Connect with us

Sports

Kuminga, Warriors end stalemate with 2-year deal

Published

on

Kuminga, Warriors end stalemate with 2-year deal


Ending a summerlong stalemate, restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga has agreed to a two-year, $48.5 million deal to return to the Golden State Warriors, agent Aaron Turner of Verus Basketball told ESPN on Tuesday.

The deal includes a team option in the second year that is designed for the Warriors — or another team if and when Kuminga is traded during the upcoming season — to rip up and complete a fresh new contract after the 2025-26 campaign, sources said.

Also Tuesday, the Warriors agreed to a one-year deal with free agent Seth Curry, sources told ESPN, teaming Stephen Curry with his younger brother as training camp begins Wednesday. However, the Warriors cannot enter the season with 15 standard players on the roster unless they make a trade, but Seth Curry is expected to be on the roster for the majority of the campaign.

Ahead of Wednesday’s qualifying offer deadline, Kuminga chose the two-year deal over a proposal of three years and $75 million so he can maintain a higher level of control over his immediate Warriors future. The Warriors never wavered on their team option frameworks during negotiations. Now, both sides understand the likelihood of exploring trades when Kuminga is eligible to be moved in mid-January. As part of the deal, he is waiving his inherent no-trade clause.

Kuminga missed media day Monday and the first day of Warriors practice Tuesday as the sides finalized the deal.

Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Kuminga’s side have been locked in a stalemate throughout the offseason over the framework of the contract, but Golden State ultimately increased its two-year offer by a total of $8 million between July and September and guaranteed Kuminga approximately $15 million more than his one-year, $8 million qualifying offer would have for this season.

Over the past two months, the Warriors have had a standing offer of two years and $45 million with a team option, and earlier this month offered a three-year, $75 million contract with a team option and a three-year, $54 million fully guaranteed deal. Kuminga and his side wanted a player option throughout the negotiations, or a higher annual salary with a team option, requests that were denied by the Warriors.

Choosing the two-year structure allows Kuminga to create a decision for whichever team he is on next summer or get to 2027 unrestricted free agency.

The Warriors made a jump to $48.5 million total over two years in the latest and last round of these drawn-out negotiations. Kuminga’s deal becomes the fourth-highest salary on the Warriors’ books next season behind Curry, Jimmy Butler III and Draymond Green, escalating the team’s luxury tax penalty by $70 million to a total of over $80 million.

By signing Kuminga to a salary of $22.5 million next season, Golden State will still have the flexibility to use its $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception and sign two players to the veteran’s minimum. Gary Payton II signed a one-year, veteran’s minimum contract with the Warriors on Monday, and Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and rookie Will Richard have agreed to deals, too.

The Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings were the strongest suitors for Kuminga in trade talks, with the largest sign-and-trade offer coming via the Suns as a four-year, nearly $90 million deal with a player option, sources said. The Warriors never showed interest in either team’s trade proposal, however, declining concepts of Royce O’Neale and second-round picks from the Suns and Malik Monk and a protected first-round pick from the Kings.

Kuminga was largely out of the rotation in the Warriors’ first-round series against the Houston Rockets, playing just 50 minutes total across seven games, including four that he sat out due to coach’s decision. He averaged six points on 30.4% shooting against Houston. However, Kuminga shined in the Warriors’ Western Conference semifinals series against the Minnesota Timberwolves with Curry sidelined. He averaged 20.8 points on 54.3% shooting against the Timberwolves, including three straight games scoring over 20 points to end the series.

Kuminga has led the Warriors in paint points per game in each of the past two seasons as he averaged 10 points in the paint in 2023-24 and 8.5 last season, per ESPN Research — a major boost for a team that was fifth worst in paint points last season. Among players from the 2021 draft class, Kuminga ranks fifth in points per 36 minutes (minimum 150 games).

Kuminga is also one of eight players with 3,000 points and 1,000 rebounds from the 2021 draft class, and he is one of five players to score 3,000 points before turning 23 in Warriors history.

Kuminga has shown an ability to raise his performance when the Warriors are missing a key cog, increasing his scoring average from 14.1 points in games Curry played to 19.6 points in 10 games without Curry, which was second on the team in this situation behind only 20 points per night from Butler, who played just three contests without Curry. Kuminga also increased his shooting percentage from 44.5% with Curry to 48.2% without him.

Kuminga becomes the third restricted free agent to find a resolution in September, after Cam Thomas signed a one-year, $6 million qualifying offer to return to the Brooklyn Nets and Josh Giddey reached a four-year, $100 million deal to stay with the Chicago Bulls. Philadelphia‘s Quentin Grimes remains the final outstanding restricted free agent.

Entering free agency this summer, only a few teams had salary cap space, which created a freeze for the restricted market. The Nets have operated as the only team with real salary cap space for the majority of the offseason.



Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sports

College watchdog group nixed 500-plus NIL deals

Published

on

College watchdog group nixed 500-plus NIL deals


The College Sports Commission has rejected nearly $15 million in name, image and likeness agreements since it started evaluating them over the summer, representing more than 10% of the value of all the deals it has analyzed and closed.

The CSC released its latest statistics Monday, saying it did not clear 524 deals worth $14.94 million, while clearing 17,321 worth $127.21 million. All the data was current as of Jan. 1.

The numbers came against the backdrop of a “reminder” memo the commission sent to athletic directors last week, citing “serious concerns” about contracts being offered to athletes before they had been cleared through the commission’s NIL Go platform.

The CSC is in charge of evaluating all deals worth more than $600 that are offered by third-party businesses that are often affiliated with the schools recruiting the players.

“Without prejudging any particular deal, the CSC has serious concerns about some of the deal terms being contemplated and the consequences of those deals for the parties involved,” the Friday night memo said.

The CSC said primary reasons for deals not being cleared were that they lacked a valid business purpose; they didn’t directly activate a player’s NIL rights, instead “warehousing” them for future use; and that players were being paid at levels that weren’t “commensurate with similarly situated individuals.”

The memo reminded ADs that signing players to deals that hadn’t been cleared by the CSC left the players “vulnerable to deals not being cleared, promises not being able to be kept, and eligibility being placed at risk.”

Other statistics from the latest report:

There were 10 deals in arbitration as of Dec. 31, eight of which have since been withdrawn. All involved a resolved administrative issue at one school not named by the CSC.

• 52% of deals submitted to NIL Go were resolved within 24 hours.

• 73% of deals reached resolution within seven days following submission of all required information.

• 56% of the 10,848 athletes who have at least one cleared deal play football or men’s basketball.



Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Alonso wasn’t perfect, but sacking him ignores Madrid’s real problems

Published

on

Alonso wasn’t perfect, but sacking him ignores Madrid’s real problems


So, Xabi Alonso becomes the tenth permanent Real Madrid manager of Florentino Pérez’s 21-plus-year presidential reign to be sacked without even completing a year in charge.

Just when the 44-year-old Madrid playing legend seemed to have calmed the stormy waters that had threatened to overwhelm him since autumn, the biggest sin in the entire dictionary of Must Not Commit for Bernabéu managers, losing to Barcelona when a trophy is at stake, has cost him his job. Those around Alonso — who leaves with Madrid only four points off the top of LaLiga, safely in the UEFA Champions League top eight and with a nervy Copa del Rey tie at Albacete on Wednesday — will look back at the final moments of Sunday’s Supercopa final and think about Álvaro Carreras and Raúl Asencio, who each had point-blank chances to score and take the final to penalties.

Alonso, in retrospect, stands condemned, at least in the eyes of Pérez — the only person whose opinion matters when a coach’s fate is concerned — of several offenses.

First: The damage done to Alonso’s public reputation and club credibility when, on substituting Vinícius Júnior in the victorious Clásico last October, the Brazil international erupted in anger while showing disrespect for his manager. Even in victory, the player’s actions hogged the headlines because he screamed into the night air, “This is why I’m going to leave this team. This is why I’m leaving!”

Pérez wants Vinícius to renew his contract, at all costs. So although Alonso palpably repaired much of the damage with his 24-year-old star, and on Sunday helped him produce his best goal and best performance since Carlo Ancelotti left, it’s now clear that irreparable damage was done to Pérez’s view of his coach.

Second: Losing to Barcelona in a big final remains, it seems, a capital offense. Just as a reminder, it has been about five weeks since I wrote in this very space, “If the 44-year-old coach, who won all there is to win in his playing career and then made history by making Bayer Leverkusen Bundesliga champions for the first time, can beat Atlético Madrid in the Supercopa semifinal and either Barcelona or Athletic Club in the final, then he’ll finally be left alone to do his job until the end of the season. But to come home without a trophy? Alonso will almost certainly be sacked.”

Third: When Madrid played anodyne, point-dropping football against Rayo Vallecano, Elche and Girona, and then lost consecutively at home to Manchester City and Celta Vigo, there was a massive manhunt mounted, by the club and by the media, to find someone to blame. Correctly or not, and I think the answer is firmly “not,” it has been the coach — rather than the president or the players — who has been found guilty.

Fourth: Alonso, it must be said, hasn’t “played the game.” Managing upward is an increasingly key skill when you’re coaching at a big club — that’s true anywhere in the world, but particularly when your direct boss is the unaccountable Pérez.

Throughout his life, either as the son of the excellent player Periko Alonso; or while coming through the ranks at Real Sociedad; playing brilliantly for Liverpool, Madrid, Bayern Munich and Spain; or making history by taking Bayer Leverkusen to their best-ever trophy season; Xabi Alonso has been the man. Venerated, respected, ultra talented, backed, fêted, desired, rewarded and awarded deity status. Don’t take my word for it, just think how he’s regarded by Spain (European and world champion), at Liverpool (hero of the greatest match in their entire history), local boy made good at Real Sociedad, José Mourinho’s lieutenant at Madrid and Pep Guardiola’s chosen linchpin while winning trophy after trophy at Bayern. He simply didn’t need to kowtow to anyone. Ever.

It’s different at Madrid and, so, when his friend and mentor, Guardiola, used a vulgar expression in support of Alonso before City won at the Bernabéu in December, it went down very badly indeed when Alonso’s postmatch response, teased out by a journalist, seemed to be sympathetic to what City’s Catalan coach was suggesting about Alonso’s relationship with Pérez.

Until very recently, Alonso, never rude, was standoffish and cool with the assembled, hard-nosed, some would say Pérez-aligned media who turned up to news conferences six times a week at the Madrid training ground. He changed his stance when he knew he was fighting for his continued employment: He began to expand on answers, share a joke, become a bit more touchy-feely, and it was working. But he played that game a little too late.

It was extremely telling when Alonso suggested to his players on Sunday in Jeddah that they form a guard of honor for Barcelona’s victorious players (as Hansi Flick’s men had done for them while they walked up to get their losers’ medals), but Kylian Mbappé usurped him and fiercely gestured to the squad that he, not Alonso, had the final word and that no way would they be forming two lines and letting the Supercopa winners feel honored. Very, very damaging imagery.

What’s a little bit shocking is that the Spanish football media, having set the table for an Alonso sacking over and over again in November and December, were utterly caught by surprise. Even playing pretty moderately, in victory against Sevilla, Real Betis and Atlético, Madrid’s players were clearly pulling for their coach, they were building results — admittedly from a low base — and they were looking very like steering Los Blancos into the extremely valuable top eight of the Champions League with two winnable matches in their sights this month. Marca’s headlines this morning included “Xabi revives the Mourinho style” and “What a miss from Carreras in the 95th minute.” No blame thrown at the coach. Their famous columnist, Alfredo Relaño, stated, “Xabi Alonso lost the final but saved his situation.” The much more hawkish, Pérez-oriented Diario AS used “Only Raphinha was better than Madrid” as their match headline, and the self-confessed ultra-Madridista columnist Tomás Roncero’s column read “Nothing to reproach you over.”

One of the biggest signs, in my opinion, as to the general mood of this singular, polemic, but highly successful, billionaire president, and something that Alonso could have paid more attention to, is the name of the stadium.

For the longest time, it’s been called the Santiago Bernabéu in honor of the man previously regarded as the greatest leader in Real Madrid’s history. More and more, and often in formal terms, it’s being called “the Bernabéu” — a change that, in my view, will preface a gradual, strategic and corporate-driven moving of Pérez toward the top of the podium of all-time presidents. This 78-year-old has, gradually but consistently, aimed at moving beyond his “Primus inter pares” (“first among equals”) status to be regarded as the all-time greatest. His costly and, so far, not wholly successful redevelopment of the stadium was supposed to be the jewel in the crown but, for a host of reasons, hasn’t hit home with the power he expected it to. I think, a couple of months away from his 79th birthday, he feels that time is flying, and he has none to waste.

He needs, desires, more league wins, more Champions Leagues, fewer sights of Barcelona lifting trophies, less whistling and jeering when Madrid play at their imperious HQ. He craves the formation of a European Super League. Right now, he’s being thwarted in too many of those desires.

Those previous nine coaches he sacked only a few months into their reigns usually, it must be pointed out, made way for more successful, more glorious periods for the club as European and domestic trophies were stacked up and the best players actively chose to move to Real Madrid. This fact is incontestable.

President Pérez, in my opinion, has blamed the wrong man, has ignored the real problems and, now that he has passed the baton to Álvaro Arbeloa, he has perpetuated the real flaws rather than cured them in sacking Alonso. But he won’t care about that opinion and, in the past, his irresistible force has defeated any apparently immovable object. This time? I’m unconvinced.

Bad luck, Xabi. You only partially contributed to this situation. But, as you always said yourself, Real Madrid is different. Real Madrid is unique. Good luck with what comes next.



Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Ex-NFL player missing for 7 months, sister says

Published

on

Ex-NFL player missing for 7 months, sister says


NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The sister of former New York Giants defensive back Sam Beal pleaded with the public for help finding her brother who has been missing for about seven months.

Essence Zhane took to her Facebook page on Monday to ask anyone who may have seen Beal to contact the Kentwood Police Department in Virginia.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

A picture of Sam Beal uploaded to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) in October 2025. (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs))

“Tomorrow makes it 7 months since we’ve last heard from or seen my brother,” she wrote on social media. “We’ve done everything we could on our end to piece things together and at this point we’re in desperate need of support on all ends. I’m not here to answer a bunch of why’s and how’s I just need this to land in the right direction to gain some form of answers or closure.

“I’m a Big sister and I need my brother to know that We Love You and miss you and this has been a heavy feeling for months to carry around.”

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database said the last time Beal had contact with loved ones was back on July 13, 2025. He is missing from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

He’s described as having black hair with a muscular and athletic build with brown eyes.

Beal’s girlfriend was the last one to see the former NFL player. He dropped her off at her family’s home and was supposed to head to work. However, Beal headed toward Virginia Beach. His girlfriend said the last time she heard from him, he said he was going back home.

Sam Beal in 2019

New York Giants cornerback Sam Beal talks to reporters after the first Giants OTA on Monday, May 19, 2019, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com)

HOW SHOULD QBS THROW FOOTBALLS INTO THE WIND? TOM BRADY IS HERE TO HELP

“Samuel did not bring anything with him aside from the clothes he was wearing, a pair of slides, and his wallet that contained his banking card and driver’s license,” a description of his disappearance in the database read. “The girlfriend’s vehicle was recovered in Virginia Beach, VA by one of her family members. The vehicle was found with Samuel’s shoes and socks on the floor of the front passenger seat along with some sand on the floor.”

Beal was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and attended high school in the state. He went to Western Michigan before the Giants took him in the 2018 NFL Supplemental Draft.

He played in games with the Giants, including starting three games for them during his rookie season in 2019. He missed the entire 2020 season due to a COVID-19 opt-out.

Sam Beal takes on the Jets

New York Giants cornerback Sam Beal (23) warms up before his Giants debut against the New York Jets on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com, North Jersey Record via Imagn Content Services, LLC)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Beal pleaded guilty to gun charges before the 2021 season and was placed on probation for a year.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending