MILWAUKEE -- Whats cooler than being cool? Andre 3000 bellowed as he glided around the stage at Staples Center wearing sunglasses, a candy-striper outfit and a paper wedge hat.Ice cold! the backup singers answered as they gyrated behind him as OutKast performed Hey Ya, one of the hottest songs of the moment.It was the opening sequence of the 2004 All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Within moments, the singer asked the crowd if it was ready to meet the players and he stepped aside so Michael Redd, dressed in a baggy purple-and-black Milwaukee Bucks warmup, could be announced for his first All-Star appearance.Redd played 15 minutes and scored 13 points. A Buck hasnt been seen in an All-Star Game since, the longest drought of star power in the league.In 2004, Giannis Antetokounmpo was just 9 years old and had no interest in basketball. Living in the Sepolia section of Athens, Greece, he played soccer like his father and oldest brother, who were stars in Nigeria. He didnt even start playing basketball until three years later, when he was 12.The Antetokounmpo story is as outlandish as the Bucks search for him. The Bucks have been in need of a franchise player since Ray Allen was sent to Seattle in 2003 in one of the more ill-advised moves in recent NBA history. Redds shot at it was cut short because of debilitating injuries that forced early retirement.They have him now. One of the biggest talking points among league executives and scouts this season is the explosive growth of Antetokounmpo this season. Since Bucks coach Jason Kidd made the intriguing decision to install the Greek Freak as a part-time point guard near the end of last season, his playmaking has wowed opponents and teammates.Last week he had a 34-point game against the Cavs. Saturday he had 10 rebounds, six assists, five blocks and two steals in a win over the Nets. Monday he won his second Player of the Week Award (and lost a home nail-biter to the Spurs despite his 22 points and 11 rebounds, snapping a four-game win streak).Tuesday he turns 22 years old, younger than NBA rookies like Buddy Hield and teammate Malcolm Brogdon.Kidd has had to knock Antetokounmpo in line at times over the past few seasons and hes been cautious to always point out how much his young star still has to learn. On Monday, for example, he was isolated in a vital late possession against the outsized Manu Ginobili and wasnt able to get it done, in part because he still doesnt have confidence in his jumper.Still night after night, Antetokounmpo makes breathtaking plays with this athleticism, size and burgeoning skill. Hes averaging 22 points, nine rebounds and six assists plus two steals and two blocks per game. Hes also shooting 52 percent. Hes doing it while playing a mix of point guard, both forward spots and even some center on defense in various lineups.Seeing the potential spill forth, Kidd cant help himself. He knows he shouldnt say out loud what he and his coaches have been talking about amongst themselves, but this last week has loosened his lips.Having being around some of the best in the world in LeBron (James) and Dirk (Nowitzki), Kidd said referencing former Team USA and Dallas Mavericks teammates, wouldnt it be cool to have those two combined as one player? Maybe that could happen.Of all the things Kidd has seen from Antetokounmpo, he finds himself marveling at the passing the most. Recently he found center John Henson with a perfect bounce pass through traffic that led to an easy hoop. Seeing a 7-footer find another 7-footer on the move under pressure by bouncing it off the court left Kidd, one of the best passers of all time, rubbing his eyes.To be honest, I dont always think about it, its just instinct, Antetokounmpo said. Guys are like, howd you do that? and I say, Im not thinking about it. I see what the right pass is and I throw the pass. Thats the way its all been.Putting it like that makes it seem like its all natural talent. Hes got plenty of it -- if he didnt, the Bucks wouldnt have gambled on him with the 15th pick in the 2013 draft in a move that now looks genius. They extended it by locking him up to a four-year, $100 million extension before the season that now looks like a bargain because it was for a handful of million less than the max salary. If there was ever a player who looked like a max at age 22, its this athlete.Just pointing to the pure talent sells him short. Teammates report that Antetokounmpo is diligent about watching film and studying the game. Hes only been playing it half his life, which puts him behind most of his peers.When he started to get interested in the game as a teenager after his older brother, Knicks prospect Thanasis, started playing, Antetokounmpo found himself drawn to YouTube highlights of Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen and Allen Iverson. The way he passes, defends and plays with passion, you can see bits of all of them.I want to make great plays. It can be blocking a shot, it can be passing to an open teammate or dunking. Just great plays, he said. Thats what makes me excited.In the preseasons annual general managers survey, seven players received votes in the best player to start a franchise category, a favorite area of debate every year. Karl-Anthony Towns got the most votes, a reasonable choice. Antetokounmpo got zero. Usually the second guessing on that survey comes 12 months later. If the vote was taken again today, Antetokounmpo would show up.His first six weeks have been that impressive. As they consider the possibility of breaking their All-Star drought, the Bucks cant wait to see where the near future takes them.Were in the early stages of seeing where he can take us, Kidd said. What hes done is show that he can handle a lot right now. Theres going to be a time where were going to raise the bar again and see how he does. Youth Texans Jerseys . Arsenal failed to take full advantage of its main rivals stumbles on Saturday as substitute Gerard Deulofeu levelled with a hard shot from a tight angle in the 84th minute to give Everton a deserved point. Ahead of a crucial fortnight that will see them play against Napoli in the Champions League, Manchester City and Chelsea, Arsenal leads by five points ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea. Duke Ejiofor Jersey . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. http://www.cheaptexansjerseyschina.com/keke-coutee-jersey/ . Tracey comes to the Blue Bombers after spending over a decade with Queens University. Most recently he was the schools assistant football coach. Peter Kalambayi Jersey . The team said Saturday that Lopez was hurt during its 121-120 overtime loss at Philadelphia on Friday. The Nets said they would issue another update next week after consultation with their doctors. Justin Reid Jersey .Y. -- Bills receiver Stevie Johnson has a bone to pick with the NFL schedule maker. While Maria Sharapovas drug suspension wasnt reduced as much as she would have liked in the Court for Arbitration of Sport appeal ruling that was issued Tuesday, CAS decision to cut her ban was a qualified win for the tennis star, her legacy and her hopes of adding to her total of five Grand Slam victories before she retires.That said, the decision to reduce her suspension from the two years she was originally given by the International Tennis Federation to 15 months because she was not an intentional doper should still provoke some soul-searching in tennis on a bigger scale. Like the recent ban of two officials for electronically relaying information to bettors during live matches -- and a poll earlier this summer showing that 22.5 percent of 31 players polled believe they know a fellow player who uses performance-enhancing drugs -- Sharapovas positive test will do little to disabuse critics of the notion that there is more going on behind the curtain in tennis than anyone -- especially tennis -- would like to admit.The sport has tried to make better efforts to police itself against banned substances and match-fixing and the like; but as this ESPN investigative report Monday also showed, the sports drug-testing efforts are woefully below state-of-the-art and unlikely to catch people who dabble in stronger illegal aids than the 29-year-old Sharapova took. Even when the ITF does catch someone, it has trouble making its disciplinary rulings stick before CAS, a court of last resort for the worlds athletes.Sharapova pounced on the opportunity to note that Tuesday. In a statement posted on her Facebook page, she said: I have learned from this, and I hope the ITF has as well. CAS concluded that the Panel has determined it does not agree with many of the conclusions of the [ITF] Tribunal ...Sharapova added: Ive gone from one of the toughest days of my career last March when I learned about my suspension to now, one of my happiest days, as I found out I can return to tennis in April. In so many ways, I feel like something I love was taken away from me and it will feel really good to have it back.Sharapova was the top-ranked woman on Forbes list of the worlds highest-earning athletes in 2015 at No. 26 overall. She has fallen to No. 88 in 2016 since her suspension was announced.She had asked CAS to reinstate her immediately, hoping to limit her suspension to the nine months she has already served since first testing positive for meldonium in January at this years Australian Open rather than serve the two-year suspension she was given by an ITF Tribunal in June.While that didnt happen, Sharapova can now justifiably point to how she took responsibility up front at a news conference in March and served her punishment for making a costly mistake -- but was cleared of any nefarious motives beyond that by two different governing bodies: first, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), and now the CAS. She remains suspended because both panels did find fault with aspects of her behavior, such as not listing her use of meldonium on doping control forms and not applying for a therapeutic use exemption.Thats a win.CAS agreed in principle with the ITFs June ruling that Sharapova had taken meldonium -- which is also known by its brand name Mildronate -- to enhance her performance. But the panel did not believe she intended to cheat.That distinction is important.Worldwide and national doping agencies generally take the hard-line position that whatever goes into an athletes body is ultimately the athletes responsibility -- period, end of story; but teasing out intent is important to authorities like CAS when it comes to sentencing.In Sharapovas case, both CAS and ITF accepted her insistence that she had been taking meldoniuum since the age of 17 for therapeutic reasons on the advice of a doctor back in her native Russia, and that neither she nor her camp were aware it had moved to the banned list on Jan.dddddddddddd 1 of this year.There was also no doubt Sharapova hoped meldonium would help her play better tennis. The ITFs 33-page decision cited old emails from Dr. Anatoly Skalny, the Russian doctor who treated Sharapova from 2004-12. He advised her to increase her dosage during games of special importance to 3-4 pills one hour before her matches. Sharapova listened. The ITF report said Sharapova used Mildronate six times in seven days at Wimbledon in 2015 -- and five times in seven days at the Australian Open.If Sharapova had been found to have deliberately violated anti-doping rules, she could have received the maximum four-year ban.Had CAS even upheld the ITFs original two-year suspension, she would have been 30 by the time she was eligible to return on Jan. 26, 2018 and missed seven Grand Slam events in addition to this years Rio Olympics, which she had hoped to play in for Russia.Instead, she now joins Richard Gasquet, Dimitar Kutrovsky, Marin Cilic, Viktor Troicki and, most recently, Varvara Lepchenko as tennis players whose drug suspensions have been reduced because of various extenuating circumstances.Tennis is also still dealing with the specter of Rafael Nadal suing a French official who publicly insisted that the Spanish star, long the target of PED rumors, benefited from one of the secret bans that tennis allegedly gives stars who test positive. That case raises echoes of how Andre Agassi revealed in his post-retirement autobiography that he failed a test in 1997 after taking crystal meth, then lied to ATP tennis authorities to escape punishment -- and the ATP believed him. The failed test remained a secret his entire playing career.Sharapova seems understandably eager to get on with her career.In recent days, she had been posting photos and video on Twitter of herself training on the court and in the gym. It might actually help that shes had experience coming back from long layoffs before due to injuries.Some people who read the full CAS or ITF reports or pay close attention to the worldwide anti-doping fight might continue to be skeptical that someone as famously detail-oriented and ambitious as Sharapova couldve made such a lazy mistake as not checking the new additions to the 2016 banned substance list.Sharapova is likely to experience little fallout going forward unless she stumbles again. The June ITF ruling alone was enough for Nike, one of Sharapovas many top-shelf sponsors along with Porsche, Evian, and Tag Heuer, to resume its endorsement deal with her. Others are likely to follow.Now that CAS has ruled, Sharapovas public image isnt likely to suffer much going forward.Sports fans, in particular, have long been a forgiving lot, especially if people they already find likeable are willing to apologize for their mistakes.Sharapova is probably never going to totally change the mind of cynics who continue to question her story, and how her use of meldonium dovetails with the systemic doping that led to the ban of many Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics and Paralympic Games. Even on a common-sense level, there are snags. As one skeptic wryly noted during the French Open, Why would Sharapova start a candy company if she was really taking meldonium because of her familys history of diabetes, as she said she was? Does someone afraid of diabetes do that?Sharapova doesnt have to acknowledge those questions anymore.Shes cleared of being an intentional doper. That will be enough. Wholesale NFL White Jerseys Nike NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Stitched Jerseys Youth NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys From China ' ' '