Funkerstation » ss, dismissing concerns that the protests could cast

Detroit Pistons big man Andre Drummond now has a big contract, too.Drummond agreed to terms on a five-year maximum contract worth $130 million on Friday, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.The two sides started negotiating the contract after the market opened at midnight EDT on Friday and quickly found common ground before coming to full agreement in the afternoon, said the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal cannot be signed until July 7.Drummond was a restricted free agent, but few in the league believed he was interested in entertaining other offers. The Pistons would have had the right to match any offer made by another team, and coach and team president Stan Van Gundy made it clear from the start that the burly center wasnt going anywhere.Detroit could offer Drummond more money and more years than any other team in the league, and Van Gundy put the maximum contract offer in front of him right from the start to take any guess work out of the process.Drummond averaged 16.2 points and an NBA-leading 14.8 rebounds for the Pistons last season, giving Van Gundy a powerful force in the paint to slug it out in the rugged Eastern Conference. His strength, size and throwback game certainly give the Pistons a different dimension in todays small-ball NBA.He has fast become a cornerstone of what Van Gundy is trying to do in his Detroit rebuilding project.Drummonds scoring and rebounding averages have risen annually, and he was an All-Star for the first time this past season. The numbers he put up last season were the most robust by a Pistons big man since Bob Lanier in 1972-73. And it was almost a certainty that Drummond would be rewarded with a massive contract, especially with the salary cap soaring from $70 million this past season to somewhere around $95 million for next season.The only thing slowing Drummond down is a 35.5 percent free throw rate that causes Van Gundy to bench him late in games when opponents foul him on purpose to put him on the line. Van Gundy has said he is confident Drummond can make drastic improvements in that area of his game to make him and even bigger force for Detroit.Van Gundys rebuilding project has formed a new identity for the franchise around a group of young players including Drummond, Tobias Harris and Reggie Jackson.But it all starts with Drummond, who draws immediate double teams in the post to open things up for his teammates on the perimeter. Van Gundy followed a similar model in building the Orlando Magic into an Eastern Conference power by surrounding powerful center Dwight Howard with shooters and defensive stoppers on the wing.The deal has a player option for the final season.---AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report. Wholesale Asics UK From China .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. Asics Shoes UK . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. http://www.discountasicsuk.com/ . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. Cheap Asics UK Shoes .com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward James Neal on injured reserve Tuesday. Cheap Asics UK Sale . Gather a group of friends, or find a league to join online, draft your team, set your lineup and compete in a number of different formats. RIO DE JANEIRO -- A judge has ordered Olympics organizers to allow peaceful protests inside venues after several fans were escorted out of stadiums for holding up anti-government signs.As Brazils political crisis has deepened, with the Senate on Tuesday taking up impeachment proceedings against suspended President Dilma Rousseff, many are increasingly taking their political grievances to Olympic events. Their almost universal slogan, emblazoned on handwritten signs and T-shirts and spreading like wildfire on social media, is Fora Temer, a call for the removal of interim President Michel Temer.But a federal judge in Rio ruled Monday night that nothing in special legislation passed ahead of the games restricts Brazilians constitutional right to free expression. In a temporary injunction, which can be appealed, he threatened to levy fines of up to $3,200 on anyone who removes peaceful protesters from venues.The International Olympic Committee bans political statements during the games and has pleaded with fans not to disrupt competition. Rios organizing committee said it plans to ask the judge to reconsider his ruling and will make a final appeal, if necessary.This is a global event, and we think and we hope that the stadiums would not become a platform for political debate, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Tuesday, adding that it nonetheless plans to absolutely respect Brazilian law.Politics inside Olympic venues is nothing new. At the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, the head of Russias Communist Party was told to take down a hammer-and-sickle Soviet banner that he and lawmakers held up.South Americas first games couldnt have come at a more politically sensitive time, with senators expected Tuesday to vote overwhelmingly to allow an impeachment trial against Rousseff to move forward.Temer, who took over from Rousseff in May while she awaits impeachment trial, was booed when he spoke at the opening ceremony. His approval ratings in poolls are around the same low levels as Rousseff, blamed by many for widespread corruption in the Workers Party and for steering Latin Americas biggest economy into a deep recession.ddddddddddddrotests inside the venues have been sporadic and mostly peaceful, but the attempts to ban them are viewed by some Brazilians as a sign of government censorship. On Sunday, a Brazilian volunteer with the IOC said he quit to protest to what he called violations of freedom of speech.In one particularly graphic example, four heavily armed military commandos grabbed a seated man at an archery event Saturday and pulled him from the stands with fans reacting. The incident was caught on a cellphone and shared almost 3 million times on Facebook.To get around the ban, some Brazilians have coordinated with friends each wearing a letter on T-shirts so the message reads Fora Temer when they sit in groups. Others carry smaller signs hidden in their belongings, sometimes fashioned with the emblematic Olympic rings.Vinicius Lummertz, president of Embratur, the government-run foreign tourism board, said he has no problem with peaceful protests inside stadium as long as the games arent disturbed.Its democracy in action, he told The Associated Press, dismissing concerns that the protests could cast Brazil in a negative light. When you think of the size of this democracy, and the youth of this democracy, it tells good things about us.Still, he said the protesters dont speak for the vast majority of Brazilians who have grown disillusioned with 13 years of leftist rule under Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.People who were against Temers platform were millions, then thousands, then hundreds, he said. Now they are five or six people who get together.---AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson contributed to this report. ' ' '