The Toronto Raptors have made it official. Bryan Colangelo is their new president and general manager.

The Raptors aimed for the top in hiring Colangelo, the NBA's 2005 executive of the year after the retooled Phoenix Suns won a league-high 62 games. The 40-year-old Colangelo spent 17 years with the Suns, the past 11 as general manager. In the 2004 off-season, he lured Canadian guard Steve Nash away from Dallas, and Nash went on to earn Most Valuable Player honours that season.

"I'm ready to branch out," Colangelo said during a news conference Tuesday. "I've got 15 very good years behind me with respect to what's gone on in Phoenix and my participation there . . . This is just the next step in what I hope to be a long and fortuitous career."

Colangelo steps into a favourable situation in Toronto. He will have salary cap room, roster spots, a good draft pick and a budding young star in Chris Bosh.

"There's just so many positive things about the opportunity that Wayne (interim GM and team adviser Wayne Embry) has established in terms of the cap flexibility and the ability to look at free agency in a different light and perhaps explore trade opportunities to acquire the necessary pieces," said Colangelo. "It's not unlike a team we had in Phoenix a couple years ago."

If the Toronto Raptors' efforts to coax Bryan Colangelo from the Phoenix Suns as their new president and general manager have been successful, they'll likely find out this morning.

Sources in Phoenix said the month-long courtship between the club and the National Basketball Association executive of the year has been completed, and it's up to Colangelo to choose.

"I can't imagine this going on beyond [Monday] morning," a source close to the Suns' executive told The Globe and Mail last night. "I anticipate that there's going to be a resolution."

According to a Raptors source: "It's a real tough decision and it's Bryan's to make, one way or the other."

Sources said that Colangelo was in communication with both Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum and the Raptors' interim general manager, Wayne Embry, a close family friend of Colangelo, over the weekend as the Suns' imposed deadline of tomorrow looms nearer.

Though his old Celtics team is one potential suitor, especially with Danny Ainge set in the offseason to go looking for a second or third scoring option to complement Paul Pierce and Wally Szczerbiak, Mike James wants to remain a Raptor.

?They?ve shown that they like me, and want me,? he said. ?I would really like to go back.?

At a price, of course. James is reportedly looking for better than mid-level money - $6 million or more.

But Toronto made its first show of faith by not dealing James at Thursday?s trading deadline, at a time when the guard and his expiring contract was in heavy demand.

?We?re trying to find a way to keep him here,? said coach Sam Mitchell, who is not an easy man to please.

The NBA's reigning executive of the year is expected to decide in the next day or so whether he will become the new president and general manager of the Toronto Raptors, and no one will be watching more closely than head coach Sam Mitchell.

Bryan Colangelo, the current president and GM of the Phoenix Suns, declined to discuss the Toronto job when contacted at his office yesterday.

"I hope you appreciate the situation, but I'm not in a position to discuss anything," Colangelo said, neither confirming nor denying that he's had talks with the Raptors. "It's a particularly sensitive area right now."

According to a Phoenix source, Colangelo is expected to decide by the end of this weekend whether to pursue the Raptors' position or remain with the Suns.

For the past several days, rumors have been circulating around the NBA was that the Bucks were considering dealing veteran center Jamaal Magloire, whose contract expires after next season and who is expected to seek a "max'' deal.

But GM Larry Harris denied he had any trade talks involving Magloire, specifically with the Toronto Raptors. Magloire is a native of Toronto and has publicly acknolwedged he wouldn't mind playing for the Raptors.

According to sources in Toronto, Raptors management is ?excited and optimistic? that Bryan Colangelo will soon become their team?s next president and general manager.

An aggreement could be in place as soon as Friday ? but Suns managing partner Robert Sarver says he will attempt to keep Colangelo in Phoenix.

Two sources said when Colangelo first told Sarver of Toronto?s interest, the Suns owner lost his temper and told Colangelo to get out of his office. Later, the sources said, Sarver told Colangelo he wasn?t interested in a contract extension and granted Colangelo?s request to talk to the Raptors.

Steve Kerr has been the most common name thrown out as a logical replacement, but it appears that the former sharpshooter isn't interested in the position.

Eric Williams has made it no secret that he desperately wants the Raptors to send him elsewhere while Mike James is hoping the team decides not to trade him.

"Definitely (I want to stay)," James said on Tuesday night. "It's hard when you get traded in the middle of a season, you've got to learn a new system, you have to figure out new faces ... that's not an easy thing to do. I wouldn't mind spending the rest of the season here."

Raptors management faces a tough decision concerning James. If they trade him, they get something in return, but he could leave via free agency for nothing this summer.

Since Robert Sarver purchased the team in 2004 with Bryan Colangelo getting his own stake, there was talk of Suns management committee member Steve Kerr (an investor and consultant) becoming GM.

If Colangelo were to leave for Toronto, Sarver could have Assistant General Manager David Griffin assume the duties. Griffin has been at Colangelo's side for the recent years' roster retooling. Sarver could use a committee or ask Kerr, who many feel would decline, to take over or help pick a successor for next season.

While in town for All-Star weekend with his family, Suns president and general manager Bryan Colangelo met with representatives from the Toronto Raptors about their vacant general manager job, sources told the Tribune Sunday.

Reached at the All-Star game Sunday night, Colangelo again refused any comment regarding Toronto or anything about his job future other than to reiterate ?I am under contract with the Phoenix Suns and that is where my heart and focus remains.?

Colangelo, who won the executive of the year award in the NBA last year and has been mentioned as a strong candidate to repeat after revamping the team again this year, is in the midst of a threeyear contract that expires at the end of next season.

Reports earlier this month have had Colangelo at the top of Toronto?s list since Rob Babcock was fired in January and Wayne Embry was installed as an interim GM.

Basketball's Dennis Rodman says he wants to return to the NBA at age 44.

Rodman is playing in England these days and told reporters there that the Portland Trail Blazers and the Toronto Raptors offered him tryouts.

The Blazers told The Associated Press today they have no interest in Rodman.

Rodman has just completed a three-game stint with the Brighton Bears of the British Basketball League.