With rare exception, every sports enthusiast has that moment of realization they won’t someday become a professional athlete.

Bobby Webster knows when it happened for him.

“Probably at ‘Iolani,” the Toronto Raptors general manager said with a laugh.

Webster, a Kailua native who this summer became the youngest GM in the NBA, has taken his work home with him. The Raptors are in town to play the Los Angeles Clippers in preseason exhibitions today (4 p.m.) and Tuesday (7 p.m.) at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The 33-year-old took a moment to reflect on his Raiders roots as he stood on the concourse level of the Sheriff on Saturday, wearing a bright red Raptors shirt. It’s a place he’s watched plenty of basketball over the years, first as a fan — like when Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Jeff McInnis and North Carolina came to play UH in 1994. In recent years, he’s scouted the Diamond Head Classic to find future pros for a Raptors coaching staff, which, as fate has it, includes Stackhouse as an assistant.

Webster didn’t start the discussion to bring the NBA’s only Canadian franchise to Honolulu for the first time, but he did help seal the deal.

“I think more than anything it’s being proud to be from here,” he said. “I want people to feel good about coming here, feel the aloha spirit, which undoubtedly they will. I want people to walk away and say, ‘Wow, that was a really cool experience.’ ”

Hawaii holds a special place in the heart of the 2002 ‘Iolani graduate, especially given how far flung he is. Toronto is in the Eastern time zone and sports the motto “We The North.” He tries to get back once a year.

Webster was a key member of ‘Iolani’s supporting cast, a reliable third option as stars Derrick Low and Bobby Nash led the way to a state championship his senior year. He was also an excellent student of the game with a mind for teamwork.

“ ‘Iolani obviously being incredibly rigorous academically, and then our basketball team having some success … there wasn’t a lot of time for anything else,” Webster said. “I think back, it’s probably shaped me and helped me in a lot of ways for a job like this where there’s not a lot of time, either.”

Webster and his childhood friends on the Windward side were in the minority in that almost all of their free time was spent on a basketball court. The biggest worry back then was finding a ride over the Pali.

“Basketball was a big thing at least in our world, in our minds,” he said.

Years later he’d discover he has a mind for salary-cap rules and the collective bargaining agreement, which helped the UC Santa Barbara graduate move up in the NBA league office in New York. He latched on with Masai Ujiri (now team president) in Toronto and was promoted from assistant GM this summer.

He naturally assumes a low profile, and in other circumstances he might’ve blended right into a crowd in his home state. But not now, not with a bunch of 7-footers and a throng of TV cameras in tow. His duties have expanded to include host and tour guide, to stops like Kailua Beach, the Lanikai pillboxes and Helena’s Hawaiian Food.

Webster’s biggest decisions this offseason were to bring back point guard Kyle Lowry and forward Serge Ibaka, who comprise Toronto’s core along with guard DeMar DeRozan. It’s the same kind of moves Webster had a say in before, but now with increased weight and pressure.

The Raptors won 51 games last season and were eliminated by Cleveland for the second straight year. They see themselves figuring into the East race again with Boston, Cleveland and Washington.

Raptors coach Dwane Casey is a big Webster backer.

“I told him, ‘I’m jealous. I don’t know why (you) would move to Toronto and leave this,’ ” Casey said. “But he’s a great addition and he’s a bright star in the NBA.

“He’s a breath of fresh air. He’s smart, he’s energetic. He’s always around, he’s a wealth of knowledge from breaking into the league. He knows the cap inside out. He’s a huge addition to our organization.”

Today is the first 2017-18 preseason game for both the Raptors and Clippers, with the Raptors a mild favorite. The Sheriff crowd will include at least 10 or 15 of Webster’s old friends, and, he hopes, a legion of new Raptors fans.