CHARLOTTE, N. Marlins Trevor Richards Jersey .C. - Kemba Walker has seen NBA basketball in Charlotte at its worst. Hes willing to stick around to see it at its best.The diminutive point guard said thats why he agreed to a contract extension Thursday which allows him to remain with the Hornets instead of testing the free agent market.Now that were a good team, I want to keep us good, Walker said Thursday at a press conference at the teams downtown arena. I want to be in the middle of that.Walker signed a four-year, $48 million contract extension with the Hornets, a person familiar with the deal said Tuesday night. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the deal had not been announced publicly.The Hornets drafted the 6-foot-1 Walker with the ninth pick in 2011. He has started 180 games in three seasons and averages 16 points, 5.5 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game.After agreeing to the contract late Tuesday night, Walker immediately began paying dividends for the Hornets. He hit two huge shots, including the game-winner with 5 seconds left in overtime to propel the Hornets to a 108-106 win over the Bucks in the season opener on Wednesday night.Its been unbelievable, Walker said of the past few days.It wasnt always so great.Walker endured a 7-59 season as a rookie, the worst winning percentage (.106) in NBA history after leading Connecticut to the national championship as a senior.But things have turned around in Charlotte and he and centre Al Jefferson — one of the players Walker helped recruit to the team — are two of the big reasons why.Charlotte won 43 games last season and reached the playoffs as the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference. They were swept by the Miami Heat, but are expected to better this season with the addition of another top free agent in Lance Stephenson.From day one we werent so good and you see us now, Walker said. Everyone is talking about us and we come into the season with high expectations. A few years ago it wasnt like that. Im happy to say Ive been a part of this whole rebuilding process. Marlins Kyle Barraclough Jersey . An unconventional night for Texas-El Paso nearly led to the Miners getting a huge upset. Down by 14 with 2:21 left, the Miners went on a frantic closing spurt that fell just short, and UTEP was beaten by No. Marlins Brett Graves Jersey . Gaborik was acquired in a trade with Columbus on Wednesday and skated on the top line with centre Anze Kopitar and right-winger Justin Williams. "We created some things," said Gaborik, who logged 16:38 of ice time.New Zealands complaints about a lopsided Super Rugby competition format gained some unlikely support from Stormers coach Robbie Fleck. The Stormers have been seeded third for the quarter-finals having won the Africa 1 conference with 51 points and will host two-time champions the Chiefs in Cape Town on Saturday, live on Sky Sports 3 via the red button.The match at Newlands, however, will be the first the Stormers have played this season against any of the five New Zealand teams, who have dominated the Australasian group and taken four of the five qualifying spots available. Fleck said he would have preferred to have played New Zealand teams throughout the regular season, given how well their rivals were playing. The Stormers finished top of the Africa 1 conference after winning 10 of their 15 regular season games It is a little bit frustrating because we have a young group of players and we are going through changes in terms of the way we want to play and want to grow as quick as possible, he told Radio Sport.Certainly the Kiwi sides have shown theyre the best in the competition, they are changing the way the game is played and their skill level is of the highest quality.You want to match yourself against the best throughout the year.DissatisfactionSuper Rugbys conference system has been criticised in New Zealand for rewarding the Brumbies and Stormers with home quarter-finals at the expense of the Highlanders, Chiefs and Crusaders, who all have superior winning records.Despite the dissatisfaction with the structure, Fleck said it was too early to change it for next season though there may be an opportunity to revisit it for 2018. Schalk Burger says the set-piece will be key in Saturdays quarter-final against the Chiefs Its got to run its course obviously and next year we will play the Kiwi sides in the same format, he said. Marlins Elieser Hernandez Jersey. Certainly the ground feeling is there will be changes come 2018, but we need to see how it goes next year when we do play the Kiwi sides.The Stormers enter the play-offs with four successive wins but they have been against the Cheetahs, Rebels, Force and Kings, teams in the lower half of the table.The Chiefs, in contrast, have played the Crusaders and Highlanders in two of their three games since Super Rugby resumed following the international break and are well primed to step up the intensity against the South Africans.We havent met that intensity yet, said Fleck. Its pretty evident the intensity that the Kiwi sides are playing at and we will only really know post-game whether we can match the intensity, if not better it.We feel if we can get there physically, we can put the Chiefs under some intense pressure.Stormers: 15 Jaco Taute, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Nic Groom, 1 Alistair Vermaak, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 3 Vincent Koch, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Siya Kolisi, 8 Schalk Burger (c).Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Frans Malherbe (c), 19 JD Schickerling, 20 Rynhardt Elstadt, 21 Nizaam Carr, 22 Louis Schreuder, 23 Brandon Thomson.Chiefs: 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Sam McNicol, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Stephen Donald, 11 James Lowe, 10 Aaron Cruden (c), 9 Brad Weber, 1 Kane Hames, 2 Nathan Harris, 3 Atu Moli, 4 Dominic Bird, 5 Brodie Retallick, 6 Taleni Seu, 7 Sam Cane (c), 8 Tom Sanders.Replacements: 16 Hika Elliot, 17 Siegfried Fisiihoi, 18 Mitchell Graham, 19 Tevita Koloamatangi, 20 Lachlan Boshier, 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22 Toni Pulu, 23 Shaun Stevenson.Watch the Stormers v Chiefs live on Sky Sports 3 (red button) on Saturday from 6pm. 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