The Toronto Raptors have extended Bobby Webster’s contract as general manager and will not replace Masai Ujiri as president for the time being, the team announced Monday. Webster has been with the club since 2013.
The president position became open the day after the draft in June, when Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Raptors, along with other teams and properties in Toronto, announced the firing of Ujiri. MLSE CEO Keith Pelley said Webster would be a candidate to take over the president’s job on the day of the firing, but the club also partnered with CAA Executive Search to look for its next leader.
Despite the lack of title changes, the job will essentially be Webster’s.
“To me, there’s 30 of these jobs in the NBA, but this one, to me, is one of one, for all the reasons: The platform you have here, the opportunity we have with Canada, with Canada Basketball, with all the kids growing up in Canada playing,” Webster said on a call with local reporters on Monday.
“I just really think that there’s not a more unique basketball job in the world.”
Webster added that the lack of a title change did not bother him, but that the responsibilities, which will include more frequent direct communication with MLSE’s ownership as well as Pelley, are what matter to him.
Webster said there was no tension between him and Ujiri as he campaigned for his former boss’s job.
“We have a long relationship and we’ve been through a lot, so no awkwardness there,” Webster said.
While other candidates, such as former Golden State Warriors president and general manager Bob Myers, Indiana Pacers president Kevin Pritchard and former Raptors coach Dwane Casey emerged, Webster, 40, was always the favorite for the job. Webster was already doing much of the daily work while Ujiri was still in place, and is generally respected around the NBA for his dealmaking and knowledge of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
“Going through this comprehensive process this summer and meeting with external candidates played a critical role in arriving at this decision as it made clear that we already have the right person leading the Raptors in-house,” Pelley said in a team statement. “When we weighed the many considerations, including roster construction, team culture and competitive landscape, it made perfect sense to officially hand the team to Bobby and give him the time and support to allow his plan to develop.
“After spending time together this summer in Las Vegas, I was very impressed by Bobby’s leadership style, his rapport with the players and staff, his reputation with his peers across the league and — especially and importantly — his vision for the Raptors. This team is his, now, to lead and I know we all look forward to what comes next.”
Webster came to the Raptors as vice president of basketball management and strategy, with Ujiri hiring him away from the league to become his third in command. He became general manager in 2017, when Jeff Weltman left the Raptors to become the president of the Orlando Magic. When Ujiri was let go, Pelley made it a point to say Webster would remain in place and provide stability for the organization throughout the offseason.
It was a fairly quiet offseason for the Raptors, whose biggest moves were to select Collin Murray-Boyles with the ninth pick of the draft and agree to a three-year contract extension with center Jakob Poeltl. The Raptors, coming off an 11th-place finish in the Eastern Conference, project to be slightly over the luxury tax threshold to start the season
“Probably like most of you on this call, I grew up playing basketball as a small kid,” Webster said. “To have it lead all the way here is in many ways sort of unbelievable. True to me, I try not to think too seriously about it.”
Webster added he would consider making changes to the composition of the front office, but there are no firm plans or mandate to do so. Dan Tolzman, who has been one of the leaders of the draft process since Ujiri’s hiring, and Keith Boyarsky, the head of the club’s analytics department, are among those who remain with the Raptors.
The Raptors hired Ujiri as president in 2013, shortly after he was named Executive of the Year with the Denver Nuggets, and he went on to lead the Raptors to a playoff berth in each of his first seven years on the job, including the team’s lone championship in 2019. He became one of the highest-paid executives in 2021, a negotiation that upset Edward Rogers, the executive chair of Rogers Communications, then a minority partner in MLSE, which became the majority owner of the organization earlier this year.
While Ujiri consistently downplayed the friction in his relationship with Rogers, the idea that Ujiri would stay in place well into the ownership change seemed unlikely.
(Photo: Mert Alper Derv / Anadolu via Getty Images)