{"id":136766,"date":"2025-06-30T14:19:29","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/136766\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T14:19:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:19:29","slug":"why-masai-ujiri-was-out-as-vc-and-president-of-toronto-raptors-after-nba-draft-exploring-potential-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/136766\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Masai Ujiri was out as VC and President of Toronto Raptors after NBA Draft. Exploring potential reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Masai Ujiri on Thursday stepped down as the Vice Chairman and President of the Toronto Raptors, ESPN reported, citing sources. The report further added that Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and Ujiri have decided to part ways, as the executive was entering the final year of his contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Masai Masai Ujiri and Toronto Raptors have parted ways(X) <\/p>\n

This comes only hours after the NBA Draft concluded. Ujiri, who joined the Raptors in 2013 and signed a significant contract extension in 2021, was in the final year of his deal. His departure from a franchise he transformed into a global brand has sparked speculation about the reasons behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the Raptors or Ujiri have not issued a statement yet, we are listing potential reasons behind the massive move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More: Who is Jake Wolf? Danny Wolf’s brother goes viral after emotional reaction at NBA Draft. Watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Ownership and organizational changes at MLSE<\/p>\n

Ujiri\u2019s exit aligns with significant shifts at MLSE, the Raptors\u2019 parent company. In 2024, Bell Canada began selling its stake to Rogers Communications, giving Rogers majority control. This followed the departure of Brendan Shanahan as Toronto Maple Leafs president and Bill Manning as Toronto FC president, leaving Ujiri as MLSE\u2019s last team president.<\/p>\n

The restructuring, coupled with the exit of Larry Tanenbaum, a close ally who facilitated Ujiri\u2019s past deals, may have strained his position.<\/p>\n

Recent team performance<\/p>\n

The Raptors\u2019 lackluster performance post-2019 championship likely contributed. After a 30-52 record in 2024-25, marking three straight non-playoff seasons, Ujiri faced scrutiny over the team\u2019s direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More: Ace Bailey didn’t want to go to Utah Jazz, but they \u2018drafted him anyway\u2019: Report<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite successes like drafting Scottie Barnes (2021, No. 4) and trading for Brandon Ingram (2025), the Raptors remained ‘tweeners’\u2014neither contenders nor lottery-bound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other NBA teams?<\/p>\n

Ujiri\u2019s status as a sought-after executive may have influenced his departure. In May 2025, the Atlanta Hawks expressed interest in hiring him as president of basketball operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other teams, including the Washington Wizards and New York Knicks, previously pursued him with lucrative offers, some nearing $10 million annually with ownership equity.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Masai Ujiri on Thursday stepped down as the Vice Chairman and President of the Toronto Raptors, ESPN reported,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,4438,26849,6833,6,12,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-136766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-basketball-operations","10":"tag-maple-leaf-sports-entertainment","11":"tag-masai-ujiri","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-draft","14":"tag-raptors","15":"tag-toronto","16":"tag-toronto-raptors","17":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114772755373869007","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}