Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman and President, Masai Ujiri has tested positive for COVID-19 and has entered the league's coronavirus protocol effective immediately. As president, Ujiri is famous for helping Toronto win its first NBA championship in 2019, but his days in NBA basketball operations go back almost 20 years.
He first became a scout in 2002 for the Orlando Magic and eventually, in 2008, he joined the Toronto Raptors. Ujiri left for the Denver Nuggets in 2010 to get his first general manager job and helped return the Nuggets to the playoffs. Ujiri eventually returned to the Raptors as their general manager.
Ujiri says in the statement that he was at a Giants of Africa in-person event that the team had sanctioned, and even though everyone showed proof of vaccination, there was still an outbreak of COVID-19. Ujiri was one of the members of the event who subsequently tested positive, and is now self-isolating at home for the mandatory ten days per NBA-NBPA rules. He says he is monitoring all symptoms and urges all others who attended the gathering to also do so.
Uriji was also an international basketball player for many years, playing in England, Finland, and Denmark. He was named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2013. If the Raptors are forced to be without him for ten days, at least they can be happy about the fact that it is happening relatively early in the Raptors season. The team from North of the border has played to a very disappointing 11-14 record so far in 2021 and is currently in last place in Eastern Conference's Atlantic Division.