Raptors President & GM Bryan Colangelo yesterday confirmed that he has "agreed in principle to a contract extension," according to Dave Feschuk of the TORONTO STAR. NBA sources said that the new deal, "which has yet to be lawyered and signed, gives him just two guaranteed years on the job." It "includes a team option for a third year along with provisions for Colangelo to earn incentive-based guarantees on his third-year salary." Feschuk writes the "road to Tuesday amounted to a humbling experience for the two-time NBA executive of the year," who was a "golden-boy saviour" when he joined the Raptors in '06. Colangelo's "re-upping had been opposed by Glen Silvestri, a representative of the majority-owner Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan," who sits on the MLSE BOD. However, MLSE President & CEO Richard Peddie said there was "100 per cent support" for Colangelo among BOD members. Peddie: "(The board) wanted to go through the whole process. 'Let's hear it. Let's debate it.' And as owners, they have that right. It was healthy. It was protracted." Sources said that Colangelo's cause could have been helped "by the fact that the pension continues to make progress in its ongoing effort to sell its interest in MLSE," meaning that the OTPP's reps "have appeared unwilling [to] exert influence on a future that isn't likely to include them" (TORONTO STAR, 5/18). The NATIONAL POST's Eric Koreen notes MLSE Chair Larry Tanenbaum, "a potential buyer of the pension plan's stake in the team, has long been believed to be a Colangelo backer" (NATIONAL POST, 5/18).
COULD DO WORSE: In Toronto, Ryan Wolstat writes Colangelo "is not the best of the best, but he is also far from the worst." Wolstat: "It is not like there are a ton of quality candidates capable of replacing Bryan Colangelo." He "re-signs with a bulls-eye already painted on his back in the eyes of many." But Colangelo "also has a rare second chance to make things right" (TORONTO SUN, 5/18). However, the GLOBE & MAIL's Jeff Blair writes the two-year extension is "hardly a hearty clap on the back" (GLOBE & MAIL, 5/18).
