Even with the presence of a salary cap and max contracts, the NBA's top players will have a diverse range of salaries next season. This is because in the NBA, maybe moreso than any of the other major sports, the salaries of top players are largely dependent on when they are drafted, when their contracts expire, and what the salary cap will be in the first year of their new deals.

Of the players who have finished in the top-12 in MVP voting in the last two seasons, LeBron James is expected to have the highest salary ($22.1 million) once he signs his max contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers. This is because James has more than 10 years of service time and can earn up to 35% of the projected salary cap.

Meanwhile, other free agents with more than six, but fewer than 10 years of service time (e.g. Kevin Love) can earn 30% of the cap, or about $18.9 million next season. Players like Stephen Curry and Anthony Davis will continue to be bargains for their teams due in large part to early-career injuries for Curry and a new contract for Davis that won't kick in until the 2016-17 season.

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NOW WATCH: A famous surfer is trying to revolutionize the sport of golf with a new gadget

Misty Copeland was already arguably the most famous ballet dancer in the United States. But this week, the 32-year-old made history: she became the first African American woman to be named principal dancer with the legendary American Ballet Theatre. 

For Copeland, who just starred in the company's production of "Swan Lake" at the Met, it represents the culmination of a longtime dream — one she's repeated "like a mantra," but wasn't sure she'd ever achieve. 

The dancer describes herself as an "unlikely ballerina" (it's the subtitle of her 2014 memoir), and it's true: whatever your ballet stereotypes, it's likely Copeland doesn't fit them. Here's how she went from "pretty much homeless" to dance superstar. 

SEE ALSO: There are only 229 Master Sommeliers in the world — here's how one 27-year-old worked his way into this exclusive club

Misty Copeland was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1982. When she was 2, her parents divorced, and her mom, Sylvia, moved Copeland and her three older siblings to start over in Bellflower, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. The next time she saw her biological father, she would be 22 and a dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.

Source

Copeland spent her childhood "dancing to Mariah Carey videos, rewatching a movie about the gymnast Nadia Comaneci, and being very prepared for school, where she was a hall monitor and the class treasurer," wrote Rivka Galchen in a 2014 New Yorker profile.

Source

But she didn't take any formal gymnastics or dance classes until she was 13 — insanely late for a female ballet dancer. These kids are auditioning for the super prestigious School of American Ballet. They're between 6 and 10.

Source

The Sacramento Kings are having the worst offseason in the NBA, and it's not close.

The Kings have most recently been criticized for making a lopsided, salary-dump trade in which they gave up two players, their 2014 No. 8 pick in Nik Stauskas, a top-1o protected pick, and the right to swap two future first-round picks for two European prospects and a second-round pick.

However, that trade follows a slow trainwreck that's been building since December.

After getting off to an 11-13 start, the Kings fired head coach Mike Malone. Not only was Malone star center DeMarcus Cousins' favorite coach, Cousins learned of the firing on Twitter.

The Kings then flopped through the rest of the season with interim coach Tyrone Corbin, who was given a new contract, suggesting he'd finish out the year as coach. Instead, two months later, the Kings then let go of Corbin and hired George Karl as head coach. At the time, there were reports that Cousins and his camp opposed the hiring.

The Kings missed the playoffs for the ninth year in a row, and the team has since seemingly fallen apart. Reports surfaced just before the NBA Draft that the Kings were considering trading Cousins, with Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski saying it was unlikely Cousins and Karl could "peacefully co-exist."

Furthermore, Wojnarowski reported that Karl was the one pushing the trade and trying to gain support from the Kings' front office, despite vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac saying they wouldn't trade Cousins.

Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee reported that Cousins and Karl haven't spoken since April. Around the time of the reports, Cousins tweeted a thinly veiled shot at Karl:

This created another rift between Karl – who is known for wanting to have a say in personnel control – and Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, who was frustrated with Karl's meddling.

Now, the Kings face an unpleasant dilemma: fire Karl, who's their sixth coach in four years, or trade Cousins, one of the best talents in the NBA.

Firing Karl seems to be the better option, but that doesn't make it easy. It adds further instability to the organization, and strangely empowers Cousins. Cousins hasn't gotten along with a majority of the Kings' coaches during his five-year career, and firing another coach doesn't make Sacramento an easy sell for any future coaches, knowing they'll lose their jobs if they get off to a slow start or don't get along with Cousins.

And this is only off-the-court. The Kings are also having their issues with fielding an actually competitive roster.

Though they cleared lots of cap space with the aforementioned Sixers trade, their plans to use it are not all that appealing. They were reportedly targeting a combination of Rajon Rondo, Wesley Matthews, and Monta Ellis with the space, a plan that makes little sense.

Ellis signed with the Pacers and actually reportedly left money on the table from the Kings, who offered him $4.3 million more than the Pacers. Rondo had a horrible 2014-15 season and is a poor fit for a roster that lacks reliable shooters. Matthews, though one of the best wing players in the NBA, is coming off a torn Achilles, a historically devastating injury in the NBA, and is seeking $15 million per year, which the Kings might meet. Matthews could end up being a good signing, but the risk is there.

At the beginning of last season, the Kings seemed to be on the right track, getting off to a 9-5 start with a decent squad, a stable relationship between Cousins and Malone, and the promise of cap space. They've since hired a coach that doesn't get along with their star and is trying to undermine the front office, and are looking chase undesirable free agents or overpay the best ones.

Now, the Kings have so many issues to handle that it seems their gradual rebuilding process has taken several steps backwards.

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NOW WATCH: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The historic 1996 Chicago Bulls championship team

It originally looked like the New York Yankees and Alex Rodriguez were going to go to war over a $6 million home run bonus. Now it looks like the two sides are closing in on a happy ending and the big winner would be one unnamed charity.

A source told Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com the two sides are discussing a scenario in which they would "split the difference" and send the money to a charity of A-Rod's choice.

Presumably, this means the two sides would agree to a bonus of $3 million, which would then be sent to a charity.

When Rodriguez signed his 10-year, $275 million contract with the Yankees following the 2007 season, the two sides also agreed to a separate $30 million marketing agreement that would pay Rodriguez $6 million bonus each time he tied one of the players ahead of him on the career home run list and another $6 million bonus when he broke the all-time home run record.

A-Rod recently hit the first of those milestones with career home run No. 660, tying Willie Mays. Afterwards, general manager Brian Cashman argued that the Yankees were under no obligation to pay A-Rod since it was up to the team to decide if the milestone was marketable.

“We have the right not the obligation to do something,” Cashman told the media at the time. “And that's it. It's not you do this, you get that.” A-Rod refused to discuss the issue publicly, simply calling it “family business” and that he was focused on playing baseball. 

It looked like the two sides were headed towards an arbitration hearing. Instead, the two sides may be close to a happy ending.

It is also the latest sign that we are dealing with a new A-Rod that seemed to emerge after he got some advice attorney Jim Sharp, a former member of the Navy JAG Corps, in 2014. Sharp told A-Rod, "You're ruining your life." At that point A-Rod decided to stop fighting MLB and now is back to being a productive baseball player.

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NOW WATCH: This is why LeBron James is in such good shape

On July 4, while the US is busy celebrating its Independence Day, three Americans will join 195 other top cyclists from around the world as they start the 102nd Tour de France in Utrecht, the Netherlands. About 2,000 miles later, those still in the race will reach Paris on July 26.

One rider will be declared champion and have his name written in the history books alongside some of the greatest athletes in all of sport, including Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain, all of whom won the greatest bicycle race fives times.

The American with the best shot at winning this year's race is Washington native Tejay van Garderen, but he'll have to beat Colombia's Nairo Quintana, Kenyan-born UK rider Chris Froome, Spain's Alberto Contador, and defending champ Vincenzo Nibali of Italy. Florida's Andrew Talansky could ride high up on the general classification as well.

Here are key numbers for this year's Tour, the world's largest annual sporting event:

SEE ALSO: GoPro is about to forever change how we watch the Tour de France

DON'T MISS: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The Lance Armstrong team that dominated the Tour de France

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NOW WATCH: The cycling world can't stop talking about this new superfast bike going into the Tour de France

As expected, LeBron James will opt out of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers and became a free agent on July 1.

When he returned to Cleveland last summer LeBron signed a two-year, $42.1 million deal with an opt out clause after one year. According to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, he's expected to do the same thing this time around. He'll be able to be a free agent in the summer of 2016 and, perhaps, 2017 as well.

By continuing to sign one-year deals, LeBron is going to make himself a ton of money in the long term. Based on our calculations, he'd make an extra $30 million by signing a maximum contract in the summer of 2016 than he would by signing a max contract now, and he'd make an extra $110 million more by waiting until 2017 to sign a max deal.

The value of LeBron's max contract is tied to two things: the salary cap and the number of consecutive years he spends with the Cavs (an NBA provision known as "Bird Rights").

The NBA salary cap is going to explode in the summer of 2016. As a result of the league's massive new TV deal, the salary cap is projected to jump from $67.1 million in 2015-16 to $89 million in 2016-17 and a whopping $108 million in 2017-18. Since LeBron has been in the league for more than 10 years, the value of his max contract starts at slightly less than 35% of the salary cap. With the salary cap about to jump, LeBron would be wise to wait and get ~35% of $89 million in 2016 (or, even better, ~35% of $108 million in 2017) rather than ~35% of $67 million now.

LeBron's max contract right now starts at $22 million. Next summer it starts at $29 million, and in the summer of 2017 it starts at $35.6 million.

That's a massive difference, but LeBron has an even bigger incentive to wait to sign a max deal when you factor in his Bird Rights status. Since LeBron has only been with the Cavs for one year, under NBA rules his max contract can only be four-years long, and his annual raises can only be 4.5% of his first-year salary.

But if he re-signs with the Cavs on a one-year deal, Cleveland will get his "Early Bird Rights" in 2016 because he will have been with the team for two-straight years. That means they can give him a four-year max contract with 7.5% annual raises next summer.

But if he signs two more one-year deals and waits to sign a max contract in the summer of 2017, Cleveland will have his full Bird Rights. As a result, they can give him a five-year max contract with 7.5% annual raises — the biggest contract an NBA player can get.

When you combine these two factors (the exploding salary cap and Cleveland getting his Bird Rights), you end up with wildly different max contracts depending on when LeBron signs it. In 2015, LeBron can sign a four-year, $94.4 million contract. In 2016, he can sign a four-year, $125.3 million contract. And in 2017, he can sign a five-year, $204.4 million contract.

Here's the full breakdown:

The smartest thing that LeBron can due financially is sign two more one-year contracts, and then get that $200+ million deal in 2017. It'd certainly be a risk to pass up guaranteed money now in favor of chasing that mega-contract, but LeBron has never had injury problems, and if there's one 32-year-old who'd be worth a $200 million deal, you think it'd be LeBron.

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NOW WATCH: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The historic 1996 Chicago Bulls championship team

Alex Rodriguez has signed two of the largest contracts in MLB history. He's currently making $21 million this season, and still has two more years left on the monster deal he signed in 2007.

While he has spent his record $400 million in career earnings lavishly at times (he's really into houses and fine art), he has also used it to invest in several business ventures.

Here is how A-Rod makes and spends his money.

He's making $21 million this season, which makes him one of the 20 highest-paid MLB players.

Source: Spotrac

He made $6 million last year, even though he was suspended and didn't play a single game.

Source: Forbes

He has made more than $400 million total in career salary, which makes him the highest-paid player in MLB history.

Source: Spotrac, Business Insider

The world's premier bicycle race, the Tour de France, starts July 4, and there are four big favorites to win it.

Three of them have won the Tour before: Spain's Alberto Contador, in 2007 and 2009; Kenyan-born UK rider Chris Froome, in 2013; and Italy's Vincezno Nibali, the defending champion.

The fourth favorite has never won the race: Colombia's Nairo Quintana. But for many he's still the man to beat, which is remarkable considering it's only his fifth time riding a grand tour, or three-week stage race.

Why he could win

The Tour de France route changes every year, and this time there is only one individual time trial, and it's just 13.8 kilometers long.

Quintana is a pretty good time-trial rider, but he would more than likely lose valuable time against the likes of Froome and Contador if the ITT were longer. Good for him it's not.

The only other TT is a team time trial, and Quintana's Movistar Team is strong in that discipline, so he shouldn't lose much time, if any, there. So most of the Tour should come down to the battles in the high mountains, which bodes well for the compact Colombian and not so well for his chief rivals, who are great climbers but essentially more all-rounders than climbing specialists.

Who is Nairo Quintana?

While many may not know the name Quintana as well as they do, say, Froome or Contador, the quiet Colombian has made his mark in pro cycling over the past few years, and he's now very much a marked man in the peloton.

Nairo Alexánder Quintana Rojas, 25, is a climbing specialist on the Spanish Movistar Team. At five-seven and 130 pounds, he goes up mountains faster than just about anyone, and that makes his rivals nervous. He has shown in previous races that on the steepest gradients he can attack, attack, and attack again until he drops everyone.

Last year he became the first South American to win the Tour of Italy, or Giro d'Italia, the second most prestigious stage race after the Tour.

And he finished second in his very first Tour de France, in 2013, to Froome. (Quintana skipped the Tour last year after winning the Giro.) That was the highest place a South American rider had ever finished in the Tour.

This year Quintana looks to go up a step on the podium and win, and make more history for Colombia as its first Tour champion.

Physically, Quintana is just very tough to beat. As The Wall Street Journal reports (emphasis added):

His local athletic trainer tested "Quintana’s VO2 max, a key performance indicator that measures the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can use. Elite cyclists often register a VO2 max in the 60s or 70s. Quintana scored an 86, about the same as [Lance] Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times before being stripped of those titles for doping."

During past races, memes about Quintana have gone viral on cycling Twitter — essentially showing his expressionless killer look even under pressure and when attacking rivals:

The unassuming Quintana has a background that's vastly different from that of his rivals in pro cycling, a sport that's been dominated by Europeans for a century.

As NPR reports, Quintana was raised on a farm 10,000 feet high in the Andes near the village of Cómbita. As a toddler, he nearly died from a bad case of diarrhea. Growing up, he didn't play sports but instead helped his dad with the farm and did his chores, often getting up at 2 a.m.

According to the Colombian cycling blog Alps & Andes, Quintana was raised by peasant parents in "precariously difficult economic conditions," and yet it was those challenging times that helped bring cycling into his life. His family got him a bike so that he could travel to the nearest school, which was nine miles away.

From Alps & Andes on Quintana's introduction to cycling:

His father bought a used mountain bike for the equivalent of $30. Nairo treasured the bike, and slowly began to daydream during his rides to school. Every time he rode the bike, he pictured himself racing, and winning a stage that always ended on a mountaintop (which was actually his home), after a lengthy 8% climb. Once there, his parents were always there to greet him when he arrived.

NPR also notes that as a high-schooler Quintana grew so strong as a rider that he'd sometimes attach a cable to his sister's bike and tow her up hills. He'd go on to win his first races on a secondhand bike, and the rest is history.

Asked two years ago about winning the Tour de France one day, the ever-chill Quintana just said, it's possible.

So far this year he's been mostly quiet on the bike. His lone win was a good one, at March's Tirreno-Adriatico, a weekong stage race. Last month he finished second to Contador at the mini stage race Route du Sud, where the two went mano a mano on the climbs. Contador ended up pulling out the win with some aggressive descending.

For Quintana fans, though, it was a sign that his legs are right where they need to be to win the Tour. As for Contador, he won the Giro this May, and many are wondering if he'll be able to keep top form throughout the grueling Tour.

At 25, Quintana finds himself a five-star favorite. Not bad for someone who didn't even play sports as a kid. 

In the coming three weeks we'll see how he fares against the world's best.

The race finishes in Paris on July 26.

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NOW WATCH: The cycling world can't stop talking about this new superfast bike going into the Tour de France

When we think of a true American, a few qualities come to mind: strong, resilient, talented, innovative, and pioneering. 

In honor of the Fourth of July, we've created a ranking of Americans who possess all these qualities. They've all helped to shape the social, economic, cultural, and political landscape of our country within last year (and many, much longer than that).

From recording artists to politicians to athletes to activists, scroll through to find out who we think is truly patriotic this year.

SEE ALSO: FIRST KIDS OF THE UNITED STATES: Where are they now?

John Green is the voice of a generation: All three of his young adult novels — including heartbreaking teen love story "The Fault in Our Stars" — have been bestsellers and two of them have been made into feature films. He and his brother also host a huge video bloggers conference annually.

Say what you will about Facebook, but Mark Zuckerberg popularized social media and has connected millions of people around the country — and now more than a billion around the world — through the social network.

Elizabeth Holmes is a one-woman powerhouse. Her $9 billion biotech company Theranos is turning the medical industry upside down. She's the youngest female self-made billionaire and a stellar innovator — what's more American than that?

Click for the story >

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The Chicago Cubs have been rebuilding for several years now with an unorthodox plan. They seemed ready to become a serious World Series contender last winter when they added two of the biggest free agent prizes in pitcher Jon Lester and manager Joe Maddon.

But their plan has a flaw and it is being exposed in a big way.

After being swept over the weekend by the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cubs have lost five in a row. Their starting pitchers gave up 17 runs in 23.1 innings during that stretch. The losses dropped the Cubs to 11.5 games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central.

Plain and simple, the Cubs don't have enough starting pitching, and finding some will be tough to do in the trade market, Buster Olney of ESPN.com explained.

Olney notes that there may not be many starting pitchers available and those who may end up on the market come with red flags for the Cubs, whether it is a divisional rival (e.g. the Reds) or a player who has spurned the Cubs before (e.g. Jeff Samardzija).

The bigger problem for the Cubs is that they can't turn to their minor league system for help, and that lack of depth in starting pitching is by design.

For years now, most MLB teams have subscribed to the theory that pitching wins championships and there are two ways to acquire pitching talent.

Teams can either overspend on aging arms and hope they can stay healthy and effective, or teams can hoard a ton of young pitching prospects and hope a few of them pan out and become talented big leaguers who don't take up a lot of payroll space.

But while most teams were zigging, the Cubs were zagging, and on some levels it was a genius move.

With many teams subscribing to the hoard-young-pitching plan, to varying degrees of success, the Cubs were out hoarding top hitting prospects and quietly built what Baseball America ranked as the No. 1 farm system in terms of talent. Of the Cubs' top eight prospects, only one is a pitcher.

The upside of building a team around young hitting prospects is that you don't need to invest in as many. Talented position player prospects are almost never busts. They may not all become all-stars, but injury is much less of a concern and most become at least serviceable everyday players in the big leagues.

To make things more exciting for those on the north side of Chicago, several of those top prospects were on the verge of making it to the big leagues heading into this season, led by top prospects Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, and Jorge Soler.

The Cubs did add Lester with a six-year, $155 million contract that could be worth as much as $170 million and the starting pitchers did get off to a good start early in the season.

But the lack of depth is being exposed with Tsuyoshi Wada now on the disabled list for the second time this season and the rotation's ERA ballooning to a below-average 4.31 in the month of June.

There is still hope for the Cubs since they are just 1.5 games back in the Wild Card. But they can't afford any more injuries or struggles from their starting pitching.

If that happens, the Cubs will once again be looking to next year.

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NOW WATCH: 12 awesome facts about WWE superstar Brock Lesnar

If you're a cycling fan and it's July that means it's time for the Tour de France, which this year runs July 4-26.

The Tour is the world's largest annual sporting event and one of the most grueling physical and mental endurance tests for the fittest athletes on the planet.

The 102nd edition of the race takes 198 of the world's best cyclists over 2,000 miles. They'll race from Utrecht, the Netherlands, around France, and then finish in Paris three weeks later.

The best way we know of to watch the Tour de France from the US is on NBC Sports' live stream.

Note, we don't have cable TV — we're "cord cutters" — so we're watching the Tour on a laptop.

We just bought the "Full Tour Access" option for $29.99.

That gives you every stage of the race live in HD on your computer. It's for US residents only, the website says.

If you don't want to buy the entire Tour access, you can buy stage-only access for $4.99.

We have not tried the mobile version — not yet anyway — but we are hearing it's good, too.

To sign up, you go to tourdefrance.nbcsports.com, where you see this screen:

We chose "Web Access Only" and then got this screen:

We signed up for full access, and right away we were able to start watching the Tour. There is commentary in English.

If you know of another good way to watch the Tour live in US, share it in the comments.

So far so good. We're seeing a nice, clean, crisp stream with no buffering.

We'll update this post if anything changes with our NBC Sports stream.

—

SEE ALSO: A tiny 25-year-old Colombian rider with a freakish VO2 max has the world's best cyclists terrified going into the Tour de France

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NOW WATCH: The cycling world can't stop talking about this new superfast bike going into the Tour de France

Australian Rohan Dennis rode the fastest time trial in Tour de France history on Saturday.

He averaged 55.45 kilometers an hour — about 34.5 mph — for a stage-winning time of 14 minutes and 56 seconds over a 13.8-kilometer course.

It was the fastest individual stage ever ridden in the history of the century-old race.

Dennis blitzed around downtown Utrecht, the Netherlands, host of the Tour's "Grand Depart."

Dennis beat the 21-year-old mark set by Britain's Chris Boardman over a course that was just over half the length, AFP reported.

"It was nerve-racking watching the screen," Dennis said. "I didn't except to go that fast time-wise. When I get to back to the bus, I was told that it was the quickest time trial by my friend back in Adelaide. So that was a nice little bonus, you could say.

"It is possible to win and I'm not just a second-place rider. On my day I'm the best in the world," he said via AFP.

With that winning ride he also donned the first leader's yellow jersey of the race.

"It worked out perfectly. Tour de France … yellow jersey … it's a dream. I have always wished to be in this position and now I am.

"I left it all out there. I went off harder than what I thought I should have and I came back harder than what I thought I could," he said.

Dennis, 25, rides for the US-based BMC Racing Team.

His teammate, Tejay van Garderen, the No. 1 American rider in the race who's hoping for a podium spot himself, tweeted congratulations:

Dennis is the seventh rider from Australia to lead the Tour, the world's premier bicycle race, which runs July 4-26.

You can watch video highlights from the opening stage of the Tour below:

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NOW WATCH: The cycling world can't stop talking about this new superfast bike going into the Tour de France

With the Philadelphia 76ers' recent swindle of the Sacramento Kings, general manager Sam Hinkie has added even more assets to an already large stockpile. Since Hinkie became the team's GM in 2013, he has orchestrated one of the most radical rebuilding plans in recent memory, leaving some to question whether he's "a mad genius or just mad."

While Hinkie has been heavily criticized for stripping his team of its most talented players and absorbing other team's bad contracts in exchange for draft picks, he has helped the 76ers acquire the largest assortment of future draft assets in the NBA.

Between now and 2021, the Sixers have 10 1st-round picks (four more than normal) and 12 2nd-round picks (six more than normal), according to RealGM's draft pick trade database.

Here's how it breaks down year-by-year (note: the Sixers owe the Kings one future 2nd-round pick).

2016: Four 1st-round picks, one 2nd-round pick

• Own 1st-round pick
• Los Angeles Lakers 1st-round pick (top-3 protected)
• Miami Heat 1st-round pick (top-10 protected)
  
• Oklahoma City Thunder 1st-round pick (lottery-protected)
• Denver Nuggets 2nd-round pick

2017: One 1st-round pick, one 2nd-round pick

• Own 1st-round pick
• Own 2nd-round pick

2018: One 1st-round pick, three 2nd-round picks

• Own 1st-round pick
• Own 2nd-round pick
• Brooklyn Nets or Cleveland Cavaliers 2nd-round pick (the 76ers will receive the better of the two)
• Los Angeles Clippers or New York Knicks 2nd-round pick (the 76ers will receive the better of the two)

2019: One 1st-round pick, three 2nd-round picks

• Own 1st-round pick
• Own 2nd-round pick
• New York Knicks 2nd-round pick
• Milwaukee Bucks or Sacramento Kings 2nd-round pick (the 76ers will receive the better of the two)

2020: One 1st-round pick, three 2nd-round picks

• Own 1st-round pick
• Own 2nd-round pick
• Brooklyn Nets 2nd-round draft pick
• New York Knicks 2nd-round draft pick

2021: One 1st-round pick, two 2nd-round picks

• Own 1st-round pick
• Own 2nd-round pick
• New York Knicks 2nd-round draft pick

Other notable assets:

• Future 1st-round draft pick from the Sacramento Kings (top-10 protected)
• Dario Saric (2014 1st-round pick who is playing overseas)
• The right two swap 1st-round picks with the Kings in two more drafts

The most important year is 2016. If all goes according to plan, the 76ers could have four 1st-round picks — their own, the Lakers' (if it falls outside the top-three), Miami's (if it falls outside the top-10), and OKC's (if it falls outside the lottery).

In total, the 76ers already have 10 extra picks in the next six drafts. In addition to acquiring so many future assets, they've also given up very little. Hinkie has only dealt one future draft pick, a 2016 2nd-rounder.

Hinkie himself has called the NBA Draft "a crapshoot." He knows it's impossible to get every pick right, so he believes the best solution is to just acquire as many as you can and hope for the best:

"We will not bat a thousand on every single draft pick. We also have them by the bushelful, in part, because of that. We don't have any hubris that we will get them all right. We're not certain that we have an enormous edge over anybody else. In some cases, we might not have an edge at all."

They may not hit a home run on every pick, but with the amount of selections the 76ers have in the coming years, they'll at least get plenty of at-bats to try.

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NOW WATCH: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The historic 1996 Chicago Bulls championship team

Underground drone racing is gaining traction across Australia. As a result of murky legal guidelines regarding the accepted "fly zones" for drones, racing enthusiasts meet in basements to compete. They're highly secretive about their activities. 

Produced by Grace Raver. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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The New Orleans Pelicans struck a deal with Anthony Davis as soon as the NBA's free-agency period began at midnight on Wednesday.

With Davis eligible to become a free agent next summer, New Orleans locked him up with a five-year, $145 million extension that starts in the 2016-2017 season.

The $145 million is the largest contract number in NBA history, and Davis' $29 million yearly average would be the highest in the NBA right now.

As Grantland's Zach Lowe mentions, Davis' max starts in 2016-2017 and is based on the projected 2016-2017 salary cap of $89 million. Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski notes that Davis qualifies for a max contract exception in which he can get 30% of the salary cap (usually reserved for players with seven to nine years of service) instead of the usual 25% if he starts in next year's All-Star Game or makes an All-NBA team, which is highly likely. Thus, despite being in only his fifth year when the extension starts, Davis will be paid more than most of his peers.

Davis' reign at the top of the NBA could be temporary, however, because the NBA's rising salary cap will create bigger, wilder contracts than ever seen in the league.

In one year, Davis could be topped by other top free agents with more NBA experience. Players who have been in the NBA for 10 or more years can earn 35% of the cap, so within one year, the top free agents could see deals similar to or bigger than Davis'.

LeBron James will keep signing one-year deals until the Cavs have his Bird Rights and can offer him a max contract with 7.5% raises. As Business Insider's Tony Manfred noted, by 2017 LeBron could sign a five-year, $204 million deal.

LaMarcus Aldridge has similar motivation to sign a short deal this summer. Next year will be his 10th season, so by 2016, if Aldridge wants to hit free agency again, he could sign a four-year, $145 million contract with another team.

The summer of 2017 could be even crazier, when the salary cap is expected to be $108 million. A player with 10 years of service eligible for 35% of the cap would have a starting salary of $38 million!

Such is life in the NBA's the new cap environment, where max contracts nearing or topping $150 million could become a regular sighting.

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The blue whale is the largest animal to ever grace planet Earth. These paddle boarders off the coast of California had the privilege of being up close and personal with the dwindling species. There used to be 300,000 of these gargantuan creatures in the world and now there are only about 8,000. 

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Before the final World Cup game of her career, US women's national team legend Abby Wambach recorded an impromptu, tearful monologue about her career and her teammates during a scheduled Fox interview.

"I think I want to do this alone," Wambach said before clearing the room and speaking into the camera for seven minutes.

Fox aired most of it on their pregame show because the US-Japan Women's World Cup final. Wambach, the 35-year-old forward who has the most international goals in the history of the sport, has never won a World Cup.

"I have had the best life, and it's all, in total, because of the friendships I've made," she said. "I've literally grown up on this team. The good, the bad, and the ugly, my teammates have helped me through it all."

"The biggest thing I need to express is my gratitude, to be able to have played for so long, to share the field with extraordinary women."

Here's the whole monologue. It's great:

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The United States took a commanding 4-0 lead in the 16th minute of the World Cup final when Carli Lloyd scored an absolute stunner from midfield. 

The goal came less than 90 seconds after taking a 3-0 lead and it was Lloyd's third goal of the match. One Fox announcer called it “the best goal in women’s history!”

Replays showed that the Japan keeper slipped trying to retreat to her goal but still got a hand on the ball. It was not enough.

Getty photographer Dennis Grombkowski caught this incredible shot of the stunned Ayumi Kaihori laying on the ground and watching the ball go to the back of the net.

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In one of the best performances in United States soccer history, the US women's national team beat Japan 5-2 to win the Women's World Cup final.

It's the team's first World Cup title since 1999, and they won it in style.

The Americans scored two goals in the first five minutes and four goals in the first 15 minutes in one of the most stunning starts to a World Cup final you will ever see. The final scoreline wasn't as bad a Germany 7, Brazil 1 in the 2014 World Cup semifinal, but the 15-minute onslaught to open the game had the same feeling.

Carli Lloyd scored the first two goals, both off set pieces, and then got a hat trick inside 15 minutes with a ridiculous shot from a halfway line.

Lloyd's first goal, about 150 seconds into the game, came off a pre-planned corner play:

The second came after some sloppy Japan defending:

A Lauren Holiday volleyed goal made it 3-0:

Carli Lloyd scored from the halfway line to make it 4-0. What a goal in a game of this magnitude:

Another angle:

Japan was shell shocked:

While the US has historically been the most dominant team in women's soccer, this is the first World Cup title for this generation of USWNT players. Abby Wambach hadn't won a World Cup title until today. Either had Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, and other key players.

The perfection of those first 15 minutes stand in stark contrast to the way this team started the tournament. Playing with two forwards and a lack of numbers in the midfield, the US looked out of balance early on, scoring just four goals in their three group stage games. But a tactical adjustment in the quarterfinal — where Morgan Brian was brought into midfield in place of Wambach up top — changed everything. The US had its best performance to date against Germany in the semifinal, and then capped it off by going straight-up bonkers against Japan in the final.

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