Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri has always been known as a fiery dude—recall when he yelled, “Fuck Brooklyn!” before a game against the Nets—but after the buzzer sounded last night and the Raptors became NBA champions, he reportedly reached a new level of not giving a fuck by fighting a cop.
As first reported by NBC Bay Area, the Alameda County Sheriff’s office says that a Raptors executive pushed and struck a sheriff’s deputy in the face while trying to get onto the arena floor at the conclusion of Game 6. The altercation apparently occurred over a lack of credentials. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“(The deputy) did not know who the man was and asked for the credential, and that’s when he tried to push past our deputy, and our deputy pushed him back, and there was another push that kind of moved up and struck our deputy in the face,” Kelly said. “At that point, several bystanders intervened and the executive did ultimately get back onto the court without displaying credentials.”
The sheriff’s office did not specifically identify Ujiri, but video taken right after the incident shows Ujiri being separated from a remarkably red-faced cop:
Ujiri eventually made it onto the floor to raise the trophy with his team, and in the process became the first NBA executive to be crowned NBA champion immediately after giving the business to a police officer.
No arrests were made, but police will be submitting the case to the District Attorney’s Office for review.