Noble as they might have been, aging legends who have accepted steep hometown-discount deals didnt do so for charity.Future Hall of Famers such as Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan, men who have cashed NBA paychecks worth well more than $200 million each, simply valued winning with the only franchise they ever played for more than maximizing their wealth.The negotiations with Duncan and Nowitzki have always been handled quietly, devoid of the kind of drama and public posturing that ultimately led to the stunning divorce of the Miami Heat and Dwyane Wade, whose Chicago honeymoon officially began Friday with his introductory news conference.The hometown discounts werent as steep for Wade, who was never the Heats highest-paid player, but they started at a much earlier stage of his career. They each sacrificed financially for the sake of the franchise, but Duncan and Nowitzki never felt the kind of disrespect that Wade did during his last couple rounds of contract talks with the Heat.For Duncan, the financial sacrifice paid off in playoff dividends. In his final four seasons, when his salaries were a fraction of his market value, the San Antonio Spurs averaged more than 60 wins per season, won eight postseason series, advanced to a pair of Finals, and floated down the river for the fifth time as the featured attraction of a championship parade. Duncan made about $35 million during the steep-discount stage of his career, including the player option for next season he exercised a couple of weeks before announcing his retirement in what amounts to a $5.6 million farewell gift from the franchise.For Nowizki, leaving more than $30 million on the table the past two seasons didnt work out nearly as well. The Dallas Mavericks won a total of two playoff games in that span, increasing that tally to five in five seasons since the franchises lone title run in 2011.No wonder Nowitzki decided to opt out of the final season of that three-year, $25 million deal. He was more than willing to take less money to give the Mavs a chance to compete for championships in his twilight. Competing for the No. 6 seed? Pay the man.Mavs owner Mark Cuban did just that, giving Nowitzki a two-year, $50 million deal after negotiations that essentially consisted of handing the longtime face of the franchise a blank contract, seeing his suggested price, then suggesting Dirk beef up the numbers a bit more.Its a deal that prompted comparisons to the last contract of another one-team legend: Kobe Bryant, whose two-year, $48.5 million extension drew criticism. Not that Kobe cared.Its the popular thing to do, Bryant said of hometown discounts when asked about the topic during a Dallas visit in the first month of the 2014-15 season. The player takes less, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think its a big coup for the owners to put players in situations where public perception puts pressure on them to take less money. Because if you dont, then you get criticized for it.Its absolutely brilliant, but Im not going for it. I know the new head of the players association aint going for it, either.Two years later, Nowitzki aint going for it, either. Not under these circumstances, at least.Asked that day about Bryants comments, Nowitzki explained that he willingly took a massive pay cut because his priority was to compete my last couple of years at the highest level. He cited the signing of Chandler Parsons and the trade for Tyson Chandler as good moves by the Mavs made possible by his discount deal.We feel like weve got a good group, Nowitzki said at the time, and hopefully we can make it work.We all know how that worked out. Parsons is gone to the Memphis Grizzlies after two injury-marred seasons with the Mavs, who werent willing to make a long-term investment in him after the forward had more knee surgeries (two) than playoff game appearances (one) during his Dallas tenure. Chandler left last summer when the Mavs wanted to put him on hold while pursuing DeAndre Jordan in free agency.It would have been a much different story if Jordan didnt jilt the Mavs after temporarily committing to Dallas. The Mavs probably would have been battling for home court in the West last season and may have become an intriguing destination for free agents this summer. In that case, Nowitzki likely would have been comfortable playing out the final season of his discount deal, allowing the Mavs front office to use every possible dollar to upgrade a team with real hopes of a long playoff run.But reality for the Mavs is constant shuffling of a roster around Nowitzki, who had grown frustrated after following up a title run with five years of failing to make it out of the first round. Hes not a hypocrite for cashing in on this contract; hes a realist.Dallas isnt in nearly as dire straits as the Los Angeles Lakers were when Bryant signed his last deal. The Lakers were coming off a 27-55 campaign in which Bryant played only six games while recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon. Over two seasons, they won a combined 38 games while Bryant made $48.5 million, but his presence was a box-office bonanza, especially during his 2015-16 farewell tour.In other words, it could be argued that Bryant was a bargain for the Lakers as the leagues highest-paid player the past two seasons. And Bryant, whose career earnings of more than $328 million rank behind only Kevin Garnett, knew that would be true.I think youve got to look at the business of basketball, Bryant said during that November 2014 visit to Dallas. I think for a lot of writers, for a lot of fans, they have a very tough time distinguishing the two.This is a business, and you have to look at individuals and what they generate and the market that theyre generating revenue in. And you cant separate those. People have a hard time separating that stuff. From a business perspective, you have to take that stuff into account, and you have to try to -- as a player -- be in situations where it can be a win-win for everybody.A win-win for Nowitzki and the Mavs would have been using his discount deal to construct a legitimate title contender. It worked once, when Nowitzki took $16 million less than a maximum contract during the summer of 2010 to ease the luxury-tax burden on Cuban, who immediately invested the savings into acquiring Chandler on a salary-dump deal.It wasnt for a lack of effort, but the Mavs couldnt find a way to parlay this most recent Dirk discount into a roster that was a threat in the West.Nowitzki, whose two-year deal -- with only $5 million of his salary in the second season guaranteed as essentially retirement insurance for the Mavs -- ensures that he wont have to hear any noise about possibly leaving to chase a ring in his 20th season, settled for more money and a chance to keep competing for a spot in the playoffs.His previous deal still helped the Mavs during their annual roster remodeling, as his $12.5 million cap hold made it relatively easy to create room to sign Harrison Barnes to a four-year, $94 million deal and trade for Andrew Bogut in a salary-dump deal. This contract will make it tough for the Mavs to be aggressive bidders in next summers free-agency market if Nowitzki returns, but thats a small price to pay after two decades of legendary service.The Mavs are good enough to fight for a playoff berth. They wont have to watch Dirk, who hopes to join Kobe as the lone members of the NBAs 20-year, only-one-team club, suffer the indignity of playing in meaningless games as his career winds down.Duncan was rewarded for his financial sacrifice by being able to compete for a championship until he rode off into the sunset. Precious few get that luxury. Nowitzki wont be on that list. The end of his career will likely be more lucrative and less fulfilling than he wanted. Custom Baseball Jerseys . Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously Tuesday in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said. Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization. Clearance Custom Baseball Jerseys . 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Following a lopsided 5-2 loss against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, Paul MacLean told reporters that "theres a lack of focus, theres a lack of leadership and theres a lack of preparation" with his struggling team. That came on the heels of Bryan Murray taking the unusual step of going into the locker room at the Prudential Center and addressing the players himself. The first Monday morning of the summer holidays, the sky lumpen - an unscheduled autumn duvet pulled hastily from the cupboard above. The roads are quiet with relief, the ruddy trudgers of sandwich-laden picnic-hampers down to a steady trickle along the Great Stone Road.In the separated pens of the Old Trafford nets in the hour before play, the Pakistan players practised. And practised. Azhar Ali, diligently forward, diligently back; the coaching staff, arms folded, nodding approvingly. In and out they alternated, like figures on a weather house, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Shah, lined up against the Lancashire academy bowlers sprightly-keen to show what they could do.Behind them, staring at helmets and backsides, trying to identify whose belonged to whom, stood the Monday morning spectators. Not a great number - 6,533 in all - but proper cricket fans these: who else would give up a days holiday in chilly late July to sit in bucket seats to watch the fourth day of a one-sided Test?The nets are funny things, as close as people get to the players, an obscure mini zoo where fans stare while players pretend theyre not there, fans lurk and players reach resolutely for their bats and hope to walk away to the safety of the dressing-room un-manhandled. A rite of passage nonetheless.From the nets, it was just a short journey round the ground to B Stand - just to the left of the media centre, and most pertinently next door to the Pakistan dressing-room. If you couldnt quite see Misbah-ul-Haq reaching out for an idle scratch, you could imagine it: every players jaunt up and down the steps that led to the pitch was wildly cheered.B stand then, a multicultural slice of the kind of English society that cricket often turns up by accident: a good-natured mixture of cold and unpickled British people hunched over packets of cheese and onion in a mixture of cagouls, neat beards, hijabs, a couple of skull caps and a pair of stars-and-stripes sunglasses.On a day slowly meandering along to its inevitable conclusion, the spectators entertained themselves with vuvuzelas and cracker blowers, chatter in urdu and English, inflatable bananas and that sustaining culinary combination of a soggy 99 followed by a warming coffee.In the prime seats just metres away from the Pakistan dressing-room steps, sat three sisters, Kiran, 21, a pharmacy student, Amina, 18, about to embark on a dentistry course, and Sophia, 15, hair covered in bright hijabs and decorated with Pakistani fflag pins.ddddddddddddThe three sisters had woken at seven oclock and piled into a big van the family had hired for the day. Eight people crammed in, bags full of picnic, over the way from Bolton, Rihanna and Calvin Harris blaring on the radio. They are cricket nuts, all of them, a Pakistan flag hangs outside their house and posters adorn the walls. Theyd brought along a roll of coloured paper with them, and intended to write some thoroughly inspirational posters.We watch Pakistan on TV, but this is the first time weve seen them live, Sophia said. We love their passion. We paid extra for these seats because we knew theyd be just next to the dressing room.She reaches for her sisters phone to show her selfies with the team just as England declare at 173 for 1: time for Pakistan to pull off a surprise win? Were just hoping it doesnt rain.Higher up in B stand were another group of family friends - two of them, Zohaib and Farukh, had driven down from Glasgow with their small sons. A five oclock wake-up and then a four hour drive with no stops. It wasnt great for the rest of them but I didnt want to be late, Zohaib said. Their friend Ali Usmani had come from Bolton too - via 16 years in Pakistan and 20 years in Holland. He and his wife had brought along their sonI tell him to support England, that you should support the country where you are brought up. He loves cricket, his favourites are Shane Warne and Shahid Afridi, but I tell him that education is the first priority.It was a first visit to Old Trafford for the sisters, for the Glaswegians, for Ali too. The first time you hesitate to come, he said, then the way is open. Good news for Lancashire, if there is good news in a Test crowd of six-and-a-half thousand - there is plenty of potential support out there if they can find a way to capitalise on it.As it was, Pakistan crept past their first innings, just. When Misbah played on for 35, the end was nigh, though a final flourish from a blazing Mohammad Amir gave his fans something to cheer about.And from there it was a trudge back to the car, bags empty, legs tired. For England fans, a triumphant afternoon. For Pakistan fans, an ultimately disappointing but potentially uplifting day at the cricket. For the Pakistan team, it is back to the coach and the drawing board - the next two Tests suddenly looming very large. ' ' '