President of Toronto Raptors, Masai Ujiri, has been conferred with a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by the University of Toronto.
The former D’Tigers player was honoured for his achievements as an NBA team president and a humanitarian committed to meaningful social change.
He was presented with the award last Friday.
Masai is currently involved in building 100 standard basketball courts across the continent of Africa. The first set of the courts were fully developed and handed over to communities and schools across Africa in the last quarter of 2021.
The project being handled through the Giant of Africa Foundation which he co-founded has donated courts in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Rwanda and Senegal between September and May 2022.
In the last few weeks Ujiri played a prominent role in getting the Nigerian government to reverse a decision that would have kept the country out international basketball for at least two years.
Born in the U.K., Ujiri spent his childhood in Nigeria. He and his peers played soccer, but Ujiri used to pass a basketball court on the way to school and would often stop to shoot a few hoops – with a soccer ball. “I fell in love with the game,” he told GQ magazine. “I was more talented in soccer, but the game of basketball – it just blew me away.”
By the early 2000s, Ujiri decided he wanted to stay in basketball, but not as a player. He coached the junior Nigerian national team and caught the eye of the NBA’s Orlando Magic, becoming an (unpaid) international scout.
He was lured to the Denver Nuggets with a paid position and, over the next several years, worked in increasingly senior jobs for Denver and the Toronto Raptors before being named the Raptors’ president and general manager in 2013. He was the first African to lead a North American major-league sports team – a distinction that Ujiri struggles with. “I don’t want to be the only one. I hate that,” he told CNN. “It’s fine, being the first – I have a problem with being the only one.”
In his senior role, Ujiri says it’s his responsibility to promote diversity. “We have to give more Black people opportunity in our own institutions and organizations,” he said in the CNN interview. “It’s not only ‘hire an intern’ or ‘hire a diversity and inclusion officer.’ We have to be in positions where decisions are being made.” He has also advocated for a more prominent management role for women in professional basketball and the business world.
As a leader, Ujiri is known for his exceptional ability to spot talent. In Toronto, he took a team not known for winning and turned it into a playoff contender. In 2019, the Raptors earned their first NBA championship title in their 24-year franchise history – a testament to Ujiri’s skills as president, but also to his passion for the game. “We all want to be ambitious, but passion will lead you to incredible places,” he said in the GQ interview. “I will serve (the game) with every last breath in my body, with all the blood in my body. I believe in [it] that much.”
In 2003, Ujiri founded Giants of Africa, a non-profit basketball camp active in 10 African countries that aims to give young players – both boys and girls – the skills to compete at an international level.
