Oakland Alameda police embarrassing themselves with battery charge against Raptors' Masai Ujiri

Law enforcement claims it took "the high road" in not arresting the Raptors team president on
the spot after they wouldn't let him on the court to celebrate Toronto's championship



Imagine if when the Celtics won the NBA championship in 2008, local police ruined the moment and wouldn't allow the architect of the team, Danny Ainge on the court to celebrate? That happened in Oakland last night when police refused to allow Masai Ujiri on the court.

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office is investigating Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri for suspicion of misdemeanor battery on a police officer, it confirmed Friday morning.

The alleged incident occurred Thursday night on the floor at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, after the Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA title and Ujiri tried to join the team on the floor. He was stopped by a deputy.

Mr. Ujiri was unknown to the deputy at that time. He [the deputy] asked him for a credential," said Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the sheriff's office. "He shoved the deputy out of the way and walked toward the court. The deputy pushed back. The president came forward more with a more significant push and ended up striking the deputy in the face."




This is just such a bad look for the Oakland police or the sheriff's office or whomever is pushing this. Unless there's a video of Ujiri being politely asked to show his credential and him belligerently hitting the officer in the face in protest, I can't see how the sheriff's office doesn't immediately drop this charge. And this is coming from someone who generally gives the police the benefit of the doubt. But come on now? He's the president of the team. If you had to know just one face to make sure he gets to go on the court immediately after the buzzer, it should have been him.

Just apologize for not knowing who he was and move on. The sheriffs office acting like they did Ujiri a solid, by not arresting him on the spot is even more petty.



p.s. On a lighter note, once the charges are dropped, this should be Ujiri's go-to response whenever someone asks him about this incident:

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