Nigeria and Africa’s highest sports franchise Executive, Masai Ujiri, made the latest list of Time Magazine’s100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026.
The list also includes the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, lady golfer Nelly Korda, NBA star Stephen Curry, and 19-year-old Formula One driver Kimi Antonelli. There is also Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and women’s number one tennis player Aryna Sabalenka, amongst others.
The Timepublication released on Tuesday, June 9 reads, “In May, less than two months after Masai Ujiri joined the ownership group of the WNBA expansion franchise, the Toronto Tempo, the Dallas Mavericks named him their new president, the latest stop for one of the most admired executives in sports.
“He’s tasked with surrounding 2026 NBA Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg, who is still just 19, with championship-level talent. “We have a little prince here. Now we’re going to turn him into a king,” Ujiri said in his introductory press conference.
“Ujiri, who was born in England and raised in Nigeria, is still the only non-American to win the NBA’s Executive of the Year award: he was given that honor in 2013 as general manager of the Denver Nuggets. That year, Ujiri took over the Toronto Raptors and began a bold run.
“Before the 2018-2019 season, he traded one of the franchise’s most popular players, DeMar DeRozan, to acquire Kawhi Leonard, who was in the final year of his contract and unlikely to stay in Canada beyond one season. The gamble paid off, as the Raptors won the championship.
“As the former director of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders programme in Africa and co-founder of Zaria Group, a firm that develops sports infrastructure projects there, Ujiri has been instrumental in expanding sports throughout the continent. Last year, he was named a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals advocate, giving him a powerful platform to promote global impact through sports.”
He’s also co-founder of Giants of Africa basketball initiative that has built 50 basketball courts across the continent. Their target if to construct 100 courts in Africa.
