CLEVELAND—Wayne Embry still remembers the last death threat. He used to get them all the time; he grew up in segregation-era Ohio, was the only African-American at his high school in Springfield, Ohio, and became the first black general manager in the NBA. Once, when he was running the Cleveland Cavaliers, a bullet and a threatening note were left in his suite at the old Richfield Coliseum.
But the last one was maybe 12 years ago, around the time he joined the Toronto Raptors, when he still lived in Ohio.
“I got a call from the Pepper Pike police department, which was the neighbouring community where we lived, saying ‘Mr.