wore a hijab -- It was just a capuche, she said, using th

Steven Adams just watched his financial future become a whole lot brighter.The fourth-year big man from New Zealand signed a four-year contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder reportedly worth $100 million. Thats approximately $139 million in New Zealand and $130 million in Australia.Adams emerged as a core player for the Thunder with a strong postseason performance in 2015-16, and the team will rely on him to play an even bigger role this season. The extension allows the Thunder to lock up Adams through the 2020-21 season and keeps him from hitting the open market as a restricted free agent next summer.This got us thinking about the top earners among Aussie and Kiwi athletes in American team sports. Heres the hierarchy, based on estimated earnings for the current season:Andrew Bogut, Dallas Mavericks, NBA$11 million US - $14.4 million AU - $15.4 million NZThe former No. 1 overall draft pick from Melbourne turns 32 later this month, and hes in the final year of a three-year, $36 million pact he originally signed with Golden State. Bogut is the NBAs all-time leader in scoring and rebounding among Australian players. He eclipsed the $100 million (US) mark in career earnings in 2015-16 and was traded to Dallas during the offseason.Matthew Dellavedova, Milwaukee Bucks, NBA$9.6 million US - $12.5 million AU - $13.4 million NZDelly signed a four-year, $38 million pact with Milwaukee after winning the NBA championship with Cleveland last season. If the early results are any indication, he is on his way to establishing career highs in minutes, points and assists this season. The fourth-year pro from Maryborough, Victoria, is the career scoring leader at Saint Marys College in California.Aron Baynes, Detroit Pistons, NBA$6.5 million US - $8.5 million AU - $9.1 million NZThe 6-foot-10 big man, who was born in Gisborne, New Zealand, but grew up in Cairns, Queensland, is in the second season of a three-year, $20 million deal with Detroit. He began his career with three seasons in San Antonio, where he and Australian guard Patty Mills helped the Spurs win the 2014 NBA championship.Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers, NBA$5.9 million US - $7.7 million AU - $8.2 million NZThe rookie out of LSU has yet to make his NBA debut because of a foot injury, but Simmons will earn nearly $6 million this season after being drafted No. 1 overall by Philadelphia. Simmons, who grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales, is recovering from surgery and is expected to miss a few more months of action before taking the court for the 76ers.Dante Exum, Utah Jazz, NBA$3.9 million US - $5.1 million AU - $5.4 million NZThe 6-foot-6 guard from Melbourne was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, and hes paid as such. Exum is back on the court for the Jazz this season after missing all of 2015-16 with a torn ACL. Utah recently exercised its team option to retain him next season for $5 million.Patty Mills, San Antonio Spurs, NBA$3.6 million US - $4.7 million AU - $5 million NZThe 6-foot, 185-pound guard from Canberra preceded Dellavedova at Saint Marys and was drafted in the second round by Portland in 2009. Mills joined the Spurs in 2011 and is now in the final season of a three-year, $13 million contract with San Antonio. Now playing in his eighth pro season, Mills trails only Bogut (11 seasons) and Luc Longley (10 seasons) in terms of NBA career longevity among Australians.Steven Adams, Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA$3.1 million U.S. - $4.1 million AU - $4.4 million NZUntil Adams new deal kicks in next season, he will have to scrape by on this salary, based on the team option the Thunder picked up in October 2015. Adams, who grew up in Rotorua and Wellington, will be only 28 when his recently signed extension expires in 2021, at which point an even more lucrative payday is possible.Brad Wing, New York Giants, NFL$2.6 million US - $3.4 million AU - $3.6 million NZThe third-year pro from Melbourne by way of LSU received a $2 million signing bonus from the Giants to go with a 2016 base salary of $600,000. Thats pretty good scratch for booting around the pigskin.Joe Ingles, Utah Jazz, NBA$2.2 million US - $2.9 million AU - $3.1 million NZThe 6-foot-8 forward from the Adelaide area is in his third season with the Jazz after two seasons with Barcelona and one with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Euroleague. Ingles and his wife, Renae, welcomed twins in July, just prior to his joining the Boomers in Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics.Adam Gotsis, Denver Broncos, NFL$1.5 million US - $2 million AU - $2.1 million NZThe 6-foot-4, 287-pound defensive tackle from Melbourne by way of Georgia Tech has four tackles so far this season for the first-place Broncos. As a second-round draft pick, he received a signing bonus in excess of $1 million to go with his rookie base salary of $450,000.Lachlan Edwards, New York Jets, NFL$525,000 US - $685,000 AU - $730,000 NZThe rookie punter from Melbourne by way of Sam Houston State is another member of the new wave of Australian punters in the NFL and college football. If he remains on the Jets active roster all season, he will earn his entire $450,000 base salary to go along with a signing bonus of approximately $75,000.Liam Hendriks, Oakland Athletics, MLB$520,000 US - $680,000 AU - $730,000 NZThe 27-year-old, right-handed pitcher from Perth began the season as the only Aussie in the major leagues, but he was eventually joined by the three MLB players listed below. Hendriks has played six MLB seasons with Oakland, Toronto and Minnesota, and he posted a 3.76 ERA with 71 strikeouts and 14 walks in 64? innings this season.Paul Lasike, Chicago Bears, NFL$450,000 US - $590,000 AU - $630,000 NZThe 5-foot-11, 258-pound fullback from Auckland, New Zealand, made his NFL debut this season after spending 2015 on Chicagos practice squad. He recently returned to the practice squad -- sort of the NFL equivalent to flying standby -- after spending five weeks on the active roster. Even if he spends the remainder of the season on the practice squad, he will come close to earning his full base salary of $450,000.Peter Moylan, Kansas City Royals, MLB$390,000 US - $510,000 AU - $540,000 NZThe 10-year veteran from Attadale, Western Australia, spent around 140 days on the Royals roster this season, earning much of MLBs $507,500 minimum salary. Moylan posted a solid 3.43 ERA with 34 strikeouts and 16 walks in 50 games this year at age 37.Warwick Saupold, Detroit Tigers, MLB$190,000 US - $250,000 AU - $265,000 NZThe Perth native was on the Tigers active roster or disabled list for about 70 days this season, so this figure estimates a prorated portion of the MLB minimum salary -- not including what he earned during his time with Triple-A Toledo. The 26-year-old, right-handed pitcher opened his major league career with three consecutive scoreless appearances.James Beresford, Minnesota Twins, MLB$70,000 US - $90,000 AU - $100,000 NZThe infielder from Melbourne was called up to the majors on Sept. 6 and remained with the Twins for the rest of the season. He earned nearly one month of pay at the MLB minimum rate, plus more than four months at Triple-A Rochester. He made his MLB debut on Sept. 10 and recorded his first career hit with a single off Cleveland right-hander Shawn Armstrong.Several individual-sport athletes also cleared seven-figure earnings this year -- not including endorsements. Golf stars Lydia Ko ($2.5 million US) of New Zealand and Australians Jason Day ($8 million US) and Adam Scott ($6.5 million US) recorded handsome incomes this past season. In tennis, Nick Kyrgios ($1.8 million US) and Bernard Tomic ($1.2 million US) were the top Aussie earners.Sources: ESPN Roster Management System database, ESPN.com, sports-reference.com, spotrac.comAir Vapormax Outlet . -- The boos poured down on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at the end of a horrible first half. Vapormax Flyknit Saldi . Now, with Game 6 set for Fenway Park and an 8:07 p.m. ET first pitch, the Detroit Tigers face the unenviable task of having to beat the Boston Red Sox twice, on the road, to advance to the World Series. http://www.vapormaxscontateoutlet.it/ . Giroud, who wasnt in the starting lineup for two matches after allegations about his private life and a decline in form, scored twice in the first half. Tomas Rosickys chip made it 3-0 before half time at Emirates Stadium, while defender Laurent Koscielny scored an unmarked header in the second half. Vapormax Nere Saldi .S. Open champion Justin Rose birdied the first hole with a blind shot he hit to a foot of the pin, and he stayed in front Tuesday until he completed a 4-under 67 for a two-shot lead over Jason Dufner in PGA Grand Slam of Golf. Nike Vapormax Nere Scontate .C. -- Todd Fiddler scored a hat trick, including the overtime goal, as the Prince George Cougars survived an 8-7 win against the Kamloops Blazers in Western Hockey League play Sunday.For all the ways in which the image of a young Muslim woman proudly playing the national sport offers a modern, hopeful interpretation of liberté, égalité, fraternité and the future of France, there is also something ancient and familiar about Jessica Houra-dHommeauxs passion for soccer.Growing up in Angers, not quite 200 miles southwest of Paris, Houra-dHommeaux played for the same reasons as generations of French children, albeit most of them boys for many of those years. She watched her father play and coach. She watched an older brother play. She played because it was what she knew.So even if the larger culture in which she grew up was, at best, indifferent (and, at worst, openly resistant) to a young womans passion for a sport long dominated by men, her connection to the field not only endured but grew stronger. It remains the bond with her father even after his death. That he never saw her play for the national team doesnt matter.I want that he was proud of me, Houra-dHommeaux said in her second language. So its for that, I think, I still play football. Because I know that he was proud of me when I was [playing for a youth] national team. I do everything knowing hes proud of me now. Its my force, its my inspiration.In dozens of forms, each person with her own story, that explains how a generation of French players convinced a country to accept and embrace the womens game. It became impossible to ignore their passion because it was so familiar. It burrows down into a person and becomes part of them.They gave France the team people wanted to believe in. They made themselves matter to people. And now because they do, they need to give France a champion. That is part of the bargain.Which womens team has the most at stake in the Olympics? The obvious answer is host Brazil, and at least symbolically, its inarguable. To win gold in Rio de Janeiros Maracana, especially in light of missteps by the iconic mens national team in recent years, would be a powerful statement. But it would likely be of more symbolic utility than practical. The infrastructure to consistently develop and support the womens game isnt going to spring up overnight in Brazil.A gold medal, not an impossibility based on Australias World Cup showing, would change the paradigm in the country. Another win would only add to the power wielded for change by American players.But three years ahead of the 2019 FIFA Womens World Cup, France has an opportunity unique to the field. To win gold would in some ways be a small step for a team that played for bronze four years ago and is ranked third in the world at the moment. That small step could ensure the giant changes.Entering the 2011 World Cup, France had qualified just once previously for either that event or the Olympics. The French didnt advance out of the group stage in a European Championship until 2009, and even then, they were outscored in the tournament. The invisible line that ran through Western Europe, separating a successful sport in Germany and the Nordic countries from the soccer chauvinism of the rest of the continent, traced the northern border of France. It was why several French players posed nude before that 2011 tournament, their answer clear in asking what it would take for their country to pay attention.A lot can change in five years.According to UEFA statistics, France is now one of seven European nations with more than 60,000 registered female players (73,484 in 2014-15), the only such country south of that invisible line of cultural separation. With more than 1.8 million total registered players in France, the divide between genders remains a chasm, but the 2014-15 figure represented roughly a 25 percent increase on even two years prior. That mirrors the anecdotal experiences of those involved.When I begin, womens football is not so popular, Houra-dHommeaux recalled of the 1990s. The people when I told them I play football, they say What? You play football? Its weird. So it was not so easy at the beginning.Houra-dHommeaux is only 28, but she already spans multiple eras of womens soccer in France. When she began to play for the Paris Saint-Germain womens team and the French national team less than a decade ago, soccer was not her sole occupation. It could not be. She still worked more than 30 hours a week in a clerical job in the medical field, practicing and playing games around that schedule. But Qatar Sports Investment bought PSG in 2011 and, in addition to pouring millions into the mens team, invested the resources to make the womens team fully professional and one of Europes elite. Only then did Houra give up her job outside of soccer. (After seven seasons with PSG, Houra-dHommeaux moved to Lyon, Frances other giant of womens soccer.)Again, change happens slowly. Only a handful of clubs in the top division of French womens football are truly professional. There are perhaps dozens of female players who are able to make soccer a full-time career. Many of those stars are brought in from abroad to bolster the ranks of PSG or Lyon (given the salaries available in the National Womens Soccer League, that is not necessarily different than in this country). But the opportunity does exist, an evolution that happened in real time for a generation of players.It was hard for my life with my family, Houra-dHommeaux said of balancing two careers. Since I play just football, its easy because Im just focused on football. Im not tired at the end of my work day, and I can have a good time with my family. I think its important to have good time with your family if you want to be good at football because when you are happy outside of football, in your life, I think you are better and better on the pitch.The cause and effect of change in France is muddled, as it often is in reality. Coming on the heels of a disastrous and nationally embarrassing effort by the mens team in the 2010 World Cup, when French players boycotted a training sessionn and then exited in the group stage, the run the womens team made to the semifinals of the 2011 World Cup in nearby Germany catapulted womens football into the spotlight.dddddddddddd The womens team then made it to the semifinals of the 2012 Olympics, while the wounded mens team quietly bowed out of that years Euros.The timing was fortuitous. But when the French womens team seized its moments in 2011 and 2012, it marked the product of more than a decade of preparation, a concerted effort to raise the level of play. Girls were finally allowed to live and train alongside boys at the national training center, commonly known as Clairefontaine, a decade after it opened its doors. Among the early beneficiaries were many of the players on the 2011 or 2012 teams, players like Houra-dHommeaux, Camille Abily and Laura Georges.What happened in 2011 and 2012 -- the arrival of a golden generation that also included Louisa Necib, Wendie Renard, Elodie Thomis and so many more familiar names -- altered the map of womens soccer. It birthed a new power.Players are not afraid anymore to play against Germany, to play against the U.S., said?Georges,?the veteran defender who was forced to withdraw from the team shortly before the Olympics because of injury.?Before there was like a supremacy of the really big teams, and we were kind of scared. We could not even really play together, we were just playing long ball, we were not keeping the ball and playing around. We were kind of scared of the big teams. Now players are more comfortable playing against the big teams. We have more experience, more confidence.When France beat the United States 2-0 in February 2015, it marked the Americans first loss in the history of the series. But far from embarrassing, it served as an important component of the preparation for the Americans World Cup title that followed. Few teams pushed the United States the way France did.Its the trifecta, its mentality, technique and athleticism, U.S. coach Jill Ellis said of what makes a program elite. When I took over [the U.S. program], I said to our team that we have the beauty of having all three. Many countries dont have two out of three. France certainly has the athleticism and technique. People would question their mentality, just in terms of they havent won a big event yet, but I wouldnt knock them there. On any given day in our game, any of these top four teams can beat each other.But they have [technique and athleticism] locked down.What they dont have, as Ellis gently alluded to, is a trophy or medals from a major tournament to show for all the progress. France lost 3-1 to the United States in a 2011 World Cup semifinal and 2-1 to Japan in an Olympic semifinal a year later. France fell victim to a dubious format in the World Cup a year ago -- even as group stage winners, the French were forced into a quarterfinal against Germany. On a day when the French had the better of play but couldnt put away the game, the country nonetheless exited in a penalty shootout.The small sample size notwithstanding, France struggles in big games to finish what it starts.Technically, possession, I think we are pretty good, Abily said of the state of the program. Its our strength, but it needs now to be maybe better -- well, for sure -- in front of the goal. To be more killer, you know.Its great to keep the ball, to play well, but it misses something.That again reared its head this spring, when France, despite some notable absences due to injury, played generally appealing soccer without ever scoring a goal against England, Germany or the United States in the SheBelieves Cup.This problem to score has been the problem for France since the last eight to 10 years, coach Philippe Bergeroo lamented with a perfectly Gallic shrug of the shoulders after that event.At some point, fans will want results. The accessibility and relatability of players will lose its luster. Expectations, in this case, represent their own brand of equality.I think we have to win because [coming close] is almost boring for them, Abily said.That would be a missed opportunity of almost tragic proportions, not because wins and losses really matter that much but because of the potential influence the French team can have.France might be the most diverse team in the womens game, certainly among the handful of elite championship contenders. It is a reflection of a changing society, changing not without tension, not just because of gender but all the labels with which it is too easy to separate each other and isolate ourselves.The daughter of an Algerian immigrant, Houra-dHommeaux was taken aback by the attention she received for a professionally shot photo in which many assumed she wore a hijab -- It was just a capuche, she said, using the French word for hood. But in the same breath, she noted she was proud to represent her faith as a womens soccer player.You see on our national team, there are a lot of black girls or Arabic girls, Houra-dHommeaux said. I think soccer in France, its easier for everybody. ... Its easy to play football in France, and its good for all the people to see that we are white, we are black, we are Muslim, we are Catholic or something like that, but we can play football. Everybody can play football. And I like it for that.Having three years to use the momentum of a gold medal to continue to build the game, at both the youth and professional levels, would set up a potentially remarkable World Cup. To keep this particular team in the spotlight could resonate far beyond the field at a time when others try to divide and terrorize.If we can do it in sport, we can do it in life, Abily said of the diversity. Its important to think like this, especially after the terrorist attacks [in Paris in 2015]. Its very good to be like this now, even more than before. ' ' '