Glen Grunwald helped build the Toronto Raptors basically from scratch and then helped save the franchise in its darkest hours, guiding the team from its worst season to a measure of respectability.

He helped bring a level of success to the woebegone New York Knicks, joining forces with Donnie Walsh to build a 54-win team. The last time the Knicks won 50 games, before or since, was 1999-2000.

Challenges? The 60-year-old Grunwald knows challenges better than most, he accepts them and gets past them. And now he is ready to take on another one.

The universally-respected long-time NBA executive, lawyer and sports administrator is the new president and chief executive officer of Canada Basketball.

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It will be a difficult job with difficult waters to navigate for the Chicago native and Burlington resident. Grunwald will take over Oct. 1.

While parts of the program are enjoying unprecedented global success on the court, the biggest job at hand will be to help restore the marquee senior men’s program to a level of worldwide respectability while dealing with serious financial challenges that all of his predecessors have tried to figure out.

It’s not that Canada Basketball is broke or teetering on financial ruin but new revenue streams are needed.

Calling Grunwald’s hiring a “transformative moment for basketball in Canada,” board co-chairman John Mills lauded the new CEO’s depth of experience.

“An experienced basketball and business leader, Glen has worked at the sport’s highest levels and welcomes the challenge to win World Cup and Olympic medals,” Mills said in a news release.

Grunwald comes aboard at a pivotal time for the senior men’s program which, rightly or wrongly, remains the team most associated with Canada Basketball.

The men have not qualified for a FIBA world championship since 2010 and last played in the Olympics in 2000, which has been a blow to many fundraising opportunities.

If the men can finally seize a moment and qualify for the 2019 World Cup, it will give Grunwald something to sell to prospective donors and sponsors. If not, years could pass — as they have since 2010 — with no way to capitalize on success.

The women, by contrast, have been in the top eight at the last two Olympics and were fifth in the world in 2014, all of which enhances the organization’s bottom line greatly through funding avenues tied to success.

“This is an exciting time for the sport in our country and I look forward to working with the entire basketball community to continue the tremendous progress the sport has made here at all levels,” Grunwald said in a release. He was dealing with a family matter Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

“We’re ready to show the world this country’s potential, promise and power as a basketball nation.”

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There is no denying the possibility of Canada becoming a power on the court. The women are ranked fifth in the world, the junior men won a world championship in 2017, and the junior women were third in their worlds the same summer.

It is on the financial side that the majority of the work has to be done. Canada Basketball has a handful of national sponsors who keep the organization afloat but there’s always a need for more and Grunwald will have to discover untapped resources.

Grunwald, who was the president of the Toronto Board of Trade in between NBA gigs, has an unquestionable basketball pedigree to handle that side of the job. His work in Toronto and New York is well-documented, he was just hired as a consultant by the Memphis Grizzlies (the NBA and the Grizzlies signed off on the Canada Basketball appointment) and he could become a Canadian version of Jerry Colangelo, who revitalized the United States senior program as its managing director.