Curry, Durant may take less to retain core
Stephen Curry will likely go from being the NBA’s biggest bargain to signing the richest contract in the league at more than $200 million. And he looks forward to the nice payday.
Yet, the two-time reigning MVP and new NBA Finals most valuable player Kevin Durant said they would consider taking less money to keep the core of the champion Golden State Warriors intact.
“It would mean everything. What we’ve built here is truly special, it’s unique, it’s something that you don’t want to see end at all,” Curry said.
Durant said he has “no question” in his mind he will be back with the Warriors. He hinted he would opt out of a deal that pays him the maximum he can get in order to help Golden State’s chances of re-signing players such as Andre Iguodala or Shaun Livingston — two key reserves on both title teams.
“I do know me and KD had a conversation along with Draymond [Green] and Klay [Thompson] and Andre last year before he even showed up that that was kind of the identity of who we are as a team that we understand how important it is, the guys that are here,” Curry said . ... We’re going to do everything we can to keep this team together. I’ll have that mind-set, KD’s going to have that mind-set, I know Dre, Shaun, all the guys that are up for negotiating a new contract. We’ll see what happens.”
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick, limped off the field after suffering an injury to his left foot late in practice while rushing quarterback Brock Osweiler during a two-minute drill.
Coach Hue Jackson, who helped Garrett to his feet before the player hobbled to the sideline, did not know the severity of Garrett’s injury. The Browns signed Garrett to a four-year, $30.4-million contract and are expecting him to anchor their defense for years.
New York Jets rookie wide receiver ArDarius Stewart is recovering from recent operations on a thumb and his groin. Coach Todd Bowles said Stewart should be “good to go” for the start of training camp in late July.
Cal State Fullerton will open the College World Series in Omaha on Saturday against top-seeded Oregon State. The game will start at noon PDT. Game 2 on Saturday will pit Louisiana State against Florida State. The loser of the Titans-Beavers game will face the loser of Game 2 on Monday at 11 a.m.; the winners of Saturday’s games will play each other at 4 p.m. Monday.
A Sunday doubleheader will feature Louisville versus Texas A&M followed by Texas Christian against Florida. Those teams will play again Tuesday.
Oregon State coach Pat Casey did not say whether his top pitcher, Luke Heimlich, would pitch in the World Series. Heimlich, who as a teenager pleaded guilty to molesting a 6-yearold girl, was not taken in Major League Baseball’s draft. He has compiled an 11-1 record with a 0.76 ERA this season, and the left-hander from Puyallup, Wash., had been projected to be an early-round pick in the draft, which ended Wednesday.
Details about his criminal history were revealed last week in a story published by the Oregonian newspaper and OregonLive.
The United States’ 1-1 tie at Mexico in a World Cup qualifier Sunday night drew the biggest audience for such a game in Fox Sports 1 history, according to Nielsen Media Research. FS1 attracted 2,052,000 viewers. Viewership built throughout the game and peaked at 2.8 million viewers from 7 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. PDT. Earlier, Spanish-language Univision said it drew the most viewers in the U.S. for any soccer game this year.
Univision attracted an average of 4.5 million viewers for the game from Azteca Stadium. Additionally, it was the top World Cup qualifying game in any language on any network in more than four years, since March 26, 2013.
An analysis by the Associated Press shows that the cost of putting on last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics was $13.1 billion, paid for with a mix of public and private money.