Sport
Masai Ujiri becomes GM of the Toronto Raptors
Masai Ujiri. PHOTO/Getty Images
Masai Ujiri has been named the General Manager of the NBA’s Toronto Rapters.
Ujiri, 42,becomes the first African-born general manager of a North American major league sports team.
He has been considering the Toronto offer for a week and finally informed the team of his decision on Friday. His contract with the Denver Nuggets – whom he rebuilt into a Western Conference contender in the post-Carmelo Anthony era – expires on June 30. The Denver Nuggets won 57 games and finished third in the Western Conference this season.
For Ujiri, this is a homecoming to a Raptors organization where he previously served as an assistant general manager before accepting the Denver Nuggets job in 2010.
With the Toronto Rapters, Ujiri, inherits a well-respected basketball executive in the front office.
Ujiri is also a director of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders Africa program, which promotes basketball throughout the African continent.