Masai Ujiri, Nigerian-Canadian basketball manager, bags honorary doctorate degree from Toronto varsity (Photo credit: University of Toronto)
BY Afolabi Gambari
Masai Ujiri, the vice-chairman and president of Toronto Raptors, has been awarded a Doctor of Laws honoris causa by the University of Toronto.
The feat followed his heroics which inspired the Raptors’ first NBA championship title.
Ujiri is a top manager in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA is the world’s premier men’s professional basketball league in North America.
The 51-year-old Nigerian-Canadian professional basketball executive and former player is renowned for his contributions to the development of basketball in the country and Africa.
Ujiri is currently involved in building 100 standard basketball courts across Africa through the Giant of Africa Foundation which he co-founded.
The first set of the courts have been fully developed and handed over to communities and schools across the continent in the last quarter of 2021.
The foundation has donated courts in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda and Senegal between September 2021 and May this year.
Ujiri was also among top figures who earlier this month urged the federal government to reverse its decision to withdraw the country from international basketball.
The Nigerian was the first African to lead a North American major-league sports team after being named the Raptors’ president and general manager in 2013.
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