ERST LESEN! » r Dimitrov in Beijing. A week later, Nadal

Amare Stoudemire announced at a news conference on Monday that hes playing next season in Israel.Stoudemire will join Hapoel Jerusalem as an active player on a 2-year deal. As part of the agreement,?Stoudemire will sell his shares in the team to president and majority owner Dr. Ori AllonStoudemire is scheduled to travel to Israel next week as part of an NBA Cares initiative organized by the first Israeli to ever play in the NBA -- Sacramentos Omri Casspi -- and has taken a great interest in the country over the past few years since revealing that he has Jewish roots on his mothers side.?Last Tuesday, Stoudemire signed a contract with the New York Knicks and was immediately waived in a move designed to allow him to retire as a Knick.I came to New York in 2010 to help revitalize this franchise and we did just that, Stoudemire said Tuesday in a statement. Carmelo [Anthony], Phil [Jackson] and Steve [Mills] have continued this quest, and with this years acquisitions, the team looks playoff-bound once again. Although my career has taken me to other places around the country, my heart had always remained in the Big Apple. Once a Knick, always a Knick.Stoudemire, 33, averaged 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds in 846 games over 14 seasons with Phoenix, New York, Dallas and Miami. The 6-foot-10 big man was named an All-Star six times and selected to two All-NBA first teams after turning pro out of high school, rising to prominence first as the NBAs Rookie of the Year in 2003, then as part of a devastating pick-and-roll combo with Steve Nash.?The Suns released a statement congratulating Stoudemire on his career, saying: Amares eight seasons with our franchise provided some of the most exciting Suns basketball this city has ever seen. Off the court, Amare represented himself with integrity and class every step of the way, leaving an indelible impression on countless kids in our community. Were proud to have called Amare one of our own and wish him nothing but the best in his retirement. Congrats, STAT!Stoudemire played parts of five seasons in New York, signing as a free agent in the summer of 2010. His Knicks tenure was marred by injury, but Stoudemire is credited for signing with New York at a time when other big-name free agents werent seriously considering the club. He averaged 25.3 points and 8.2 rebounds and was named to the All-NBA second team in his debut season with the Knicks.?For parts of six years, Amare Stoudemire was the face of the New York Knicks franchise because of his excellence on the court and his dedication to our community and our fans across the world, said Knicks GM Steve Mills.When Amare asked us to retire as a Knick, we were honored to oblige.ESPNs Ian Begley contributed to this report.Gonzalo Higuain Jersey . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. I dont know if I can quantify how far off or things like that that they might be but I would say we continue to have dialogue. Sergio Aguero Argentina Jersey . They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation. http://www.argentinasoccerauthentic.com/Pablo-Zabaleta-Copa-America-Jersey/ . "Thank you for the warm welcome," Beckham said on an 80-degree February morning. In this case, it was soccer weather. The sport moved a step closer to returning to South Florida on Wednesday, when Beckham confirmed he has exercised his option to purchase a Major League Soccer expansion franchise in Miami. Mariano Andujar Jersey . McPhee said that Ovechkins father Mikhail is in stable condition after having the surgery this week and is no longer in intensive care. "Weve told him to stay as long as necessary with your dad," he said. Ovechkin and his Russian national team were eliminated from the mens hockey tournament in Sochi on Wednesday with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland. Diego Maradona Jersey . Its an influence in football and a big part of the game.For the first time in 14 years, neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal will be among the worlds top eight men playing at the ATP Finals. The poignant reality is injuries have dogged them so much this year that both were forced to call it a season within six weeks of each other.The last time they were anywhere near a tennis court together was in street clothes. Federer flew in for the opening of Nadals new tennis academy in Mallorca, Spain, in mid-October, another sign that the end of their tour-dominating days is upon us.Nobody likes Federers and Nadals absences, or these force-fed glimpses of how the tour will looks a little less lustrous when their departure is permanent, especially if some of the #nextgen hopefuls the ATP has been promoting dont get on with dominating already. (Yes, Nick Kyrgios, were especially looking at you and your latest questionable move. )Federer and Nadal may yet rise up here or there and grab another Grand Slam title. Or two. But all the wishful thinking in the world wont bring their heydays back. And Federer and Nadal both know it.The two are good friends, and they smiled a little wistfully at each other at the ribbon-cutting for Nadals academy last month. They publicly commiserated about their season-ending injuries and beat back retirement questions. They seemed like two aging lions hoping to stay in the title hunt as long as they can. Even the gift that Nadal presented Federer as thanks for coming -- a poster with photographs from all 34 matches theyve played, many of them epics -- underscored how much time is under the bridge. Nadal was ranked a pedestrian eighth in this weeks world rankings, and Federer has slid to No. 16 because of his inactivity.And yet, while the 30-year-old Nadal is five years younger than Federer, its Federer who seems to have more jump in his step and big hopes in mind. The Swiss star had never had an injury that required surgery until he hurt his meniscus in January at the Australian Open and had his knee repaired. This is new territory for him, and he told Nadal hes taken heart during his rehab work from Nadals many injury comebacks before his left wrist gave out this year.Youve done it a million times, Federer said, so I can be inspired by the way you made it look so easy when you came back. You came back to the worlds top 10, top five, even world No 1. Thats something that Im going to be thinking about when I come back to the tour in January.Nadal hasnt been as specific as Federer about how much longer he wants to play: I am enjoying what I am doing, especially when I am healthy; when Im not healthy, for sure I dont enjoy it, Nadal allowed. But when asked if he knew in his own mind when he might retire, Nadal dismissed the suggestion he knows his end is very near.I cant give an answer to questions that I cannot answer to myself, Nadal said. If you start to think about when youre going to retire, then your work is not 100 percent focused on what you want to do. So I cant say and I cant think about it now. Im not worried about it at all.dddddddddddd When it happens, it happens. When that day arrives I am sure I will know it.Its not a day for which I have to prepare.He has a point. Theres an old saying in boxing that the truth will find you inside the ring. The same is true in tennis. Theres nowhere to hide on the court and no teammates to carry you. Though Federer still reliably pops up in tournament semifinals, even at the Slams, he hasnt won a major since Wimbledon in 2012 and hasnt won a title of any sort since October of 2014.That kind of drought can -- and has -- driven off a lot of less relentlessly optimistic and well-balanced champions into quitting. Many wouldve said forget it a long time ago. Not Federer. In a video interview posted on the ATP website after he pulled out of the US Open, he actually called these tougher times something he finds super interesting, and almost, in some ways, something fun. His reasoning? He said hes never had a five-month gap like this to repair his body and work on his game since turning pro.Nadals future is cloudier. Hes looked like a man with too many hard miles on the odometer for a while now. He did win two titles early this year, but he didnt get past the third round of any major in 2016 and hasnt won a Grand Slam title since the 2014 French Open. Yet true to his full-tilt personality, it took Nadal a while to give into the reality he, too, needed to call it a year. Its probably telling for all his greatness that hes never won the year-end finals. The best he could do was a second-place finish, twice.Nadal now concedes he was still in pain when he played singles and doubles in the Rio Olympics, and again all through his lackluster fall campaign in which he lost a five-set shocker to Lucas Pouille in the fourth round of the US Open and then dismissed by Grigor Dimitrov in Beijing. A week later, Nadal suffered a first-round loss against Viktor Troicki in Shanghai, another opponent he used to trounce.So Federer and Nadal were wise to quit punishing themselves and put off their returns until the new year, even if the ATP Finals will miss them. Federer, who won the title six times and finished the runner-up four other years, has been posting photos on Facebook and Instagram about how hes been spending his time in Switzerland hiking the Alps, while getting in a light hit on a modest-looking clay court and doing agility drills in a low-ceiling gym.On Monday, Nadal tweeted a photo of himself at a mountain lookout point at Sainte-Agnes on the Cote dZur of France, along with the message: Just resting these days.Both spots look beautiful. But its different than seeing Nadal and Federer walk on-court at an ATP Finals, unzip their racket covers and then hunker down across the net from each other knowing a three- or four-hour epic might be just ahead.Those days were great.Those days increasingly feel gone. ' ' '