When the Toronto Raptors announced the multi-year extension of Masai Ujiri as team president and subsequent promotion to general manager for Jeff Weltman just before the Labour Day weekend there was much head scratching.
Why is Ujiri giving up his role as GM? Does this mean he won’t be the team’s chief basketball decision-maker? Is Weltman just a GM in title only and Ujiri’s the one who’s actually still calling the shots?
These were all questions asked in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, and as it turns out although he will be leaning on his new GM along with assistant GM Bobby Webster a great deal, when it comes to the personnel decisions, it’s still Ujiri’s call.
“At the end of the day Masai is the guy who has to decide the direction,” said Weltman on Sportsnet 590 the FAN’s Prime Time Sports on Tuesday.
Ujiri may have final say, but the way the Raptors president has constructed the workflow is to allow his entire team a say on matters and he makes the final call.
“I think that the way Masai has set this thing up is for it to be a very collaborative means of work, and so we all go at each other and we don’t hold back. We come out and make decisions that we’re all unified on and this permeates throughout the whole organization.
“At the end of the day Masai’s name is on the decision and so he’s got to feel that he’s getting the best out of all of us and that includes arguments and challenges and everything else that comes with that.”
Despite what would normally be a power struggle between the president and GM, Weltman is comfortable with Ujiri making the executive decision, because he’s not too caught up in his new title.
“We spend a lot of time talking about titles and I think it really more has to do with personality and fit,” Weltman said.
“The titles will alter or change or be reflected differently from organization to organization, maybe sport to sport, but really what’s more important is the chemistry and the personality of the leader and how he wants to set up the process.”
Weltman also doesn’t foresee problems as he and Ujiri are very much on the same page.
“We definitely have differences of opinion of maybe item by item, but certainly not in overarching philosophy or else I wouldn’t be here.”
You can listen to Weltman’s entire appearance on Prime Time Sports here.
