Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 5-31-16 Online Edition

Sports
Star Power: LeBron
If Anthony Davis Had Been Voted To An All-NBA Team, He'd Be $24 Million Richer
ANTHONY DAVIS
A disappointing season from the Pelicans and Anthony Davis will cause him to miss out on more than $24 million.
Anthony Davis was not se- lected to an All-NBA team on Thursday and will now miss out on more than $24 million throughout the length of the five-year contract extension he signed in July. Damian Lil- lard was selected for the All- NBA second team, and he will instead make more than $12 million more as a result.
Davis was expected to be eli- gible for the "Rose Rule" that Lillard qualified for to boost his maximum earnings. The rule attempts to more fairly pay the league's best players coming off much cheaper rookie-scale con- tracts. The rule (named after Derrick Rose), works so that a player can make a higher maxi- mum salary than his tenure sug- gests as long as he has been named MVP once, is voted as an All-Star starter twice, or has been named to any of the All- NBA teams twice.
If a player achieves any of the required recognitions before his contract extension kicks in, he's eligible to make up to 30 per- cent of the salary cap rather than the 25 percent that his time in the league suggests. Players who have spent 0-6 years in the league are otherwise limited to 25 percent of the cap, while those who have spent 7-9 years can go as high as 30 percent, and anyone who has played for 10 or more years can make 35 percent.
Davis was never named MVP, made the All-Star team three times but only once as a starter, and was named to the All-NBA first team last year. Due to a plethora of injuries and having no chance at making the play- offs, Davis missed 21 games this season, and took a slight step back in a year when many thought he would break out. Davis scored 24.3 points per game on 49.3 percent shooting and grabbed 10.3 rebounds, but fell 27 votes short of LaMarcus Aldridge for the final forward spot on the third team.
Davis is still expected to make an estimated $125 million off his five-year extension. What will be taken from Davis will be gained by the Pelicans, who will have more cap space than ex- pected heading into July's free agency period.
NBA: MVP Curry, LeBron Pace All-NBA First Team Lineup
James Is Headed To
His 6th NBA Final
LeBron James had words of humility and emotion in early morning hours on Satur- day, after he and his Cleveland Cavaliers headed to their sec- ond consecutive NBA Finals after a 113-87 beating of the Toronto Raptors in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. James scored 33 points.
“We’re not entitled to any- thing,” said James. “We work our tails off every single day. We commit to one another and we sacrifice to one another. We’re not supposed to be here. We earned our right.”
James, who is headed to his sixth straight NBA Final series (and his seventh over all) has achieved a feat not seen by player or team in at least 50 years. Cleveland.com reports that the Celtics’ last of eight consecutive Finals was in 1966. The outlet also reports that no professional Cleveland sports team has won a cham- pionship in nearly 52 years.
NBA superstar LeBron James says they earned the right to be in the champi- onship game.
“There’s definitely a differ- ent feeling,” James said of his second year of going to the fi- nals with his hometown team.
Last year, Cleveland lost to the Golden State Warriors in six games, the first year of James’ prodigal-son like re- turn to his home team.
All-NBA First Team.
Lewis Hamilton Wins Monaco Grand Prix
One of the few Black race car drivers, Lewis Hamilton won the Monaco Grand Prix.
NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James led selections named Thursday for the All- NBA First Team announced by the league.
Curry, who sparked the Warriors to last year’s NBA crown and the best record in league history this season at 73-9, was a unanimous pick with all 129 voters in a media panel that decided the lineup. James, trying to reach the NBA Finals for the sixth sea- son in a row, was selected to the All-NBA First Team for the 10th time, matching the sec- ond-most appearances on the list in league history, with 125 votes.
Three other players were chosen for the top-five for the first time — Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook, San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard and Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan.
The All-NBA Second Team included forwards Kevin Du- rant of the Thunder and Draymond Green of the Warriors, center DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings and guards Chris Paul of the Clippers and Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers.
James was the only Eastern Conference player picked among the top 10 with the Sec- ond Team entirely comprised of Western Conference talent. The All-NBA Third Team fea- tured Indiana forward Paul George, Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge, Detroit center Andre Drummond and guards Klay Thompson of Golden State and Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Rap- tors.
Curry won the MVP award for the second season in a row, joining Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Steve
Nash as the only guards to claim MVPs in consecutive years.
Curry led the NBA with 30.1 points and 2.14 steals a game, was the league’s most accurate free throw shooter by sinking 90.8 percent from the line and set an NBA record by making 402 3-point shots.
He also had 6.7 assists and a career-high 5.4 rebounds a game while shooting a career- best 50.4 percent from the field, the NBA’s most accurate shooter among guards. His 45.4 percent shooting percent- age from 3-point range ranked second in the NBA.
James joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Bay- lor, Bob Cousy, Tim Dun- can, Michael Jordan, Bob Pettit and Jerry West as a 10-time First Team choice, one shy of the record shared by Kobe Bryant and Karl Mal- one.
This season, James ranked fifth in the NBA with 25.3 points a game, cracking the 25-point average for an NBA record 12th season in a row. James added 7.4 rebounds and 6.8 assists a game and connected on 52 percent of his shots from the floor as Cleve- land led the Eastern Confer- ence with a 57-25 mark.
Westbrook averaged 23.5 points and career highs of 10.4 assists (second in the NBA) and 7.8 rebounds, joining Oscar Robertson as the only players in league history to av- erage at least 23 points, 10 as- sists and seven rebounds for a season.
Westbrook’s 18 “triple doubles” — double-digit fig- ures in three statistical cate- gories for a game — matched the most in the NBA since Magic Johnson had 18 in the 1981-82 campaign. His seven “triple doubles” in March was the most since Michael Jordan had that many in April of 1989.
The first person Lewis Hamilton handed his cele- bratory champagne bottle to after winning the Monaco Grand Prix wasn't anyone from his team.
Instead, he handed the bot- tle to his good friend, Justin Bieber.
The Biebs was in atten- dance during Sunday's For- mula 1 race and celebrated with the three-time F1 cham- pion in victory lane after Hamilton won the race thanks to a great strategy call – and an executional misfire by Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull team.
The Heat's Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade were shown
in victory lane with actress Gabrielle Union too. Patrick Dempsey was in at- tendance, as well as Manches- ter United's Michael Carrick and others.
Hamilton started third, but took over the lead thanks to a decision to wait as long as pos- sible to pit. The race started as rain fell and F1 officials de- cided to start the race behind the safety car for the first time in Monaco history because the conditions were so soaked.
The rain stopped and the track started to dry out after the safety car pulled into pit lane. Most teams went from wet tires to intermediate- treaded ones, but Hamilton stayed out as long as possible
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