earlier this month about his expected candidacy for the secret ballot

Tim Duncan could have easily gone out on top, with his fifth NBA championship trophy under his arm and his health intact just a few months after his 38th birthday. Nike Huarache Deutschland . Theres just no way. Duncan is having too much fun with his San Antonio Spurs coaches and teammates, and hes playing too well to call it quits now. Duncan has decided to exercise the option on his contract for 2014-15 and will return next season, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Monday. The person requested anonymity because an official announcement has not been made. As the Spurs beat the two-time defending champion Miami Heat in the NBA Finals earlier this month, Duncan was asked several times about his future, as he has been for the last five or six years. He was noncommittal, saying he would take some time after the season ended to mull his decision. But after Game 5, most of the Spurs said they expected the group to return and now Duncan has reached his decision, which was first reported by Yahoo! Sports. He will make about $10.3 million next season in the final year of a two-year agreement that was drawn up specifically to allow the Spurs the financial flexibility to surround Duncan with top-shelf talent. "He feels a responsibility to his teammates," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after the team won the championship. "He enjoys them. He wants to hang around as long as he can while hes useful and while hes having an impact on the game. He takes care of his body. He works out all summer long with a variety of different things, boxing, swimming. Hes very careful about what he puts in his body, so he does everything he can to maintain a level of play. "At some point," Popovich added, "that will stop." But not this year. When Duncan looked around at the Spurs, he saw every reason to come back and try to do just about the only thing the Spurs havent done during his 17 years there -- win back-to-back titles. In Popovich he has perhaps the best coach in the game, one who has established a culture of teamwork, success and stability that is unparalleled in the league. In Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, he has two trusted teammates who have been by his side for years, have sacrificed money, fame and statistics right along with him to build the Spurs organization into the envy of the NBA. And in Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, Duncan has a young, fresh-faced star on the rise to carry more of the load as the Big Three get older. "With the front office putting the teams together that weve had and us playing smaller roles and our roles changing over the years, and us happy to accept the roles that were in, I feel we can do it until we feel we dont want to do it anymore," Duncan said two weeks ago. Perhaps as important as anything, Duncan is still one of the best big men in the league. He was named first team All-NBA in 2012-13 as he helped the Spurs to the finals, where they lost to the Heat in a heart-breaking seven-game series. This season, Duncan averaged 15.1 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in just 29.2 minutes per game, playing in a system expertly devised by Popovich to limit the wear and tear on his body. He shot almost 57 per cent in the finals and dismantled Heat star Chris Bosh, who grew up with a Duncan poster on his bedroom wall. "Weve been on our last run for the last five or six years from how everyone wants to put it," Duncan said. "We show up every year, and we try to put together the best teams and the best runs possible because what people say doesnt matter to us. "As I said, as long as we feel were being effective, were going to stay out here and were going to play. We feel like we can be effective, and we have been." Günstige Nike Air Force 1 . Brad Malone had the other goal for the Monsters (1-1-0), while Elliott chipped in an assist for a three-point night and the games first star. Bryan Lerg also had two assists. Corban Knight and Max Reinhart scored for the Heat (1-1-0), who opened their season Friday with a 5-2 win over the Monsters in Cleveland. Nike Air Force One Deutschland .com) - The Calgary Flames were again involved in a game in which a team was held scoreless, only this time they came out on the winning side. http://www.airforce1gunstig.de/air-presto-deutschland.html . Each day, TSN.ca provides the latest rumours, reports and speculation from around the NHL beat. Defensive Depth TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun is reporting the Toronto Maple Leafs have considerable interest in unrestricted free-agent defenceman Dan Boyle.GENEVA -- The two sides of being FIFA President Sepp Blatter are on display just before the troubled World Cup kicks off on June 12. Acclaimed by world football leaders but held in contempt by many football fans. Blatter should arrive at the Itaquerao stadium in Sao Paulo to watch host Brazil play Croatia confident that this tournament -- his fifth as president -- wont be his last leading the worlds favourite sport. One day earlier, the 78-year-old Blatter should ask for, and get, consent from 209 FIFA member federation bosses to seek another four-year presidential term. "Yes, I would like to do it," Blatter said earlier this month about his expected candidacy for the secret ballot scheduled May 29, 2015. "My mandate is almost over but my mission is not finished." The endorsement at the Transamerica Expo Center might be a personal high point of Blatters stay in Brazil, a country which loves football but not the cost levied on taxpayers to stage the month-long show. When Blatter appears on a public stage he faces inevitable boos and jeers -- just as at previous World Cups and the Confederations Cup held in Brazil last June. The fact FIFA pays no tax to Brazils public finances from its $4 billion revenue for broadcasting and commercial deals tied to the 2014 World Cup is an added provocation. Even if it is a standard demand on countries wanting to host a World Cup or Olympic Games. Blatter, who often travels and is feted like a head of state, is a useful target for social activists and for football fans familiar with the corruption cases that have involved some of its senior officials in recent years. A change to usual World Cup protocol means that presidents of FIFA and the host nation will not make speeches in the stadium during the formal opening ceremony. Not after he and state President Dilma Rousseff were booed when addressing the crowd before Brazils match which opened the Confederations Cup last year in the new Brasilia stadium. "Friends of Brazilian football, where is the respect and the fair play, please?" the multilingual Blatter asked spectators in their Portuguese language, as their head of state stood beside him. So, no chance in the 65,000-capacity Sao Paulo stadium for spectators to upstage the presidents. "If you know that these things could happen, that at the end the two persons who are giving a speech will feel bad, why (do) you put them in this position?" FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said. Still, the protocol plan calls for Blatter and Rousseff -- who faces her own re-election contest withinn months -- to jointly present the trophy on July 13 to the winning captain in Rio de Janeiros Maracana stadium. Air Force 1 Schwarz Deutschland. Four years ago, Blatter and South Africas President Jacob Zuma both had a hand on the gold trophy which they passed to Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas without any public disapproval. That came three hours earlier when the FIFA leaders name was announced as he entered the Soccer City pitch during pre-match introductions to the players. "I was only aware there were less vuvuzelas," Blatter said the next day. "We went on the field of play and it was a great moment." In 2006, Blatter skipped the on-field trophy presentation to the Italy team in Berlin. "History will say that it was an error" he acknowledged to Italian media several months later. "I wanted to avoid creating an ugly scene because the Germans had shown they would whistle at the word FIFA." Blatter should face no such disrespect on June 11 at the FIFA Congress, an event which the skilled Swiss administrator controls with mastery. In the depths of public disdain with FIFA in June 2011, Blatter was re-elected as the only candidate. He got 186 of 203 votes cast despite a turbulent few months of bribery scandals and widespread doubts about the integrity of awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. "We have been hit and I personally have been slapped. I dont want that ever again," Blatter said from the congress stage in Zurich, committing FIFA to a reform program which critics saw as richly ironic that he would lead. "The FIFA ship is in troubled waters but this ship must be brought back on the right track," he said before the poll. "I am the captain of the ship." When the England delegation broke ranks and tried to postpone the vote, Blatter marshalled a global spread of loyal members to march up and join a brutal verbal attack on the founding football association. Blatter can surely expect similarly support in less tempestuous times in Sao Paulo. Apart from some wealthy member nations, few of FIFAs 209 seem anxious to change a system and leadership which has let millions of World Cup dollars trickle down to them during Blatters 16-year rule. Though UEFA President Michel Platini clearly covets the top job, FIFA history since 1974 shows that a bedrock of European votes is far from enough for victory. Should Blatter continue to enjoy good health, he can look forward to a more agreeable welcome at the 2018 World Cup opening ceremony. Side by side with Vladimir Putin. ' ' '