Masai Ujiri still has long way to go to mend soured relationship with DeMar DeRozan

While Toronto Raptors won ir NBA Championship for first time last season, Raptors President Masai Ujiri first fired coach of year Dwane Casey, before trading ir star player DeMar DeRozan. Ujiri mentioned that though DeMar Derozan trade and firing Casey were difficult decisions, he needed to make m for team. 

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Masai Ujiri still has to mend his relationship with DeMar DeRozan

While talking to ESPN, Ujiri talked about how difficult his decisions regarding Casey and DeRozan were. Ujiri said informing m was 't easy' and as he is human, he definitely felt it in his heart. He described incident where he had to let Casey go. Ujiri revealed that he wanted to move meeting ahead or change his decision entirely, but decided against it. He stated that because Casey is a good person, breaking news to him was extremely hard. 

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He n talked about informing DeMar DeRozan about trade. Ujiri apparently informed him from a hotel in Kenya, from where he called DeRozan to inform him. Ujiri revealed that he walked around hotel for hours before finally garing cour to make phone call and inform DeRozan. 

Ujiri even spoke about his current relationship with both Casey and DeRozan. While his situation with Casey has gotten much better due to his family, re is plenty of work he needs to do with DeMar DeRozan. Masai Ujiiri added that he hopes his relationship with DeRozan gets better. However, he understands that he will have to continue making tough decisions. 

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DeMar DeRozan trade

For 2019 offseason, Raptors and Masai Ujiri traded ir star guard DeMar DeRozan for Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard. While Ujiri received a lot of hate for trading DeRozan, his decision paid off as Raptors won ir first NBA Championship. DeRozan was traded to San Antonio Spurs along with Jakob Poeltl, while Danny Green went with Kawhi Leonard. 

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