Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri is no stranger to fighting words when it comes to playoff time, though after a couple of fines in recent years, he's chosen to go with a more subtle approach this time.

Prior to his team's first-round matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, the Raptors executive was complimentary of their star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, but not before dishing out some of his innate competitive nature.

“There's so much room for growth,” Ujiri told Blake Murphy of Raptors Republic. “Except for the next couple games.”

On paper, it should be a relatively easy first-round matchup for Toronto, who has a 3-1 regular season record against Milwaukee, but all odds can go out the window if the Greek Freak and company manage to steal a game on the road.

Ujiri is a master motivator when it comes to riling up the troops, but has paid dearly for it in previous occasions.

The top-of-the-box exec was fined $25,000 in 2014 for yelling “F*** Brooklyn” at a fan outside the Air Canada Centre prior to Game 1 of his team's first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.

He then was fined $35,000 for an expletive when asked to comment on forward Paul Pierce, back in his stint with the Brooklyn Nets; when he had claimed the Raptors didn't have that “it” factor to make his team worried about them.

This latest fine also cost the organization an extra $25,000 for a repeat offense — an act which has seemed to stop these blatant offenses from Ujiri — who hasn't lost his playful mean streak, but does so more carefully since the last two incidents.