MLSE CEO Keith Pelley has called for a big change, forcing the Raptors on the hunt for a new leader in the 2025-26 season.

The franchise parted ways with longtime vice chairman and president Masai Ujiri on Friday, the team announced Friday.

The 54-year-old was reportedly entering the final year of his contract with the team, which would have been his 13th season in Toronto.

“Today is not an easy day, but change is never easy,” Pelley said during a press conference on Friday afternoon, according to Raptors Sportsnet reporter Michael Grange. “Masai Ujiri has had a monumental impact on the Raptors and our community … his legacy will be indelibly etched in our city in perpetuity.”

“With the evolution of where the Toronto Raptors are, in the middle of a rebuild, we felt the need to bring in a new president,” he added.

Pelley also said that Ujiri’s firing was his decision while supported by the board.

As the search for Ujiri’s replacement begins, the Raptors have held on to other front office personnel, including general manager Bobby Webster, who was given a contact extension prior to Ujiri’s departure.

However, the terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Webster will be interviewed for the new president role, Pelley said, but he warned not to expect a short list of candidates.

The decision comes just a day following the conclusion of the NBA Draft and only mere days before the start of free agency, which begins on Monday.

The timing, Pelley explained, was due to a conversation between him and Ujiri a month ago when the two decided “if there was a going to be change let it be after the draft” so as not to “disrupt” the process.

“Change is inevitable, and what we really thought is, with the current status of our team and the foundation that Masai has built, that this was the time to make the change,” Pelley said, per CP24. “The roster is in place. All our players are signed at the luxury tax limit. The front office is renewed, including General Manager, Bobby Webster, and we have great coaching stability led by Darko (Rajakovic).”

Ujiri began with the Raptors in 2013-14 and won the NBA’s Executive of the Year Award that year before he guided the franchise to its first and only NBA title in 2018-19.

The Raptors has struggled in recent seasons, finishing with a 30-52 mark last season to miss the playoffs for the third straight year.

A longtime favorite of Knicks owner James Dolan — they tried to poach him from Toronto in 2019 — Ujiri will likely attract plenty of attention as a free agent.

The Nigerian exec began his front office career as an international scout with the Magic in 2008 and won Executive of the Year honors in 2019.

Ujiri played college basketball for Bismarck State College, a junior college, and then went on to play for Montana State.

Following college, he had a brief career in Europe before landing his first off-the-court gig as a scout in 2002. He landed his first GM job with the Nuggets in 2011.