Former Raptors president Masai Ujiri has joined the Toronto Tempo ownership group alongside Larry Tanenbaum and launched Tempo Rising, a global coaching mentorship program.
Former Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri has joined the ownership group of the Toronto Tempo, ahead of the organization's inaugural WNBA season.
Ujiri is joining the group led by Larry Tanenbaum, the same partnership that delivered Toronto its only NBA championship in 2019. The announcement also features the launch of Tempo Rising, a global coaching mentorship program developed with the franchise.
"I think women's sports is growing in an incredible way," Ujiri told ESPN. "You see it in the WNBA, in soccer, in hockey, and to bring a brand like this for the first time to a city that I know, a beautiful city that's passionate, that I believe in — I think this will really resonate. Ownership is a unique opportunity for me and my family."
Since parting ways with the Raptors, Ujiri, who grew up in Nigeria, has focused on his Giants of Africa initiative, work with the United Nations, and the Zaria Group. The group is an organization focused on developing sports and entertainment infrastructure across Africa, including a sports city in Rwanda, with additional facilities set to open in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Mauritania.
He believes his time away from the Raptors has offered a rare but meaningful reset, allowing him to focus on his family and continue his off-court mission before jumping back into a high-pressure responsibility.
"I went from having a driver for 12 years because I'm always on the phone, to now being an Uber driver for my kids," Ujiri said.
Despite stepping away from the NBA, Ujiri said he has remained a close student of the game and is motivated to return to league basketball when the right opportunity presents itself. He said a championship-caliber hunger still drives him, in part because an incident during the Raptors' 2019 title celebration left the moment feeling incomplete.
"One of my main goals is to win another championship," he said. "I want to win with the Tempo, and I want to win another NBA championship because I wasn't able to celebrate and be happy because of that police incident that happened to me."
Ujiri was referencing a confrontation in which a San Francisco-area sheriff's deputy blocked him from reaching the court to celebrate Toronto's title at Oracle Arena.
He will work alongside Tempo president Teresa Resch and general manager Monica Wright Rogers, both of whom have longstanding ties to Ujiri.