Die Macht » might not otherwise exist in a sport still very white

The Brooklyn Nets will likely sign restricted free-agent forward Donatas Motiejunas to an offer sheet as early as Friday, league sources told ESPN.The Nets have been discussing the move internally for some time and, according to one source, are comfortable with where the Lithuanian big man is medically after back issues scuttled the Houston Rockets trade of ?Motiejunas to Detroit in February.No deal with Motiejunas is expected to happen before Friday, sources said, with Brooklyn playing host to the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night.If the Nets indeed go through with their plans to sign Motiejunas, Houston would then have three days to match any offer.?Houston pulled its most recent offer to Motiejunas last Tuesday, when the sides couldnt come to terms on a deal before the Rockets self-imposed Nov. 22 deadline.The Nets have nearly $19 million in available salary-cap ?space to assemble an offer that will be unpalatable for Houston to match. Brooklyn, though, was foiled twice in restricted free agency over the summer, seeing its hefty offer sheets to Miamis Tyler Johnson (four years, $50 million) and Portlands Allen Crabbe (four years, $75 million) matched by those teams.Nov. 23 was the last day that players could be signed this season and remain eligible to be dealt on the leagues annual trade-deadline day, which falls on Feb. 23. ESPN reported in early November that the Rockets, as a result, picked that date as their own internal deadline to sign Motiejunas, fearing his value would decrease if they didnt have the ability to trade him.Sources told ESPN on Nov. 4 that the Rockets were offering a two-year deal starting in the $7 million range, but with only the first season fully guaranteed for the 7-foot, 223-pounder.ESPN reported last week that Motiejunas was surprised and upset that negotiations with the Rockets had dragged on so long. Motiejunas camp has been trying to drum up interest in his client from the handful of teams around the league that possess the cap space to present a representative offer sheet and appears to have found a willing suitor in Brooklyn.Motiejunas could have made himself an unrestricted free agent next summer had he been willing to play out this season on Houstons $4.4 million qualifying offer, but he let the qualifier expire Oct. 1, hopeful that a long-term deal would eventually materialize.The Rockets have been unwilling to guarantee more than the first year of a multiyear deal in a nod to the 26-year-olds injury history. Houston traded Motiejunas to Detroit in February, only for the Pistons to void the deal and send him back to the Rockets because of a failed physical stemming from Motiejunas back troubles.ESPN Staff Writer Calvin Watkins and The Undefeateds Marc ?J. Spears contributed to this report. Bob Riley Jersey Signed . -- Five former Kansas City Chiefs players who were on the team between 1987 and 1993 filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming the team hid and even lied about the risks of head injuries during that time period when there was no collective bargaining agreement in place in the NFL. Vincent Yarbrough Jersey Signed . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. https://www.cheapnbajerseysjustwholesale.com/malik-allen-jersey-signed/ . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. 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Fixed across Heather OReillys face each time she sped toward the end line and curled her foot around a cross, it seemed to neither age nor change.As OReilly grew from a teenage phenomenon into a veteran who this week will retire from the national team after 231 appearances, the scowl was so familiar it was almost comforting.So it was that as the national team escaped its own adolescence this century, OReilly was a constant.Aging because we all do. Changing because a player must. Somehow always comfortably familiar.And if it is no longer difficult to imagine what the national team will be on the field without her, it will be forever difficult to picture the events of the past decade and a half unfolding sans scowl.Except that, when you get right down to it, labeling hers a scowl seems barely sufficient.University of North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance -- the architect of the most prolific dynasty in college sports who watched so many former Tar Heels first debut for and eventually retire from the U.S. womens national team -- offered a better appraisal.What sort of made her fierce was this angry chicken face that she had when she competed, Dorrance said.Beyond the field, though, there was a smile with a hint of native New Jersey wryness.Theres no arrogance to her, Dorrance continued. She would not call a team that defeated her a collection of cowards. There are so many things about her that are genuinely good and nice. Shes just a very old-school athlete that loves her family, loves her teams and her coaches, and isnt this incredibly irritating social media presence. Its almost like she is from a different era.Mind you, irritating or not, she does have a social media presence. OReillys combined Twitter and Instagram followings are more than half a million strong. She is of this time. But the coachs point is taken. It never has been easy to pin down the era to which she belongs. Perhaps it is her own.OReilly will retire from international competition after Thursdays match against Thailand (ESPN2, 8 p.m. ET) having played more games for the United States than all but six women. At 31, she is 2? years younger than one U.S. captain, Carli Lloyd, and only six months older than the other, Becky Sauerbrunn. And while OReilly was an Olympic alternate this summer in Brazil, she still plays with the skill of someone who has a lot of soccer left in her story.Dorrance said he turned on an NWSL game last week just in time to see OReilly, of FC Kansas City, carve Chicago Red Stars defender Julie Johnston, a U.S. teammate and rising star, and deliver a cross that Kansas Citys Shea Groom finished for the opening goal in a K.C. win.In other words, the kind of play OReilly has been making ever since she made her international debut against Sweden on March 1, 2002 -- three days before Grooms ninth birthday.But with last years World Cup championship medal sitting alongside three Olympic gold medals, and with three long years until the next major tournament -- not to mention the national teams undisguised youth movement, to which OReilly fell victim this year -- she makes her exit.As much as I would like to play in the national team until Im 80 years old, thats just not realistic, OReilly said. There are other amazing things Im looking forward to as well. Im genuine about this -- Im looking forward to being a fan and being behind this team forever and ever because its part of me and always will be.And she is a part of it. Not just because of 52 assists. Not just because of 46 goals, including a memorable winner in overtime of an Olympic semifinal against Germany in 2004.dddddddddddd Not merely for the gold medal that followed or any of the other medals added later. She played her first game alongside Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy and Kristine Lilly, all of whom played in the first World Cup in 1991. She will play her final game alongside some combination of Morgan Brian, Lindsey Horan and Mallory Pugh, some of whom might still be playing when the 2031 World Cup rolls around.That is a whole lot of history connected through one person.Most of OReillys career took place in that most difficult of historical settings, when the glow of something momentous -- in this case, the national teams culture-changing success in the 1996 Olympics and 1999 World Cup -- gives way to the arduous task of making a new reality stick. That is why it matters when she says she feels that she leaves the national team in better shape than she found it.I think being a professional soccer player is the coolest gig in the world; I love playing, OReilly said. I think sometimes when you look at our male counterparts and what they are able to do in a domestic league and certain international players, we certainly have a ways to go. So yeah, thats frustrating. And Im proud to be part of certain initiatives to level that playing field because were not there yet. Hopefully I will continue to be a positive person in that charge to make things more equal, in terms of conditions, in terms of pay, in terms of visibility of the sport.Although she has been one of the most thoughtful speakers on rosters that rarely lacked candidates in that category, OReilly isnt the first name that comes to mind when it comes to using the platform. That is our fault, not hers. We digest and discuss Megan Rapinoe kneeling during the national anthem because it is, by intent, visible and provocative. We hung on Abby Wambachs every spoken thought for the same reason.How many fewer words, as absent here as anywhere, have been devoted to the work OReilly quietly does with America Scores, among others? The nonprofit organization works with children in 13 major cities who almost exclusively live below the poverty line. Through soccer, but also community service and even poetry, it attempts to provide opportunities that might not otherwise exist in a sport still very white, suburban and expensive.I think that soccer is a powerful game, said OReilly, who graduated from North Carolina with a degree in education. Its changed my life, and I know that it has the power to change the lives of a lot of people. And I dont know if everybody across our country is getting the same access to this amazing game.She was among those heard on the subject of artificial surfaces in the most recent World Cup. She believes in the ongoing fight for wage equality. But her career is also a study in the idea that it is not always the loudest and the brashest who make the biggest difference.For 15 years and more than 200 appearances, she didnt try to be anything but herself. The angry chicken face is just the photographic proof.At first I was sort of embarrassed by when Id see pictures, OReilly said. Over the years Ive just embraced it because its who I am. I play with passion. I live with passion. Im proud of that. I feel like thats what made me successful in my career. And I dont know another way. ' ' '