Masai UjiriBy Michael Clarke

BiographyMasai 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

CareerAfter 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

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

Toronto RaptorsDuring 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

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

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

Basketball without BordersHe 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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTwOBjZp1uM

Eric FreelandVice 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

QcueQcue 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

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