Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri to Win Executive of the Year Award

According to the Denver Post, Masai Ujiri will be awarded as the NBA’s top front-office exec today. Ujiri helped build a Nuggets roster that produced the best regular season in franchise history: “The passionate Ujiri will be rewarded for his work Thursday, when he is named the NBA executive of the year, a source said on Wednesday night. Ujiri, the first African-born general manager in major American sports, put together the Nuggets’ roster, a squad that won 57 games — the most in Denver’s NBA history. In 2010-11, Ujiri’s first season on the job, Carmelo Anthony forced the Nuggets to trade him to New York. Instead of blowing up the roster, Ujiri’s plan was to keep Denver competitive while building with young, affordable players. This season, many of those players on the Nuggets’ revamped roster finished in third place in the Western Conference. Ujiri said last season: ‘I sit in those GM meetings and look across the room — you see Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, all these guys who you’ve read about. Am I in awe? Honestly I am, because of the opportunity life has given me. Am I going to compete against those guys? (Heck) yes. That’s why I am among those 30 guys — to try to be better than them.'”