The growing sense of unease with Masai Ujiri and his alleged “inactivity” during the first four days of NBA free agency – and I suppose lots of people have somehow forgotten he got DeMar done in a couple of hours at a price that may save him a few bucks – is real.

And so unnecessary and unfounded it basically makes a guy laugh and want to turn off the social media-ometers every day.

If there’s one thing everyone should know about Masai it’s that he works at his own deliberate pace, you can trust me when I say he’s having all kinds of different conversations because he knows there is work to. But he is not going to be rushed and he’s certainly not going to react to anything we write or you say.

Something will happen, and it will likely happen seemingly out of nowhere but the work is going on.

And here’s something to also consider:

I don’t know how many of us wrote it or who paid attention to it if and when we did but Masai knowingly spent a lot of his 2016 money in 2015 and, I’m telling you, that’s like the sale of Manhattan it’s so one sided.

Imagine in this financial atmosphere if he had to deal with restricted free agents Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross.

He would 1,000,000 per cent have to match a maximum value contract for Valanciunas because 24-year-old improving 7-foot centres don’t grow on trees and a Raptors team that’s in a win-now mode couldn’t let him go.

So the $64 million extension was, frankly, a chunk of this summer’s money spent then because it’s now on the books.

And how about Ross?

If you look at the money being thrown around – Hi, Biz and your $72 million deal and, hey, Evan Turner and your $70 million deal – I am absolutely certain Ross would be looking at something stupid like four years and $76 million and then what would Masai do?

Tie up that long-term money or let an asset – and Ross is an asset that has significant value – go for nothing.

All of a sudden, dipping into the 2016 reserves in October 2015 to lock the kid up at $10 million a year for three years might be the wisest money he’s spent, even if it somewhat limited what he’s been able to do these last five days.

This not so much a glowing homage to Masai as it is a plea for some calm from the masses because, as my late father used to tell us all the time, slow and steady wins the race.

And sometimes the big picture doesn’t come into focus because of our collective laser-like emphasis on today and an attention span that rivals that of a gnat, which I presume is pretty short because gnats are tiny.

Sure, other teams have made moves and some of them are intriguing and might be something next winter. But it’s so silly early in the process that there truly is no reason to get worked up.

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Apparently Paul first met John today on July 6 so …

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Yeah, it’s about that time in the week, right?

No holidays this week, no 4 a.m. wakeups to do DeRozan stuff so I’m guessing the mail gets done as it has in the past.

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That means you’ve all got to start thinking now about and get your stuff together for askdoug@thestar.ca.

You know you want to.

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Happy Eid Mubarak to all of you celebrating today.

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So, except for all my dear friends with ties to Portugal – and you know who you are – Wales has to be the sentimental favourite in the Euros semifinal this afternoon, right?

Even though I basically went with the chalk for the two semis and the final (in a shameless plug I’m sure you can take the time to She Who Supports Arsenal and I discuss in the podcast here) I would love to see Wales pull off the stunner.

Upsets early in a tournament like this are lovely – Iceland comes quickly to mind because their emergence had a lot to do with what some people saw as a quarter-final disparity – but when things get to this stage talent generally wins out.

That’s too bad because an underdog going all the way and playing for the ultimate title is always a way better story.

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I’m not entirely sure I’m in favour of fans not only voting for eight starters in baseball’s all-star game given how high the stakes are and then having them add some basically ceremonial “extra player” in a couple days of extra voting seems an additional bit too much.

I would contend that the baseball all-star game is the best of them all. It’s a sport of one-on-one pitcher-hitter duels hidden within a team concept and no one in the field wants to kick the ball all over the yard so it’s played at a higher intensity start to finish than any other.

And having home field for the World Series at stake – and I don’t mind that at all given the dearth of legitimate alternatives – makes it even bigger.

But I think I’d rather have players, managers and coaches pick all the players and maybe let the fans have their one.

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