In a genuinely shocking bit of news from north of the border, Vice Chairman and President of the Toronto Raptors, Masai Ujiri, has reportedly been let go from his position.
Shams Charania of ESPN was the first to break the news that Ujiri would be leaving the team within hours of the completion of the 2025 NBA Draft – and with only three days remaining until the start of the next free agency window.
2019 Was Six Years Ago
Ujiri will be leaving the Raptors after twelve years at the helm, an uncharacteristically long time for a de facto NBA GM.
Following three years at the helm of the Denver Nuggets, Ujiri had rejoined the Raptors (with whom he had served two years as director of international scouting and assistant general manager between 2008 and 2010) in the summer of 2013. Having served more than a decade in the high-turnover role that is the main decision-maker in an NBA front office, Ujiri was the fourth longest-serving team president in the NBA, trailing only Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, Pat Riley of the Miami Heat, and Sam Presti of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Ujiri’s time leading the Raptors unmistakably peaked in the 2018-19 season. The line-up of Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, Danny Green, Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol, Jonas Valanciunas, Norman Powell, Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby, and coached by Nick Nurse, won the first title in Raptors franchise history – all of whom had been acquired by Ujiri.
Raptors Have Struggled Since Then
Since then, however, the Raptors have not been in title contention.
Having missed the playoffs in four of the last five years, and won only 55 games combined over the past two seasons, the halcyon days are increasingly far behind. None of the players on the title team remain, and although hope for the future exists in players such as Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Ochai Agbaji, Gradey Dick, Immanuel Quickley and 2025 #9 pick Collin Murray-Boyles, the Raptors have been lacking forward progress for some time.
Ujiri’s contract with the Raptors was set to expire after the 2025-26 season, and Marc Stein of The Stein Line had previously reported that the Atlanta Hawks had engaged with Ujiri last month about potentially joining them. Everything ends, eventually.
Nevertheless, the timing is still highly surprising. The fact that much of the front office decision-making had begun to be taking over by general manager Bobby Webster is relevant, but the optics of the decision remain. For a team to destabilize itself right before the insecurity and turnover of the summer signing period is almost unprecedented, and conveys a very emphatic if implicit message of dissatisfaction over how the team did on draft night – even if they were not.
Selecting Murray-Boyles out of South Carolina with the ninth overall pick in the first round, and Florida guard Alijah Martin in the second round a day later, was supposed to help the Raptors take the next step in their rebuild. As it turns out, however, they will be Ujiri’s last acts. If he even made them.
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