Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is pursuing Denver Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri to take over as the top basketball executive of the Toronto Raptors, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Masai, the 2013 NBA Executive of the Year, has emerged as the top choice of the search firm – Korn/Ferry International – that's been charged with finding a successor to Raptors president Bryan Colangelo, league sources said. Masai Ujiri (Getty Images)

MLSE has until Monday to make a decision on Colangelo's contract option for next year. It is possible that he could stay with the franchise under a new top basketball official.

Ujiri's contract as Denver's general manager expires this summer and he has been in talks with ownership on an extension. Ujiri, 42, has a strong bond with Nuggets CEO Josh Kroenke, but new MLSE top executive, Tim Leiweke, has expressed a desire to make a serious financial and organizational commitment to an elite executive to turn around the franchise.

Ujiri has developed into the most

CHICAGO – Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry is giving significant consideration to hiring the first European-born head coach in NBA history, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Ettore Messina, the Italian-born coach of CSKA Moscow, is among the top candidates to replace coach Larry Drew. Ferry and Messina have had contact about the possibility, and Messina is intrigued with the chance to be a global trail blazer in the NBA, sources told Y! Sports. Ettore Messina (Getty Images)

Ferry recently scouted CSKA Moscow in London at the Euroleague Final Four.

Atlanta's top target, Stan Van Gundy, is a long shot to accept the job, league sources said.

Messina, 53, is a four-time Euroleague championship coach and two-time Euroleague coach of the year. Across two decades of head coaching jobs in Italy and Russia, Messina has won five Russian League championships and four Italian League titles.

Messina spent the 2011-'12 season as a part of Mike Brown's coaching staff with the Los Angeles Lakers. With uncertainty over

CHICAGO – Phoenix Suns general manager Ryan McDonough met with interim coach Lindsey Hunter to discuss the franchise's head-coaching job on Wednesday, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Suns general manager Ryan McDonough will lead the team's coaching search. (AP)McDonough and Hunter met in Chicago, where McDonough had arrived with the Suns' front office staff for the NBA draft combine.

Meeting with Hunter was the first formal sitdown with a candidate that McDonough has had since his hiring earlier in May as the Suns' general manager.

McDonough has yet to set up any formal meetings with candidates, but a league source told Yahoo! Sports that he's been calling for background on coaches including Utah Jazz assistant Jeff Hornacek, Moscow CSKA assistant Quin Snyder, Houston Rockets assistants J.B. Bickerstaff and Kelvin Sampson and Los Angeles Lakers assistant Steve Clifford, among others.

McDonough inherits a 25-win franchise that possesses six first-round draft picks in the next three years, including two in next month's draft. McDonough had been the assistant GM

CHICAGO – Nate McMillan interviewed for the Atlanta Hawks' coaching job on Wednesday, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Atlanta general manager Danny Ferry is going through the unorthodox process of conducting a coaching search while his current coach, Larry Drew, remains under contract until June 30.

Drew is highly unlikely to be retained as coach, but Ferry has reserved the remote option of revisiting contract extension talks with Drew should the Hawks fail to attract a coach Ferry believes is a better fit for the franchise.

McMillan also is a candidate for the coaching openings with the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons. He's already interviewed with those teams.

Ferry has shown significant interest in former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, but Van Gundy is unlikely to return to coaching next season.

McMillan was fired as the Portland Trail Blazers' coach in 2012. Across seven seasons with the Blazers, he had a .497 winning percentage and advanced to the first-round of the

North Carolina State forward C.J. Leslie, a fast-rising prospect among several teams, has a minor sprained shooting hand and will sit out the drills portion of the NBA draft combine in Chicago this week, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

C.J. Leslie (Getty Images)Leslie, who left the Wolfpack after his junior year, is a long, talented 6-foot-9 forward with great athletic ability who has several NBA front offices eager to get a closer inspection of him.

Leslie's agent, Aaron Mintz of CAA, informed the NBA on Tuesday of the decision to sit out the basketball drills portion of the combine, league sources said. Leslie will participate in some athletic testing and interviews with team executives.

Leslie's right hand is expected to be fully healed to work out individually for teams in the near future.

[Also: Will sensation Andrew Wiggins deliver for Kansas? ]

One league personnel director told Yahoo! Sports that Leslie and Kentucky's Nerlens Noel rate as the two most explosive athletes in this year's draft class. Two

Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Steve Clifford is interviewing with the Milwaukee Bucks for their head-coaching job on Monday, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Milwaukee has interviewed Nate McMillan and Houston Rockets assistants Kelvin Sampson and J.B. Bickerstaff for its head-coaching job.

When Bucks general manager John Hammond reached out to gauge Stan Van Gundy's interest in the job, Van Gundy declined but delivered a strong recommendation for Clifford, league sources said. Clifford spent five years on Van Gundy's Orlando Magic staff before joining the Lakers in the summer of 2012.

Clifford fits the profile of the kind of hands-on, defensive-minded candidate that Hammond has been seeking to replace interim coach Jim Boylan.

Clifford will also interview with the Charlotte Bobcats in the near future.

Clifford comes with a strong pedigree, serving as an assistant coach for Stan Van Gundy in Orlando and Jeff Van Gundy in Houston and New York. Clifford also worked with Chicago

INDIANAPOLIS – For the first time in his NBA playoff career, Roy Hibbert had been invited to the interview podium. After the best performance of his postseason life, Hibbert had showered, dressed and awaited word now on making the short walk down the corridor.

Before he left his corner stall, his eyes darted around the Indiana Pacers locker room. There was something he wanted to tell his teammates. He cleared his throat and made sure the franchise's most gentle voice could be heard over the clutter of conversations.

"Enjoy Mother's Day," Hibbert blurted out.

Here was the 7-foot-2 franchise center of these Pacers, towering over the room, the night, and this Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series – reaffirming his wishes with a nod and a smile. Roy Hibbert was serious. Enjoy Mother's Day, fellas. He cares deeply for his teammates, nurtures the room, and yet sometimes one of his greatest blessings as man can be a crippling curse as a basketball player.

Roy Hibbert posts up against Kenyon Martin in Game 3. (USA Today) Long before his 24 points

Mark Madsen, a popular ex-bench warmer with the Los Angeles Lakers, is finalizing an agreement to become head coach of the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA DevelopmentMark Madsen (Getty) League, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The Lakers own and operate the D-Fenders, who recently lost coach Reggie Theus to the coaching job at Cal State Northridge.

Madsen recently completed his first season as an assistant coach at Stanford University.

Madsen was part of two NBA championships with the Lakers (2001 and '02) in his nine-year NBA career. Nicknamed Mad Dog, many fans best remember him for his unique dance style on the podium for Lakers' championship celebrations.

Before joining his alma mater, Stanford, as an assistant coach a year ago, he spent two seasons in the D-League as an assistant coach for the Utah Flash.