Say this for Masai Ujiri: The man knows how to lay down a gauntlet.
Years ago, in the early days of his eight-year tenure as team president, Ujiri earned social-media fame, not to mention NBA fines, for twice preluding playoff series with profane public rallying cries that spoke to his hypercompetitive swagger.
On Wednesday, in the wake of his first playoff-less season in Toronto, Ujiri fired off a not-so-subtle challenge to his team’s ownership group. Signing him, he insisted, won’t simply be about the money he’ll be paid. Because the money — and negotiations figure to start around $12 million annually, a cool million U.