Game Changer

Bob Whitsitt has been called the “most influential figure in Northwest professional sports” by Washington CEO magazine and “one of professional sports’ sharpest executives” by the Seattle Times. In seventeen seasons as an NBA president and general manager, “Trader Bob” built teams that made the playoffs sixteen times. He was selected NBA Executive of the Year for transforming the Seattle SuperSonics from a nonplayoff team into the team with the best record in the NBA. In nine years as president and general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, he built teams that averaged fifty wins per season and he played a key role in the successful completion of the Rose Garden arena. President of the Seattle Seahawks from 1997 through the beginning of 2005, he negotiated the acquisition of the team for Paul Allen and led a successful statewide referendum that secured $300 million in public funding for the Seahawks’ new football and soccer stadium and exhibition center. Whitsitt is a sports business consultant and attorney. He and his wife, Jan, have lived in the Seattle area for the past thirty-seven years.