Barack Obama, former U.S. president, has joined the Washington Wizards' recruiting campaign to lure Masai Ujiri away from the Toronto Raptors, where he is currently president of basketball operations, according to The Athletic's Ethan Strauss.

"I hear Barack Obama's a part of that whole Masai recruitment to DC," said Strauss on a recent episode of the "Back to Back" podcast.

Obama and Ujiri are close friends. The former president was at Game 2 of the 2019 NBA Finals at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto while Ujiri attended a White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2015 when Obama was in office.

It's no secret that the Wizards want Ujiri to help them find a way out their dilemma. The team is a mess. The team paid over 124 million U.S. dollars in salaries last season, but finished with a 32-50 record, and were knocked out of the playoffs early. Moreover, the team's No.1 player John Wall suffered a ruptured left Achilles tendon during his recovery from left knee surgery and will not play for another year while his four-year, 170-million-U.S.-dollar deal begins to take effect. Ironically, the Wizards actually did better without Wall.

Ujiri can be a savior in the eyes of Washington. He spent three years in Denver building the Nuggets into the 57-win No.3 team in the Western Conference in the 2012-13 season, which also earned him NBA Executive of the Year. Since then he joined the Raptors and in six years made the franchise a championship team by getting Kawhi Leonard, Marc Gasol and Pascal Siakam. It's safe to say that Ujiri is one of the best basketball executives in today's NBA.

According to NBC Sports, the Wizards are offering a six-year, 60-million-U.S. dollar deal to Ujiri which may also include an ownership stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment and other responsibilities within the company. Will he say yes to former U.S. president and take the new challenge in the capital?