2. Masai Ujiri was born in 1970 in England. His
family moved to Nigeria when he was two.
He first started to play basketball when he was
13 and fell in love with it after watching Hakeem
Olajuwon
He went on to play college basketball at Bismark
State College and Montana State University-
Billings
After college he played professionally for six
years in Europe
3. After playing professionally he decided he
wanted to work in an NBA front office
He moved to Washington and would attend
college games and camps to connect with
college coaches
John Gabriel, the GM of the Magic, gave Ujiri
unpaid scouting assignments
A year later the Nuggets hired him to be an
international scout
4. In 2006, the Raptors hired him and a year
later he became the assistant general
manager
He was then hired back by the Nuggets as
General Manager in 2010
He became the first African born GM in the
history of North American sports
His first big move was trading Carmelo
Anthony to the Knicks in a 12 player deal
Despite the trade, the Nuggets finished third
in the Western Conference two seasons later
and Ujiri was named the 2013 NBA executive
of the year
5. During Ujiri’s tenure in Denver the team
compiled a record of 145-85 and set a team
record for wins in a season
He was hired to be the General Manager of
the Toronto Raptors in May 2013
In his first season, Ujiri tansformed the
Raptors into a playoff team
The team improved by 14 wins from the
previous season and made the playoffs for
the first time in six years
6. Ujiri wanted to be a general manager after
he realized that his playing career was not
working out
Ujiri said he is constantly on his phone
checking emails looking at scouting reports
and making sure to stay in touch with
colleagues
Ujiri says that it is important to dream about
your goals because it will make you work
harder to achieve them
Ujiri says honesty and trust are the two most
important characteristics that he values
7. He tries to be completely honest with his
players. He feels that this creates a trust
between him and the player and helps build
stronger bonds within the organization and
results in more wins
He also stresses the importance of family.
He says that if it weren’t for the support from
his family he would not have been able to
survive as an unpaid scout
He says he is constantly working and never
has off. When he is not working on the
Raptors he is working on Basketball without
Borders and he feels a greater responsibility
for that
8. He is the founder of the Giants of Africa
Foundation which has camps all over Africa
He has served as the director of the NBA’s
Basketball without Borders program since 2002
Ujiri has said that he doesn’t feel any pressure
as a GM but he does feel pressure to give back
to Africa and create opportunities for young
African kids
He believes the talent in the NBA will increase
with the rise of kids playing the game
internationally
10. Vice President of business development at
Qcue
He was previously the manager of business
development at Stubhub
At Stubhub he was responsible for the first
sponsorships between Stubhub and
professional sports teams
He graduated Vanderbilt in 2000 and now
resides in San Francisco
11. Qcue is a computer software company that
offers different time-based pricing for tickets
depending on the demand of the game
It was originally started for concerts but the
main function of the company is sports
events
The San Francisco Giants were the first
team to work with Qcue to offer time-based
pricing
Qcue has 15 MLB clients, 3 NBA clients, and
several NHL clients
12. Freeland says he would like teams to realize
the importance of their fan base more
He says that he is always trying to learn
about new software and new technology
The company he most admires is Google
and he wants Qcue to replicate Google’s
creativity
Freeland founded LuckyBolt six months ago
LuckyBolt is a company that delivers healthy
food at a discounted price
