On Friday, the Toronto Raptors decided to relieve Masai Ujiri as the Raptors’ President after 12 long years. His biggest moment was bringing the 2019 NBA Championship home to Toronto for the first time. Ujiri has been one of the league’s top executives for a long time, but the Raptors, with new ownership, have been making wholesale changes with the front office so far this offseason. It was only a matter of time before he was going to be affected. Ujiri’s contract was going to expire soon anyway, as he was entering the final year of his contract. Here’s a reflection of Ujiri’s run as a Raptors executive.
Ujiri’s Career with Toronto
The 2010s Raptors were among the top teams in the Eastern Conference for years, thanks to Ujiri’s ability to build winning rosters for years. His greatest achievement was the Kawhi Leonard trade in the Fall of 2018. The fact that he was willing to make the sacrifice of getting rid of DeMar DeRozan, who was the Star of that mid-2010s Raptors era, for a one-year rental in Leonard took a lot of guts to pull off.
The Raptors made that move pay off by winning the Championship that season. After that championship, though, it’s been a different story. The Raptors have regressed to one of the worst teams in the league in a matter of six years. The Raptors did have a slight bounce back in 2024-25; however, it wasn’t enough to save Ujiri’s job in the end.
Final Thoughts
Masai Ujiri is still one of the top executives based on his resume, so he can get any job he wants if he wants another job. So it will be an interesting situation to keep tabs on these next few months to see if he wants to be an executive for another team down the road, as he will be hired quickly if he does. The Raptors will be starting the movement to replace their long-time executive soon enough to start the new era of the Raptors. Total Apex Sports has more NBA Stories like this all over the site, and we will be busy next week with Free Agency.
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