DALLAS -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says the teams decision not to stay at Donald Trump-branded hotels in New York and Chicago was made before the presidential election.The billionaire technology entrepreneur declined Wednesday to elaborate on the decision, telling The Associated Press it was made months ago. Not recently.Cuban was a frequent critic of Trump during the campaign and supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who lost to the Republican president-elect.ESPN, citing anonymous sources, reported that Dallas, Memphis and Milwaukee were among the teams that moved away from Trump-branded hotels in New York and Chicago. The network reported that the decision was made in part to avoid any implied association with Trump.The Memphis Grizzlies are another team that isnt staying at Trump properties.It had nothing to do with the election. We made those decisions months ago, coach David Fizdale said Wednesday night before a game against the Clippers. We didnt stay in Trump hotels when I was in Miami either, so when I came here I wanted to stay in places I was familiar with. It had nothing to do with him.Several NBA coaches have been critical of Trump since the election, including Golden States Steve Kerr and San Antonios Gregg Popovich.Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd declined to comment as a team spokesman pointed to a statement earlier in the day that the team would not go on the record about its season travel plans.But star forward Jabari Parker said he supports the teams decision not to stay in Trump properties.It targets most of the guys on the team, the controversy that Donald Trump stands for, Parker told The Associated Press. Im damn near Mexican because my mom is from Hawaii. We have a Muslim on the team (Mirza Teletovic) and all our guys are black, so when you despise our culture, we cant support that.Parker added that hes proud of the Bucks decision.Yeah, because those are tensions that he stands for, and it targets guys on the team, Parker told The AP. They (Bucks front office) dont want to put them in uncomfortable situations just like in the 60s when they said, `Whites only. Thats basically how I look at it because were not welcome in Donald Trumps in-crowd. Cheap Air Max 270 For Sale . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. All Black Air Max 95 Womens . 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. http://www.cheapwholesaleairmax95.com/air-max-95-black-cheap/air-max-95-black-and-white.html . From filmmaker Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes), The Price of Gold revisits the saga that rocked the figure skating world ahead of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games: the assault on Nancy Kerrigan, and the plot that led its way back to her rival Tonya Harding. Cheap Air Max 95 Wholesale . They were putting most of their energy into a record-setting offensive display. Buy Mens NikeCourt Vapor RF x Air Max 95 Neon Cheap . There are some early surprises in the race for the Hart Trophy, but two of the contenders are the leagues biggest stars over the past decade. There are many more players in contention for the awards than just the three that Ive named, and a good or bad week can easily alter the landscape, but through the first 20 or so games of the NHL season, this is how the awards races look to me. Before Nungshi and Tashi Malik set off to climb Mt. Everest at age 21 in 2013, they hid a letter in the back of a closet in their parents home in India. If they didnt come back, they wanted their mom and dad to know how much they appreciated their sacrifices and encouragement.They also wanted the chance to say goodbye.The Malik twins, from the Himalayan town of Dehradun, grew up hearing what they could not do because they were girls. They were drawn to sports because during their field hockey and cricket matches they felt free from this gender bias. Once they walked off the pitch they were laughed at by their male classmates.?Their teachers even told them there was no future for girls in sports.Their father, Virender Malik, had other ideas. He was the only boy born to his family in the rural village of Anwali in northern India. He had four sisters and saw the advantages he received both from his family and from Indias society.In village life parents consider girls as a liability rather than an asset, Tashi Malik says. The challenges that are thrown at a girl are like invisible mountains.The twins father could see these mountains, but rejected the concept of gender inferiority. He was elated to have two healthy daughters and against the wishes of his family and in-laws decided to not try for a boy.I realized the world was bigger than just having a son, Virender Malik says. We have to overcome our own fears and not pass them down to the next generation.As children, Tashi and Nungshi remember a man approaching their father and saying that it was too bad he didnt have a son.?From that day on we decided that someday we would do something extraordinary to make parents realize that they are fortunate to have daughters, Tashi says.When his girls were young Virender Malik took them on hikes. He showed them the majestic Himalaya Mountains that were practically in their backyard and told Nungshi and Tashi that there was nothing they couldnt do.He also told them his own story about fighting societal barriers by marrying outside of his economic class and by becoming the first person from his village to enter the military. These stories inspired them.So did the mountains.After the twins graduated from high school in 2009, their father signed them up to a basic mountaineering course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in India. Nungshi and Tashi excelled at this male-dominated sport. They discovered they had the right temperament and their bodies were perfectly?suited for extreme elevations. They also found that they could climb faster, longer and higher than some of their male counterparts.Mountaineering was a completely new world, Tashi says. It opened our horizons and we knew who we wanted to be in life.After climbing less than a year, the sisters set their sights on becoming the first female twins to scale Mt. Everest. This dream led to the loudest NO in their male-dominated culture, but from an unexpected source -- their mother.Nearly four years passed before she finally granted them her permission, and with this nod came the money to finance their trip, in part, from a loan she had obtained using all of her gold jewelry as collateral.I thought my girls were dainty and delicate, Anju Malik, the twins mother, says. But their mountaineering instructors assured me that they were made of steel.The 10-day trek to basecamp was transformational, and the twins began to feel connected to the mountain. Virender wanted to make the trip, but he spent all of his money getting his daughters there. He did so knowing that he might never see them again.When Nungshi and Tashi reached the Lhotse Face on their way to the summit, between camp two and three, they experienced something that changed their lives.ddddddddddddTheir Sherpa, Mingma, just one year older than they were at the time, was climbing a 75-degree gradient ice wall when he clamped onto a wrong rope -- it had been there for many years, was brittle and snapped. From the foot of the wall, the twins watched Mingma plummet 2,000 feet and disappear into a unfathomable crevasse.All we could hear were the echoes of his screams, Nungshi says. We became numb. We didnt know what to do. We stood there for hours not sure what had actually happened.Returning to basecamp, Nungshi and Tashi could barely eat, think or move. Four days passed as they decided whether to make a bid for the summit or quit and go home. They texted their father, who motivated them to keep climbing in honor of their fallen Sherpa and for all of India. With mixed emotions they pushed forward and became the first female twins to summit Mt. Everest.We were at 29,000 feet, looking at the sunrise from under our feet and it gave us a sense of belonging and achievement for our nation, Nungshi says. But even while we were celebrating, we had this troubling thought that this could be the end.After conquering Mt. Everest in May 2013, the Malik twins turned their attention to the highest peak on every continent and finished the Seven Summits in December 2014. Tashi and Nungshi, then skied to the South and North Pole, completing the Explorers Grand Slam on April 21, 2015.At the age of 24 they became the youngest in history to accomplish this feat. They were also the first South Asians and the second fastest from start to finish, man or woman.Mountains do not discriminate based on gender, Tashi says. If youre passionate about what you want to do you have to back it with commitment.The Malik twins now have their sights set on the Four Icecap Challenge, which includes Patagonia, Greenland and a return to the Poles, but they are equally focused on their mission of empowering young women in India.***In 2015, the twins were selected to participate in the U.S. Department of State and espnW Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP), which matches female executives in the U.S. with young, emerging international leaders in sports. With guidance from Susan Cohig, a senior vice president at the National Hockey League, the twins set up the NungshiTashi Foundation, designed to help young girls in India obtain employment in the mountaineering industry.?Two of their many missions include pushing India to recognize mountaineering as an official sport and to look at the mountains as an opportunity to spark economic development in a region that is suffering stagnation.Nungshi and Tashi credited Cohig and the GSMP for giving them the tools needed to set up their foundation and to bring girls and sponsors through their doors.It was a revelation for us to meet so many women who were there to change the state of others and to make a difference in their own communities, Nungshi says. With the work we are doing, we want to open horizons for other girls to climb their own mountains.The hidden letter in the back of the closet was never needed. The Malik twins summited Everest and returned to show their gratitude by giving young women in India the same tools and opportunities that their parents gave to them.?Max Saffer is a Columbia Journalism School graduate and an avid golfer. He is working on his first novel. Follow him @maxavize Cheap Jerseys 2018 Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Jerseys 2019 NFL Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap Jerseys From China ' ' '