The Philadelphia 76ers made waves at the 2015 NBA Draft when they took Duke big man Jahlil Okafor with the No. 3 pick.

On the surface this is a good pick. When the Sixers lost their guy — point guard D'Angelo Russell — to the Lakers at No. 2, they took the next-best player in Okafor, a center whose offensive skills already rival some of the best big men in the NBA.

Yet the pick remains a head-scratcher because the Sixers already have two young big men in Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid. Drafting another promising center seems to create a logjam in the rotation, and the NBA world is already wondering which of the three will be moved to create room for the other two.

Therein lies the problem with the 76ers' radical brand of rebuilding. Blatantly tanking, threatening not to meet the NBA's minimum salary floor, and hoarding assets is fine, particularly with idea that drafting cheap, young talent is the best path to title contention. However, over two years and a combined 37 wins, the 76ers have little to show for taking this route and seemingly no clear path to title contention.

Philadelphia doesn't figure to be much better this season than they were two years ago when they began this process. The Sixers have collected lottery picks as a means for building a star-studded team from the ground up, and thus far, frankly, haven't drafted well.

Michael Carter-Williams, the 23-year-old 11th pick in the 2013 draft, was traded last season. Joel Embiid, the 21-year-old third pick in the 2014 draft, hasn't played because of injuries and may not play for a long time. That leaves Okafor and Noel as the two prizes for tanking, and there are serious questions about whether they can play together.

Noel is a promising young big man, and arguably the only player on the roster that looks like a future centerpiece for a good team. He was the only player on the roster last year to play over 1,000 minutes and post a league-average Player Efficiency Rating of 15. 

If Embiid is the player most likely to be pushed out of the Noel-Okafor-Embiid triumvirate, there are still questions of how Noel and Okafor will fit together. In an era of the NBA when fast-paced, spread-out, small-ball offense rules, Okafor is a 6'11" post-based center and Noel is a 6'11" big man without a jumpshot.

If the answer to making this tandem work is pushing either one out of their natural position and forcing them to learn new skills, like shooting three-pointers to spread the floor, this isn't a wise rebuilding strategy.

There's also no guarantee that Okafor turns into a good NBA player, just like there isn't any guarantee that 2014 lottery pick Dario Saric, currently playing in Europe, will be a good player when he comes to the NBA. This is the inherent risk with every draft pick, but it's the basket the 76ers are putting all of their eggs in. Even if Okafor and Saric are, at minimum, rotation-worthy players, it will likely take a few years for them to fully develop and help the Sixers become a good team. Philadelphia can add more draft picks in successive seasons, but the timeline on this rebuilding process continues to stretch.

While the team could theoretically keep tanking season after season until they get the right combination of young talent, there is an actual clock on this process. Even with a great coach like Brett Brown and intriguing young players, contracts eventually expire and players and coaches reach a point where they want to move forward, tired of losing.

At some point, the Sixers need to make strides, and this process seems to be moving slower and more haphazardly than most expected.

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Sepp Blatter caused yet another firestorm this week when he said he did not resign as president of FIFA at a party, according to the Swiss newspaper Blick (via the BBC).

“I did not resign,” Blatter told the party. “I put myself and my office in the hands of the FIFA congress.”

The latter part of Blatter's statement suggests he wants to seek re-election when FIFA holds a special congress sometime later this year or early in 2016. This is also consistent with a report earlier this month that Blatter was reconsidering his decision to step down and could seek re-election after receiving “messages of support from African and Asian football associations.”

However, according to FIFA, Blatter is not changing his mind and will step down as planned.

In a statement to the Associated Press, FIFA said Blatter's comments do not contradict the comments he made when he announced his attention to step down.

“We can confirm the quotes in Blick are accurate,” FIFA said in the statement. “However, they are fully in line with the speech of the President on June 2.”

It appears that Blatter is just playing semantics at this point, something he is known for, possibly in an attempt to protect his legacy.

During his surprise press conference on June 2, Blatter never used the word “resign.” Rather, Blatter rather coyly said he “will continue to exercise [his] functions as FIFA President until that election” and that he “shall not be a candidate.”

Still, until a new president of FIFA is elected it would seem that anything is possible especially since Blatter undoubtedly still has the support of the many African and Asian soccer federations that have flourished under his reign. But for now, the plan, at least, is for Blatter to step down sometime in the next nine months.

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In the rush and excitement of Thursday night's NBA draft, many Twitter users mixed up a professional basketball player with a U.S. Congressman. 

Jahlil Okafor was drafted to the Philadelphia 76ers. In their rush to congratulate him, people turned to Twitter. 

Okafor's Twitter handle is @JahlilOkafor— but it seems many just started typing the first three letters of his name, then clicked the first user whose name came up.

And as it turned out, that user was Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes, or @jahimes. (Disclosure: the author of this post worked as an intern for Himes from 2012 to 2014.)

Here's what people were saying to the congressman:

Himes was clearly amused by the mix-up. Here's how he responded to the tweets:

The takeaway: don't skimp when it comes to spelling people's Twitter handles.

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Lance Armstrong is going back to the Tour de France.

But he's not going back to race, the BBC reports; he's going to raise money for the charity Cure Leukaemia, and not without controversy.

Armstrong is riding two stages of the Tour route a day ahead of the actual race, with fellow cancer survivor and ex-England soccer player Geoff Thomas.

Thomas told the BBC:

"We know Lance's involvement has split opinion, so we've tried to be as respectful as possible."

"The stages Lance will be riding come towards the end of week two, when I know all the riders will need some support.

"I know his arrival will give them the encouragement they will need to carry on with this gruelling challenge and in turn raise as much money as possible for blood cancer patients."

Many are not happy with Armstrong returning to the Tour, the world's largest annual sporting event and a race he won seven times before being stripped of his titles for using PEDs.

Brian Cookson, the president of the UCI, the sport's governing body, doesn't want Armstrong to do it, reports AFP:

“I’m sure that Geoff Thomas means well, but frankly, I think that’s completely inappropriate and disrespectful to the Tour, disrespectful to the current riders, and disrespectful to the UCI and the anti-doping community,” Cookson told the Sport Industry Breakfast Club in London.

“I think Lance would be well-advised not to take part in that.” Armstrong was banned for life from competing in cycling and triathlon by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in August 2012 and Cookson said the Texan’s charitable motives did not make his stunt more palatable.

The manager of one of the top teams in pro cycling, Sky's Dave Brailsford, said Armstrong had "done enough damage," the BBC reported. Sky is the team of 2013 Tour winner Chris Froome, who will be looking win this year's race after crashing out last year.

"For the sake of all clean riders in the peloton, who've already suffered enough from that era, leave them alone — enough's enough," Brailsford said.

The US Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, stripped Armstrong of his record seven Tour de France titles in October 2012.

In its "Reasoned Decision," USADA said that evidence against Armstrong showed beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, with Armstrong as its leader, "ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

Before he got caught for doping, Armstrong was considered by many to be the greatest cyclist in the history of the sport, which historically had been largely dominated by Europeans.

Before Armstrong, no cyclist had ever won more than five Tours. That Armstrong, a cancer survivor, won seven Tours in a row captured the attention of the entire world. The sport made Armstrong a multimillionaire and brought him fame. His net worth, according to The New York Times, was estimated at $125 million in 2012.

Recently he's been hanging out with retired NFL quarterback Brett Farve:

And hanging out with his wife in Cuba:

In August 2014, Armstrong told Dan Patrick that he still believed he won those seven Tours but no longer wore a Livestrong bracelet.

In December 2014 he crashed his SUV into two parked cars in Colorado and left the scene without contacting police. His girlfriend, Anna Hansen, tried to take the blame, telling Aspen police she wanted to keep his name out of national headlines.

In February, Armstrong was ordered to pay back $10 million in Tour de France prize money.

His Twitter bio still reads "7 X TdF champ":

This year's Tour runs July 4-26.

This fall a new biopic about Armstrong called "The Program" comes out. You can watch the first trailer below:

SEE ALSO: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The Lance Armstrong team that dominated the Tour de France

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Cliff Alexander, a 19-year-old NBA prospect who was a top-five recruit coming out of high school in 2014, went undrafted Thursday night.

While 60 players heard their names called, Alexander — who just a year ago was ranked higher than No. 1 pick Karl-Anthony Towns and No. 2 pick D'Angelo Russell— did not.

Described as a dominant bruising big man with tremendous athletic ability, Alexander had a tumultuous freshmen season at Kansas.

After a severe ankle injury cost him valuable practice time throughout the summer, he could only show flashes of his talent in limited minutes. An extremely efficient scorer in high school, Alexander scored 15 or more points in just two games at Kansas.

In March his season was cut short due to an NCAA investigation into his family allegedly receiving improper benefits from a financial firm specializing in pre-draft loans for athletes looking to turn pro. He missed Kansas' last three regular season games, and was held out for both the Big 12 and NCAA tournament due to the NCAA's investigation into the matter.

After declaring for the NBA Draft, more concerns were raised when Alexander only measured in at just over 6-foot-7 without shoes and suffered a right knee injury during a pre-draft workout for the Los Angeles Lakers. But even with all the questions surrounding him, Alexander was still projected to be drafted at the tail end of the first round.

After going undrafted, he sent out this tweet saying he's using it as motivation:

This isn't the end for Alexander. He tops most experts lists of best available undrafted players and will surely get an offer from an NBA team to compete in the Summer League. 

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The Boston Celtics, noted hoarders of future assets, reportedly offered an eye-popping trade package to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for the No. 9 pick in Thursday's NBA Draft.

According to ESPN's Chris Forsberg, the Celtics coveted Duke's Justise Winslow so badly they made an offer to the Hornets that included up to six future draft picks, including four potential first-rounders — some of which came in this year's draft.

Forsberg writes, "Boston had opened wide its war chest of picks to the point where many in the room were slightly uncomfortable with the amount the team would potentially part with."

Still, the Hornets couldn't be swayed and instead drafted Frank Kaminsky, a 7-footer from Wisconsin, who many experts felt would land somewhere in the teens.

If the offer was that straightforward — six picks, four potential future first-rounders — the Hornets are borderline insane for turning it down. It's possible that there were catches that turned off the Hornets, like heavy protections on the picks or the right to swap picks, but that sort of compensation for a mid-lottery pick is almost unprecedented.

There are rarely trades in the NBA where teams offer multiple picks for one asset in return. A recent example may be the Cleveland Cavaliers trading two first-round picks to the Denver Nuggets for Timofey Mozgov. This was thought to be a fair side for all teams — the Cavs had an extra draft pick and a desperate need for a center and the Nuggets got good compensation.

Another example could be the Atlanta Hawks getting three players, two draft picks, and the right to swap draft picks for Joe Johnson in 2013. That was an overpay, at the time and now, but the players were involved were all minimal role players.

What Michael Jordan and the Hornets turned down for one draft pick, if the reported offer is true, is on another level. Even Celtics GM Danny Ainge seemed to acknowledge it to Forsberg after:

"Maybe we were going too hard at it. There was a time when I thought, ‘Woah, this is getting a little out of control.’ We’re putting a lot of eggs in one young player’s basket. So I’m not frustrated. In the long run, maybe it’ll be the best." 

Again, perhaps the Celtics' offer wasn't as lucrative as it sounds — maybe the picks were late first-rounders, heavily protected, or too far down the line. Still, the Hornets have placed high expectations on Kaminsky, hoping he'll be worth more by himself than six future players.

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On the heels of the arrest of nine current and former FIFA officials in relation to a $150 million bribery scandal and the resignation of FIFA president Sepp Blatter days later, Hollywood has already begun working on a film about the scandal that has rocked the soccer world.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, among others, will produce a film that looks at the American soccer exec at the center of the scandal.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gavin O’Connor (“Warrior”) will direct the film, which will adapt the upcoming book “Houses of Deceit,” by BuzzFeed investigative reporter Ken Bensinger that is regarded as the definitive account of American FIFA exec Chuck Blazer’s role in arguably the largest sports scandal in history.

Warner Bros. won the bidding war for the book rights, which, according to THR, lasted over eight days of negotiations.

Affleck and Damon will share producing credits along with Guymon Casady ("Game of Thrones") and Darin Friedman.

O’Connor recently wrapped directing "The Accountant," starring Affleck.

The book, “Houses of Deceit,” follows Blazer’s incredible efforts to make soccer relevant in the US, going from unemployed soccer dad to becoming FIFA executive committee member and executive VP of the US Soccer Federation.

But the man behind the lucrative sponsorship and TV deals led a life of excess that included an apartment in Trump Towers that Blazer used only for his cats. 

Around 2010, things began to unravel for Blazer when allegations of bribery surfaced. When the FIFA scandal broke, news came out that Blazer admitted to accepting bribes with other FIFA members while also being an informant for the FBI. 

No word yet on when Warner Bros. will begin production on the project.

“Houses of Deceit” is based on Besinger’s 2014 investigative piece for BuzzFeed. 

SEE ALSO: The story behind the former top-ranking FIFA executive who reportedly became an FBI informant

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All 16 national federations for the teams that failed to get out of the group stage at the 2014 men's World Cup received $8 million from FIFA. That was $6 million more than the winning national federation will receive at this year's Women's World Cup, and that is just the start of the disparity.

Overall, the 32 federations representing teams of the men's World Cup took home $358 million. Germany, the champions, won $35 million and the other 31 federations made $8-25 million with an average of $10.4 million. Meanwhile, the Women's World Cup champion will win $2 million, with the other 23 federations taking home an average of $650,000.

To make matters worse, even though the total prize money at this year's Women's World Cup is $15 million, up from $10 million in 2011, the winner's share has doubled from $1 million to $2 million, the average share for the non-winning federations is actually down from an average of $670,000 to $650,000 because the tournament field was increased from 16 to 24 teams.

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If China upsets the US in the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup on Friday night each player will receive a bonus of up to $250,000 according to USA Today's Martin Rogers.

CFA vice president Yu Hongchen has already guaranteed each player $1 million yuan (about $161,000) for their Round of 16 win over Cameroon — which is already the highest bonus in China's women's national team history.

"CFA will contribute more to encourage our players and our sponsors will also take steps," Hongchen told Chinese news outlet Xinhua after China's 1-0 win over Cameroon. 

Rogers reports that the bonus is set to increase "between 40 and 60 percent" if China can pull off the upset win. 

The US is the heavy favorite — even with star players Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday suspended for the match. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight gives China only a 12% chance to pull off the upset, and less than a 1% chance of winning the entire tournament — the worst odds out of all eight remaining teams.

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The Championships, Wimbledon has the strictest dress code of all the major Grand Slam tennis tournaments.

The players must wear white. All white. It's tradition.

The All-England Club, where the tournament is played, takes this rule very seriously.

The dress code dates back to the 1800s, when tennis was played at social gatherings. The sight of sweat spots through colored clothing was thought unseemly, especially for women, and "tennis whites" became an institution. 

Wimbledon has carried on this strong tradition, even after the US Open allowed colored clothing in 1972.

And the dress code has only gotten more strict in recent years. Last year, the Club issued 10-part "decree" included in the competitor's guide all players must follow. Included in the decree are new rules revolving around the wearing of white, including stipulations like:

• "White does not include off-white or cream."
• There can only be “a single trim of color no wider than one centimeter.”
• "Any [colored] undergarments that either are or can be visible during play (including due to perspiration)” are not allowed. 

In 2013's tournament, seven-time Wimbledon champ Roger Federer was told his orange-soled shoes were too much and he would need to switch them for the next match. "My personal opinion: I think it’s too strict," Federer said in a press conference. 

Players have also claimed Wimbledon's argument of upholding tradition doesn't hold water. In 2014, Martina Navratilova — who has won the tournament nine times — was told the blue stripes on her skirt crossed the line. She questioned how that was possible, since she's worn the same type of outfits at Wimbledon throughout her long and storied career. Some of the pieces are even held by the Wimbledon Museum.

“I think they’ve gone too far,” she told The New York Times.

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In 2014 former Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals running back Rashard Mendenhall retired at age 26, walking away from millions in potential earnings. While Mendenhall may no longer be playing, he's still drawing on his NFL experience as a part of his new job.

Since retiring Mendenhall, who made more than $13.8 million during his six-year career, joined the Writers Guild of America and worked as a writer on the first season of HBO's "Ballers," which aired its series premiere last Sunday.

"Ballers" is about an ex-NFL player who transitions to life as an agent. It stars Dwayne The Rock Johnson, and has been widely compared to "Entourage."

While a former NFL player seamlessly transitioning from football to screenwriting may come as a surprise, Mendenhall told USA Today's Lindsay H. Jones he knew this is what he always wanted to do once his career ended:

"I've always known I wanted to write. It was always a passion of mine — it was peace, a getaway. It was also, even while I was playing, it was kind of an artist mentality. You have a day job, but the art that you're working on is what you really want to do. ...I knew that when I was done playing, that's what I was going to do. It was kind of always a thing behind [football], I just didn't know what to what extent in television or see how it was going to shape up."

Many athletes have a hard time transitioning to their new lives once their retire, but Mendenhall wrote in a blog post for The Huffington Post that hasn't been the case for him:

"I wasn't supposed to walk away from the NFL, but I did. I wasn't supposed to be writing television, but I am. I'm supposed to be lost after football. I'm not. I've reinvented myself. This is my first transformation. I'm supposed to be broke right now, or maybe the statistics say five years from now. Either way, I'm not even close. I'm not supposed to be anything but a football player. But really, I'm just a guy who used to play football. There's a reason I'm doing this."

Mendenhall is a part of a trend of under-30 players retiring in their primes. Jake Locker, Chris Borland, Anthony Smith, Patrick Willis, Anthony Davis, and Jason Worilds all retired this offseason. He told Jones he hopes to keep working on "Ballers" in the second season.

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LeBron James has opted out of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers and has become a free agent. While all signs point to James re-signing with the Cavs, there is work to be done and it sounds like LeBron is going to make the Cavs sweat until it happens.

James is expected to re-sign with the Cavs and does not plan to meet with other teams, according to sources for Brian Windhorst and Chris Broussard of ESPN, which has almost certainly been the plan all along.

James would have made $21.6 million next season under the old contract. By opting out, James can now sign a contract worth about $22.0 million for the 2015-16 season, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. More importantly, James will almost certainly sign a one-year contract which will allow him to become a free agent again next summer when the salary cap is set to explode thanks to an infusion of new national TV revenue. In 2016, James can sign a contract that will start with a salary close to $30 million with annual increases.

But there is more to James' free agency than just a $400,000 raise. If it was only about the money, he would just sign the contract as soon as it is offered on Wednesday. But that won't happen, according to Brian Windhorst on ESPN Radio, who described the situation as "a chance [for LeBron] to squeeze the Cavs a little bit."

The biggest issue is that the Cavs' Eastern Conference championship roster has eight free agents including several key contributors such as Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, and J.R. Smith. According to Windhorst, free agency for LeBron is just as much about making sure the Cavs open up their vault to make sure they keep a good team mostly intact.

The two most important pieces appear to be Love and Thompson. According to Windhorst, the Cavs still intend to offer Love a five-year, $110 million max contract and all signs point to Love accepting it even if he does talk to other teams before doing so.

Thompson is a restricted free agent and the Cavs intend to match any offer he receives, according to Windhorst. Complicating matters — or maybe simplifying them for James — is that Thompson and James share the same agent who's "first priority" is getting Thompson a new deal.

Re-signing James may be a formality, but it sounds like that won't happen until these other moves get done.

In the end, there almost certainly won't be a Decision 3.0 this summer. But until James does put pen to paper on a new deal with the Cavs, their fans should be holding their breath and hoping that things don't go horribly wrong.

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LeBron James and Kevin Love, as expected, have both opted out of their contracts and will become free agents on July 1.

While James is widely expected to simply sign a new deal with the Cavs, there's been more speculation about whether Love would bolt in free agency.

Love and James had an awkward relationship in their first year together, and when the Cavs made the Finals without Love for most of the playoffs, there were doubts about whether Love would want to return to Cleveland.

However, with just days before free agency starts, it seems LeBron, Love, and some friends were caught holding a meeting at a pool. 

Former rapper and current podcaster/art dealer Jensen Karp tweeted a photo of what appears be a poolside, cabana-shaded meeting:

Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group confirmed that the meeting took place, but reports that it wasn't a recruitment visit. Last week Chris Haynes of the NEOMG reported that LeBron doesn't plan to recruit Love this offseason, because, "He believes Love understands he can be a part of something special."

Still, one would imagine that free agency and the Cavs' future would have come up in some capacity during this pool party. In recent days there have been reports that Love will re-sign with the Cavs:

Despite playing well without Love, the Cavs are still in a tight position this summer, and their ultimate ceiling with their current core of players is lower without Love. Though their defense improved without Love in the playoffs, the Cavs missed his presence on offense, particularly James, who had nobody to look to on offense in the Finals.

Re-signing Love and LeBron will be just two items on Cleveland's long to-do list this summer — Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, and Matthew Dellavedova are all free agents as well. 

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American sprinter Trayvon Bromell, a 19-year-old who attends Baylor, had a historic weekend at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships.

In the prelims he ran the 100 meters in 9.84 seconds. It's the fastest time ever for a teenager and ties for the second-fastest time of 2015. At age 19, Bromell is the 10th-fastest man of all time and the fourth-fastest American. He went on to finish second to Tyson Gay in the 100m finals at the US Championships, which earned him a spot on the US team at the World Championships in Beijing in August.

"I started slowing down; I didn't want to run too fast and wear myself out," he said after his historic performance. "I'm really surprised. When I slowed it down I didn't think I was going to run that fast. Man it's crazy. I didn't try to run that fast in prelims."

Any American posting these sorts of times would be the talk of the track world, but what makes Bromell's story so special is his age. Historically, sprinters peak in their 20s. Alistair Tweedale of The Telegraph dug into the numbers and found that of the five fastest active sprinters— Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay, Justin Gatlin, and Yohan Blake — only Blake broke 10 seconds before turning 20.

Bromell is the first US teenager to ever qualify for the worlds in the 100m.

Baylor coach Todd Harbour told USA Today's Paul Myerberg that it was only a matter of time before a shoe company offered Bromell a monster deal to go pro:

If he runs the way he's been running … my gosh. It's going to be hard for some of these shoe companies not to say, 'This is the next one. This is the guy we've been waiting for.' They've been waiting for the next great sprinter to come along.

Bromell's ascent to the top of the US track world has been rapid. He broke his left hip in 10th grade, but two years later he set the high-school record in the 100m at 9.9 seconds and won the Gatorade Track & Field Athlete of the Year award. A year later he posted a wind-aided 9.77 at the Big 12 championships, which only intensified the "Next Big Thing" hype.

In early June he got beat the NCAA finals, but his performance at the US Championships put him back on track. In August, he'll face off against Bolt, Powell, and the others in the biggest event of the year.

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On the 2nd hole of his final round at the Travelers' Championship, Bubba Watson found himself in the right rough with a large tree between him and the green.

According to the commentators, as Watson approached the ball a nearby fan yelled out that he should hit a 4-iron under the tree. But Bubba, who has a tendency to hit out-of-the-box shots, went a different direction.

Instead of taking the fan's advice, Bubba took a wedge, went over the green, and landed it just a few feet from the hole.

Watson then turned back to the gallery to look for the heckling fan and jokingly asked, "Who yelled out the 4-iron punch?"

Watch the scene unfold below:

 Bubba went on to win the tournament for the second time in his career.

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The United States women's national team beat China 1-0 in their quarterfinal match at the Women's World Cup, but their chances of winning the entire tournament have actually gone down, according to the latest model from Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight. Germany is now a heavy favorite to win it all.

The US were a slight favorite prior to the tournament and opened up a 33%-25% lead over Germany entering the knockout stage. However, Germany became the favorite prior to the quarterfinals, and that was before their win over third-ranked France.

The US has looked shaky at times and despite dominating No. 16 China, they still only scored a single goal. As a result, Silver's model now gives Germany a 57% chance to beat the US in the semifinals and a 43% chance to win it all.

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