to Fischer, the only surprise during the process was that Toronto publicly announced a search for a new top executive after parting ways with president Masai Ujiri. “Someone I consult with who is involved in (executive) search firm stuff was taken aback by the fact that was even put out publicly,” Fischer said. “He was taking it – and the league was taking it – as a foregone conclusion that Bobby Webster would be running the show.”
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The Raptors, who traded away Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby during the 2023/24 season, have missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, but the expectation is that they’ll be more competitive going forward, per Fischer. “The Raptors have definitely been given some type of formal pressure, some type of direction from their new leadership of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to end this sort of rebuild era they’ve been in,” Fischer said, adding that the team will be aiming to claim a top-six playoff spot this season, not simply make the play-in tournament.
Jake Fischer: RJ Barrett is certainly a name that I would tell you, and tell Raptors fans, to be on the lookout for as a potential trade candidate going out the door with his, you know, roughly $30 million in salary to go out and be a major buyer and see what they can achieve with RJ Barrett’s salary. He was someone that the Raptors discussed with the Pelicans in that Brandon Ingram trade conversation that did not result in an RJ Barrett heading out of Canada. He was not someone the Pelicans had much interest in at the time. But RJ Barrett’s representation is fully aware that he is someone that could be discussed in trades moving forward for the Raptors.
This offseason, the Raptors discussed trades for Kevin Durant, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, which followed their February acquisition of Brandon Ingram. "This group under head coach Darko [Rajakovic] expects to really be a player in the playoff conversation here in the Eastern Conference," reports Jake Fischer. "They don't just want to be a play-in team. They want to be a team that really pushes for the postseason for the first time in quite some time. "So, what does Bobby Webster have in store now with this full endorsement as head of basketball operations to continue to upgrade this roster? We shall see. But I have the Raptors earmarked already entering this year. It's super early—it's August 20th—but when we get closer to December 15th and we get closer to the February trade deadline, I have the Raptors already earmarked as a buyer."
Serge Ibaka had no idea Kawhi Leonard was going to leave Toronto
"Were you trying to recruit Kawhi to come back during that time? Were you talking to him?" [Serge Ibaka]: "Yeah, man. I don’t like to talk about it, man." [Host]: "Me neither. But it pissed me off." [Serge Ibaka]: "Yeah... Yeah. I, um... I did— I even— I don’t think I even— I didn’t actually try to recruit him because I didn’t believe it. I thought he was going to stay. Yeah, he won. I didn’t believe he was gonna leave, you know? I was like — I didn’t think he was going to leave, actually. We just won the championship. We had a great team. He could take as many off-games as he wanted — the team was still going to win without him. So he got a lot of pressure, you know? Whenever we needed him in a game, he’d be there. And if he had an off-night, he had guys to help him. So I didn’t really think like, 'Ah, Kawhi is going to leave.' I was calm. I was relaxed. I was like, 'We just won. Who does that?'
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