DETROIT -- Stan Van Gundy has agreed to a $35-million, five-year contract to be the Detroit Pistons coach and president of basketball operations, a person with knowledge of the details said. wholesale jerseys . Detroit gave Van Gundy the powerful combination of jobs on Tuesday, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced. The deal was first reported by ESPN.com. The Pistons announced in April that they were not renewing Joe Dumars contract, ending his 14-year run as president of basketball operations. Van Gundy is taking over a team that has Andre Drummond, one NBAs top young centres, and money to reshape its roster this summer. Van Gundy has a 371-208 career record with the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat. He was fired in 2012 following his fifth season with the Orlando. He stunned the Heat in December 2005 by resigning for family reasons after two-plus seasons. The Golden State Warriors might have wanted Van Gundy, who went to high school in nearby Martinez, California, to be their new coach. While the Warriors roster seems more attractive, Van Gundy is getting a rare chance to be the coach and decision-maker for an NBA franchise. Doc Rivers does both jobs for the Los Angeles Clippers. The Pistons are desperate to be regarded as relevant in the Motor City -- where theyve become an afterthought -- and hiring Van Gundy seems to be a splashy move they needed to make. Ultimately, though, Van Gundy will have to win more than he loses in Detroit, as he has in each of his eight seasons. Van Gundy has won 59 games three times, once in Miami and twice with the Magic. He has helped his teams advance in five out of seven postseasons, leading Orlando to the 2009 NBA Finals. Miami lost to the Pistons in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. Detroits season has not lasted longer than the regular season in five years, its longest playoff drought since 1978-83. The Pistons won their third NBA title in 2004, early in a six-year run of reaching at least the conference finals. The Pistons signed Josh Smith, traded for Brandon Jennings and hired Maurice Cheeks last off-season and were expected to at least contend for a post-season spot. Instead, the new players didnt blend with returning players such as Drummond and Greg Monroe well enough to push the Pistons into the playoffs and coach Maurice Cheeks lost his job 50 games into the regular season. Detroit finished the season with a 29-53 record and with John Loyer as coach. The franchise is hoping it has a lottery pick next month. The Pistons will have to give their first-round pick to the Charlotte Bobcats if the selection is No. 9 or later as part a salary cap-saving trade Dumars made to get Ben Gordon off the payroll two years ago. wholesale nfl jerseys . The two-time major winner was 12-over par and set to miss the cut at Wentworth on Friday. Jose Maria Olazabal (back), Paul Waring (hand) and Robert-Jan Derksen (rib) dropped out of the tournament in Thursdays opening round. cheap jerseys . Coda Gordon and Julius Honka had a goal and two assists each as Swift Current crushed the Regina Pats 7-2 in the season opener for both teams.http://www.wholesalejerseyfreeshipping.us/ . The Scotland captain has not played for the national team since November 2012. He returned to the United first team last December after a bout of ulcerative colitis. Scotland manager Gordon Strachan has also included 19-year-old Dundee United left-back Andrew Robertson in his 24-player squad, and Sunderland defender Phil Bardsley.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ben Smith had the closest look and he likened it to mayhem. Antti Raanta had the worst view on the ice and to him it was a thing of beauty. Smith tapped in a rebound with 3.7 seconds left on a wild scrum to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 4-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night. With time running out, Duncan Keith threw the puck on net and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky blocked it with his arm but it popped out of his reach. While he and two teammates scrambled to get to the loose puck, Smith got a stick on it and pushed it into the net. "(Keith) is so good at getting pucks through -- that first shot almost went in. I dont think he saw it," Smith said of Bobrovsky. "It was just kind of a mad scramble in front with people going to the net. Somehow, the puck found its way in." When the official pointed to the puck to signify the goal was good, it touched off a wild celebration from a large throng of Chicago fans in the capacity crowd. It also deflated the playoff hopes of the Blue Jackets, not to mention the thousands of their fans in a crowd of 18,695. "We came up 3 seconds short," said Columbus defenceman Dalton Prout, part of the pile of players trying to clear the puck as time sifted away. At the far end of the rink, Raanta, giving front-line netminder Corey Crawford a night off by making 24 saves, flashed a wide smile when Smiths inside work paid off. "You can imagine how that feels when there is only 3 seconds on the clock and we score the winning goal," he said. "The feeling was very, very nice." Jeremy Morin, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa also had goals for Chicago, while Keith had three assists. The reigning Stanley Cup champions have already locked up their sixth straight playoff appearance. But they had dropped three games in a row and were without superstar forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, both sidelined with injuries, heading into a home game with Minnesota on Thursday night. But a shootout win before the home crowd and then the late victory in Columbus -- against a team desperate for points in something akin to playoff conditionss -- has brightened the picture even more for the Blackhawks. cheap jerseys from china. "You play the right way and you give yourself a chance," coach Joel Quenneville said. "You get balance and you keep yourself mentally aware of what you need to do, play the team system and everybody complements each other. The last two wins are very exciting from where we were just a couple of days ago." Columbus started the night with a tenuous grasp on the second wild-card spot in the East. But with games running out -- and opportunities for points slipping away -- all of the Blue Jackets realized how costly the late goal could end up being. "Its a tough one to swallow, but we have to move on," said Matt Calvert, also in the midst of the scrum at the end. Derek MacKenzie, Ryan Johansen and Artem Anisimov scored for Columbus and Bobrovsky had 34 saves. The Blue Jackets fell to 0-10-3 in their last 13 meetings with the Blackhawks. Midway through the third with the game tied at 3, Raanta made the stop of the game after Calvert intercepted a pass and zoomed in all alone. Raanta deflected his shot and the game remained tied. Bobrovsky then stopped a blast by Bryan Bickell and smothered Morins shot from his knees in the slot with less than 5 minutes remaining. Then came the wild finish after both teams had seemed content to get to overtime with a point. But Smith, at the edge of the goal cage, was able to get to the puck after Prout and Calvert were unable to clear it and Bobrovsky couldnt fall on it. "I went in and told the players, Its a hard loss but weve got to move past it," Columbus coach Todd Richards said. "You cant let your highs get too high. And right now we cant let the lows get too low. This group has been pretty resilient all year. Theres been times all year when people have counted us out and the guys have responded." NOTES: Blue Jackets D David Savard played in his 100th NHL game. ... Chicago returns home for games with St. Louis and Montreal before closing out the regular season at Washington and Nashville. ... Columbus opened a three-game homestand, then ends the regular season with three on the road. cheap jerseys ' ' '
