Will Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro Ever Be as Well-liked as Masai Ujiri?

A second major Toronto sports team’s president was relieved of their duties this past week – and it’s the one few expected. Masai Ujiri departs the Raptors organization as a beloved figure that brought a championship to a team that many thought would never see one.

As far as sports executives go, few have come close to achieving Ujiri’s popularity, or to earning the kind of trust fans had in the decisions he made. While it would have seemed silly to ask the question even a few months ago, a promising Blue Jays season makes the question worth asking:
Will Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro Ever Be as Well-liked as Masai Ujiri?

How will Atkins and Shapiro's legacies compare to Ujiri's?

What they Inherited

Masai Ujiri and Mark Shapiro were hired at very different times for their respective teams.

The Raptors hired Ujiri to right a ship that had been off-course for the bulk of its existence.
The team had only made the playoffs a handful of times, while winning a total of one round, had struggled to retain franchise cornerstones like Vince Carter and Chris Bosh.

Shapiro was brought in to replace franchise mainstay Paul Beeston at a time that team ownership decided it was time for new direction – but the team itself was doing just fine. In fact, in late August of 2015, the Blue Jays were in the midst of a 42-16 run, spurred on by one of the most exciting (and productive) trade deadlines in franchise history – leading to their first AL East title in over two decades.

By the time Alex Anthopoulos departed at season’s end and was replaced by Ross Atkins, while fans were displeased to see their homegrown GM go, they felt the team was, for the most part, headed in the right direction.