Raptors: Will Teresa Resch become the first female GM in NBA history?

After a few years of breaking glass ceilings, women are working their way into increasingly more prominent, powerful roles throughout the NBA and the broader professional sports landscape. The Toronto Raptors are no exception, with Masai Ujiri behind the hiring of 14 females among the team brass, chief among them Teresa Resch.

The current VP of basketball operations, Resch was among Ujiri’s first hires upon rejoining the organization in 2013, coming over from the league offices to serve as an intermediary between the club’s business and basketball ops.

“I knew she was talented, [but] I needed a woman in the front office because I was tired, tired of being in front offices where it was just men,” Ujiri told The Globe & Mail early last year. “We’ve got egos, we’ve got pride, we’ve got all kinds of stuff…I needed somebody to come and help me think, and think well, and think about diversity, and bringing people along.”

The former volleyball and basketball standout aided in the Raptors’ unprecedented rise to perennial contender status and, eventually, NBA champions. In a time where Resch has drawn greater media attention for her role in building a champion, women have made further inroads in the coaching and executive ranks.

Within the organization, Brittni Donaldson joined Nick Nurse’s staff last season as an assistant coach. Last November, the Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng as the first female GM in major North American pro sports.

Is Resch destined for the same groundbreaking path?

Could Toronto Raptors exec Teresa Resch be an NBA GM?

Becoming an NBA GM won’t come easy, even for a member of a title-winning front office. After all, there are only 30 such jobs in the world and a litany of hard-working, qualified candidates across the league. Ng, as an example, had spent 30 years climbing the ladder in MLB prior to her historic hiring in Miami.

In the NBA, specifically, there are a wide array of female candidates busy building an impressive GM resume, a prospect that offers encouragement but also highlights the competitive nature of some of the industry’s most coveted roles.

With Becky Hammon and Nancy Lieberman leading the gender equality push on the coaching side, rising star executives like the Washington Wizards’ Amber Nichols, the Indiana Pacers’ Kelly Krauskopf, and the Orlando Magic’s Becky Bonner are doing the same behind the scenes.

In addition, WNBA legends-turned-NBA-execs Swin Cash (New Orleans) and Sue Bird (formerly Denver) are making inroads in front offices.

To be clear, Resch’s success doesn’t have to coincide with the failure of any of her contemporaries. She does, however, need an open and available job. It’s entirely possible that such an opportunity ultimately presents itself outside of Toronto. However, the Raptors themselves may offer some interesting possibilities for Resch in the immediate future.

It may not look that way on first viewing. After all, GM Bobby Webster just inked a multi-year extension to remain in the role for the foreseeable future. Of course, Ujiri’s contract situation still remains unresolved, prompting plenty of speculation over his future.

Raptors fans understandably don’t want to envision a Raptors franchise without the beloved Ujiri, but what if Webster slides into the president’s role and a GM spot opens up? Looking strictly internally, assistant GM Dan Tolzman is probably the most logical successor to Webster’s role, but Resch wouldn’t be far behind.

Therein lies the conundrum. Ujiri hired Resch and has remained one of her staunchest advocates, but it’s entirely possible that her best hope for further upward movement comes if either he leaves or she does.

A GM job is incredibly difficult to achieve under any circumstances, and potentially being the first woman to do it makes the challenge all the more daunting. Resch has spent most of her professional career getting to know executives across the league, mastering both the business and operations sides of the game and under one of the very best executives in the league.

If anyone has earned a shot at a GM job, it’s her.

She’s put in the work, placed herself in a position to succeed, and now has just as good a shot as anyone at blazing a new, important trail for women in the NBA.