Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk won the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award on Thursday, taking the prize over Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo.

The award was handed to Netherlands captain at the end of the UEFA Champions League group stage draw ceremony, held in Monaco.

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Van Dijk, 28, made his first appearance on the final three after helping Liverpool win the Champions League title last season. Ronaldo, a three-time winner, has been ever-present since the award was created in 2011.

"It's been a long road but that's part of my journey, it's part of who I am. I needed it like this, I'm not a player who was 18 years old and had that rise straight away. I had to work hard for every step of the way -- that's part of me and I'm very happy about that," Van Dijk said.

Two-time award winner Messi was the leading scorer in both La Liga (36 goals) and the Champions League (12 goals) last season but his Barcelona side fell in the semifinal stage to Liverpool, who overcame a three-goal deficit in the second leg to advance.

Ronaldo and Messi, who have dominated the game's individual awards for the past decade, sat next to each other at the UEFA event and Ronaldo reflected on no longer being in direct competition with the Argentine in the Spanish league.

"It was a special year. I was curious because we've shared the stage here for 15 years. Of course, we have a good relationship. We have not yet had dinner together yet but I hope in the future," the Portuguese star said laughing.

Van Dijk was voted both the Premier League Player of the Season and the Players' Player of the Year, and was instrumental in Liverpool's sixth European Cup triumph.

The centre-back transformed Liverpool's defence since joining them from Southampton in January, 2018 for a then world record fee of £75 million for a defender with his physical presence and superb reading of the game.

Van Dijk began his career in his homeland with Groningen and moved to Scottish club Celtic before heading to the Premier League, where he helped Liverpool to runners-up spot last season as well as a Champions League triumph over Tottenham Hotspur.

He was also awarded the best defender award of the Champions League, with teammate Alisson Becker given the goalkeeper prize. Messi won forward of the year, and Barcelona's Frenkie de Jong took the midfielder award after leading Ajax to the Champions League semifinal round last season.

Manchester United legend Eric Cantona was one of the highlights of the event for his interesting speech after he was given the UEFA President's Award.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.

Alexis Sanchez has joined Inter Milan on a season-long loan from Manchester United, the clubs have announced.

The Chile international, who joined United from Arsenal in January 2018, struggled to find his best form at Old Trafford and, despite manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer having backed Sanchez to come good, has returned to Serie A with Inter.

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"We can confirm that Alexis Sanchez joins Inter Milan on loan until 30 June 2020. We wish @Alexis_Sanchez the best of luck in Italy," United wrote in a Twitter post.

Sources told ESPN FC earlier this week that United had agreed to loan Sanchez for 10 months while contributing around £6 million of his £391,000-a-week salary. Inter are set to pay £9.46m of the 30-year-old's wages plus a loan fee to United. The deal does not include an option to buy.

Sanchez will join up with Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku who left United for Inter this month in a deal reported to have cost the Serie A club around €80m ($89.15m).

We can confirm that Alexis Sanchez joins Inter Milan on loan until 30 June 2020. We wish @Alexis_Sanchez the best of luck in Italy. pic.twitter.com/DdcRQRoEMk

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 29, 2019

The Chilean, who previously spent three seasons in Serie A with Udinese before moving to Barcelona, is his country's all-time leading scorer with 43 goals.

"On behalf of the entire Nerazzurri family, we'd like to wish [Sanchez] a very warm welcome and the best of luck," Inter said in a statement.

He arrives at San Siro as a replacement for Ivan Perisic, who signed for Bayern Munich.

The writing was on the wall for Alexis Sanchez at Manchester United in March, long before his loan to Inter was confirmed on Thursday evening.

In the aftermath of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's appointment as permanent manager, club chiefs were privately insisting that the rug would not be pulled from under him with the sale of Paul Pogba to Real Madrid. In reply to questions about whether the French midfielder would leave, the answer was always a firm "no."

But when it came to Sanchez, the tone was very different. It was made clear even then that any decision on Sanchez's future would be left to Solskjaer. The club officials who had worked so hard to pinch the Chile international forward from under the noses of Manchester City 14 months earlier, acquiring him from Arsenal in exchange for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, had already given up.

The stats make for disastrous reading. Sanchez scored five goals in 45 games for United and just three in the Premier League over 18 months with the club. His last goal came in the FA Cup, at former club Arsenal in January. His last 90 minutes for his club came on the opening day of last season. It is slim pickings for a player being paid £391,000 a week, rising to more than £500,000 a week with associated bonuses.

The reasons why a good footballer has been so bad at Old Trafford are, as Jose Mourinho put it privately, "a mystery." At Barcelona, Sanchez averaged a goal every three games. At Arsenal, one in two. At United, it was one in every nine.

Some backroom staff put it down to a crisis of confidence not helped by a series of niggling injuries while others are of the opinion that the move was ill thought-out and, because of that, it was doomed to fail.

In the summer of 2017, Mourinho wanted Ivan Perisic to fulfill his wide forward needs and was left frustrated that, after Inter Milan set the price at £48 million, the United-owning Glazer family would only sanction opening bids of £22m, £23m and £24m.

It was in stark contrast to the way United pursued Sanchez during the January transfer window having sniffed a chance to get one over on City. They made him the highest-paid player in the Premier League, a decision Mourinho grew to feel was as much down to his ability to sell shirts as anything else. Perisic did not have the same star quality and Mourinho felt that balance on the pitch had been compromised for what United's commercial department believed was a better fit off it.

"Alexis Sanchez has set a new January signing record in terms of shirt sales, three times the previous record," executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said in a conference call with investors. "This trade generated some interesting social media stats. It was the biggest United post on Instagram with 2 million likes and comments, the most shared United Facebook post ever, the most retweeted United post ever."

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Sanchez's arrival also impacted the harmony in the dressing room. Anthony Martial had scored in three consecutive Premier League appearances before the deal with Arsenal was agreed but was then immediately cast to the side. In the final four months of the 2017-18 season, Martial started just four league games and missed out on a place in France's victorious World Cup squad as a result.

There were problems off the pitch, too, after Sanchez's salary blew apart the wage structure. During David De Gea's contract negotiations the Spaniard questioned why he was being offered significantly lower terms despite being the club's player of the year in four out of five seasons between 2014 and 2018.

Approaching the end of his contract, Ander Herrera's demands were impacted, in part, by a realisation that Sanchez was earning upwards of £300,000 a week more. The Spanish midfielder ultimately opted to join Paris Saint-Germain when his deal with United expired.

One senior player, who is due to begin renewal talks in the coming year, has admitted privately that his agent doesn't know where to start with negotiations because the rules on acceptable figures have been re-written.

Wherever he has played, Sanchez has never served as the life and soul of the dressing room. But toward the end of last season, he had become so distant from the rest of the squad that some of his teammates told coaching staff they were worried.

Sanchez took exception at being asked to do an interview alongside Herrera, because he felt it was because the club did not trust him to do it alone. His closest friend at United was Romelu Lukaku and Sanchez's mood plummeted further when the Belgian was sold to Inter.

A week ago, Solskjaer suggested in a news conference that Sanchez could play a key role this season, but there were already mounting concerns that the situation had reached the point of no return.

It says everything about how far Sanchez's relationship with the club has deteriorated that United have agreed to pay £6m of his salary over the next 10 months to have him play somewhere else, and with no ability to bring in a replacement until January.

United's forward line is thin -- no one in the squad has ever scored more than 12 Premier League goals in a season -- and a team that was already struggling for goals has been depleted even further. And yet there is still a feeling within the club they are better off without Sanchez.

Sanchez will still have two years left on his United contract when his Inter loan ends, but he looks to have no future at Old Trafford. A transfer that seemed certain to be successful has turned into one of the worst in United's history and it will be some time before the club finishes paying the price.

The draw for the UEFA Champions League group stage took place in Monaco on Thursday and, as ever, threw up some intriguing story lines. Mark Ogden picks his highlights and makes some predictions.

Jump to: Group A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H

English clubs get it easy

It is the luck of the draw, but while the likes of Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid got groups with heavyweight rivals, the Premier League's quartet will all be happy with their outcomes.

Tottenham landed Bayern Munich, but will expect to overcome Olympiakos and Red Star Belgrade, while Liverpool and Manchester City will expect to coast through as group winners and Chelsea are favoured to take Group H.

Another year, another Man City vs. Shakhtar clash

The two clubs were paired together in the group stage for the third successive season, so it might take an imaginative publicity campaign to tempt supporters to turn out for this fixture again. City's executives will be happy to land yet another group lacking big-name glamour, but their fans might have wished for a bit more star quality.

Group F is the most difficult

Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Inter were drawn together in Group F, alongside Slavia Prague, whose cheerful directors chuckled at the prospect of three huge games in the Czech capital. It will be different for the hierarchy at the other three, however, with concerns over missing a top-two spot due to the strength of competition.

Messi and Ronaldo get along

In recent years, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have sat stony-faced with each other, as they wait to discover who has won the Player of the Year and Forward of the Year awards. This time around, the pair were laughing and joking -- mainly at Eric Cantona's speech -- before the prizes were announced. Messi claimed best forward, but both missed out to Virgil van Dijk for the big one.

Eric Cantona

Having been given the UEFA President's Award, convention dictated that Cantona give an acceptance speech. Dressed in jeans, creased shirt and flat cap, the former Manchester United forward made the most of his moment by quoting Shakespeare and discussing science and the ageing of cells, before closing by saying "I love football." All of which left the audience utterly bewildered.

Group A: PSG and Real Madrid go through

Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid meet in heavyweight clashes and while both will expect to progress to the round of 16, the story of this group is likely to be about which team finishes top and earns a seeding in the knockout stages. Finishing second could lead to a nightmare draw against another Champions League big-hitter. Galatasaray and Club Brugge, meanwhile, will enjoy a tough battle for the Europa League spot that comes with third place.

B: Bayern Munich and Tottenham go through

Bayern and Tottenham will be favourites to qualify, but both must be wary of slipping up in hostile arenas when they travel to Athens and Belgrade for clashes with Olympiakos and Red Star. Red Star beat Liverpool 2-0 at home last season and are the dangerous outsider in this group; they could upset Spurs if last season's runners-up fail to rediscover consistency. Olympiakos can be tough to beat at home, though they are something of a soft touch on the road.

C: Man City and Dinamo Zagreb go through

This group is basically a case of who will finish runners-up behind City, who are many observers' favourites to win the Champions League. Shakhtar have the most recent pedigree in the competition, but Dinamo Zagreb and Atalanta will believe they can reach the knockout stages. Champions League debutants Atalanta may suffer from losing home advantage by playing at the San Siro in Milan rather than their 21,000-capacity stadium in Bergamo.

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D: Juventus and Leverkusen go through

Juventus and Atletico Madrid, who met in last season's round of 16, are the two to beat in this group, but Bayer Leverkusen could separate them. Juventus have strengthened in the summer, but questions hang over Atletico following the departures of Antoine Griezmann, Rodri and Diego Godin. Diego Simeone remains at the helm and has signed Portuguese wonderkid Joao Felix, but Leverkusen will be a tough nut to crack; Lokomotiv Moscow could also challenge for second.

E: Liverpool and Napoli go through

Reigning European champions Liverpool meet Napoli again, having played out two big encounters in last season's group stage. Salzburg and Genk look to be making up the numbers, so Liverpool's encounters with Napoli should decide who tops the group. Only a last-minute save by Alisson at Anfield stopped Napoli from dumping Liverpool out at the group stage a year ago, so the Italians will fancy their chances.

F: Barcelona and Inter go through

The most eye-catching group of all features three previous winners -- Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Inter -- slugging it out for two places. Barca will expect to finish top, but Dortmund could beat them. Inter, meanwhile, are still an unknown quantity under Antonio Conte, but the nerrazzuri have plenty of quality so don't take your eyes off this group. Slavia Prague make up the numbers.

G: Lyon and Leipzig go through

Zenit St Petersburg's Twitter feed joked prior to the draw that the Russian champions were the top seed that everyone wanted to get. Benfica, Lyon and Leipzig were the lucky clubs in each pot and while this group might lack glamour, it is perhaps the most competitive, with all four teams having a chance to qualify. Lyon made it to the knockout stages last season and will be favourites.

H: Chelsea and Valencia go through

Europa League winners Chelsea will be delighted to get an Ajax team weakened by the departures of Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie De Jong, as well as a Valencia outfit that scraped in as Spain's fourth qualifier and Lille, who finished a distant second to PSG in France. Chelsea, with Christian Pulisic signed to replace Eden Hazard, are in transition under Frank Lampard, but should top this group.

Australians 77 for 0 (Harris 52*, Khawaja 18*) trail Derbyshire 172 (du Plooy 86, Neser 3-31, Starc 3-46) by 95 runs

Not even present for the tour game at Worcester, Australia's coach Justin Langer underlined the impending pointy end of this Ashes series by intently watching day one of the encounter with Derbyshire from behind the wicket, accompanying the selection chairman Trevor Hohns for long segments of play at the county ground in Derby.

What they saw, joined at various junctures by the captain Tim Paine, the resting David Warner and the former New Zealand coach John Wright, was more or less as might have been expected, save for the curious initial decision to field rather than bat first on a straw-coloured pitch.

Michael Neser claimed two wickets in as many deliveries with the brand new ball and later added a third, Mitchell Starc went wicketless for 12 overs before blasting out three Derbyshire batsmen in his 13th, two by splaying the stumps, and Peter Siddle bowled eight overs for 11 runs while accounting for the hosts' top scorer, the elegant Leus de Plooy.

Wrapping up Derbyshire's innings shortly after tea, the acting captain Usman Khawaja and the opener Marcus Harris then got comfortable against modest bowling, taking their time in the knowledge that only one of them is likely to play in the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford. Khawaja, as the senior player of the two, appears more certain of retaining his place, and one or two of Harris' signature airy cut shots through a gully area not overly staffed by Derbyshire did not inspire a great deal of confidence.

Nonetheless, he scored more freely of the batsmen, and in staying undefeated to the close, Harris and Khawaja ensured that Steven Smith's return to the middle following his concussion substitution at Lord's and subsequent absence from Headingley would be delayed by another day.

"He's always looking to score," Paine said of Harris. "I think if you bowl a bad ball to Harry he puts it away and I think that puts guys under pressure. He's just an attacking opening batter and he keeps the scoreboard moving, but as he's shown in Shield cricket he's got the ability to bat for a long time and score big hundreds when he gets in, we know that Harry's got Test runs in him, and when he gets set hopefully he starts well tomorrow, gets a big score and he can continue putting runs on the board like he has for the last 18 months.

"Steve Smith is going to come back in and play. So obviously someone from the last Test is going to miss out. There's no doubt about that. You have the best player in the world coming back into your line-up. I suppose this tour game is important for guys to make sure that you're keeping your name up in front of the selectors. And so far a few guys have done it, which is very pleasing. That's what we want. We want to have depth and we want our selectors to have to make difficult decisions."

In fact Smith's only involvement was a single over of ropey off-spin, including one practice delivery that sailed over the head of a startled Siddle at mid off. Neser, Starc and Siddle all bowled better than that, demonstrating what the selectors could expect should they choose any for Manchester. Paine said that Starc's bowling was steadily on the improve in terms of what the team needed him to do in English conditions.

"I think if anyone's stops trying to get better, that's a problem," Paine said. "We know what Starcy can do in terms of blowing teams away. We also know that coming to England in the past that hasn't worked. So he's been working really hard on getting his length right more so than anything. I think his opening spell today was really good. I thought he bowled in very good areas.

"He bowled with good pace on a wicket that was very slow. So I thought the signs that he showed with the new ball were really good. And then, like we saw again at the end, when he can go back to what his strengths are, attack the stumps and use his short-balls, he's a handful for the tail as well.

"He's been working on his length and I think he showed some really good control in his first spell. He bowled a long spell too [seven overs and eight overs] which he doesn't do a lot when he plays for Australia. I thought he controlled pretty well and, the areas he has been trying to improve so he can be important for us in English conditions, I thought he showed today he's going really well with that."

Rather less of a chance to figure in Lancashire is Cameron Bancroft, who must have been informed of a fairly lowly posting in the batting order after heading, at change of innings, for an extended practice session in the Derby nets. Langer, meanwhile, kept both eyes firmly on the middle.

Australia have had plenty of time to address but also rationalise the madness of their final hour at Headingley, resulting in conclusions such as the evident fallibility of Ben Stokes against Nathan Lyon, the impending return of Steven Smith and the fact that only one of the final two Tests need end in victory for the touring side to ensure they retain the Ashes in England for the first time since 2001.

Following a day in Derby where senior members of the Australian set-up, from the selection chairman Trevor Hohns and the coach Justin Langer, to the captain Tim Paine and the opening batsman David Warner, all spent time ensconced in discussion behind the wicket at the county ground, the skipper emerged to note that Stokes, while seeming a miracle worker, has been riding a more than generous share of luck since Edgbaston.

"Hold our chances would be a good start," Paine said of how to combat England's talismanic allrounder. "We've looked at, I think Nathan Lyon in the last two Tests alone has got him out five or six times had we held our catches or referred our lbws. Lyono's still a huge weapon against him, and there's some things we've spoken about with our fast bowlers where we think we can do things a little better than him.

"But he's a world class player, he puts bowlers under pressure and makes them do things and captains do things that you wouldn't normally do. That's a huge weapon England have got and one we've got to try and contain in the last two Test matches."

Also read: Harris fights for spot with fifty to delay Smith's batting comeback

Those things that captains don't normally do were relevant to Paine, given his struggles to find the right way to either cope with Stokes or keep his bowlers and far flung fielders thinking clearly when they only required one more wicket to retain the Ashes. There have been plenty of discussions since, not least a most animated one between Paine and Ricky Ponting to one side of the post-match presentation at Headingley.

"I think you've just got to address it, we had some honest conversations and we know we made some errors as a team and as individuals, but we can't be holding onto that, we're in the middle of a massive series and it can happen," Paine said. "We've moved on, we're ready for Manchester, the group's in a really good spot, if we were 1-1 I think most people would've taken it.

"Without Steve Smith playing I don't think we were given any chance of winning that Test match, so without Steve Smith playing i think most people wrote us off in that Test, so we're tracking ok.

"We're sticking to our plans and our process, I think it's working quite well and I said in post-match we've been in a position to win every game so if we continue to do those things and tidy up a few things we didn't quite get right at the end there then we think we'll be in the thick of it in Manchester and at the Oval."

Something that pleased Paine from the boundary was the energy of the players taking part in Derby. At the back end of a World Cup and Ashes campaign, Paine knows as well as anyone that stamina, both mental and physical, will be vital to how the final story of this series is told.

"We knew we were going to bounce back well. Things like energy and the way we hold ourselves is something we can control easily," he said. "We've passed that last hour in Leeds. We were tested as a group, we know where we can get better from it.

"We've learnt from it. And now it's about getting up for the next Test match and making sure we're prepared as well as we can be for Manchester. I thought today was a good display by our team. There's a huge opportunity for guys in this game to make sure we've got our selectors making really tough decisions."

Ajinkya Rahane lifted his bat high and looked up into the sky, closing his eyes for a brief moment - his first Test century in two years and 17 matches.

The India vice-captain is stoic - sometimes unbelievably so - but on that day in North Sound, anybody watching him could tell he was going through a lot.

"I was a little bit emotional," he said during the press conference before the second Test match at Sabina Park. "I thought 10th hundred was really special. I wasn't thinking about any particular celebration, it came out automatically. It took me two years to get that 10th hundred. As I said the process always matters to me a lot. Preparations before each and every series is very important. I was actually doing that throughout the two years, and so [this hundred] was really special."

Both in the second innings when India needed to build a lead and in the first innings when West Indies had reduced them to 25 for 3, Rahane hadn't thought of personal milestones.

Pitch for the 2nd test match tomorrow: India vs West Indies. pic.twitter.com/vTsNCfdnav

— Ian bishop (@irbishi) August 29, 2019

"We were under pressure [in the first innings]. I thought West Indies bowled really well in that session, throughout that day. It was an opportunity for me to do something special for my team [he scored 81]. I think because of the situation I wasn't thinking about myself because it was important to get that partnership going - one player has to stay and bat and we knew that. I thought it was something special for me personally as well because we knew we were in a difficult position at that point of time and happily we did really well and came back strongly from that point.

"[In the second innings] I knew that [106-run] partnership with Virat was very crucial. And basically, because of that team thinking, the pressure was completely off. And really special getting that hundred after two years."

With Hanuma Vihari also getting runs and solidifying the middle order, India are likely to keep faith in the same batting line-up that won the North Sound Test, with Rohit Sharma sitting out again. "Vihari did very well in India A tours and he did really well in the domestic circuit," Rahane said. "It's good that players who actually did consistently well over a period of time in domestic cricket are doing well at the international level.

"At the same time Rohit is also a quality player, a special player - it's hard to see him miss out on a Test match."

West Indies understand that they are under pressure but they have performed well in such situations. The team also hasn't lost a Test series at home in two years. And as one of the key players in this side, experts have said that captain Jason Holder should try to bat higher up the order but he felt the work he puts with the ball sometimes prevents him from taking the plunge.

"It's something that I've obviously been wanting to do for a long time. It's just been a team composition - I've been asked to bowl a lot of overs, that's primarily my role, just trying to keep the run flow down. I've had a lot of success with the ball as well, having to bowl 20-30 overs and then come out and bat high has been difficult. If we can ease the burden off myself and get people like Roston Chase [to bowl longer], then I'd be able to give a little bit more attention to my batting."

Holder also added that while he thought West Indies were already clicking as a bowling unit, they needed to do more with the bat.

"I think we got to be decisive with our footwork, decisive with our shot selection - if we are going to play or if we are going to leave. That's just standard cricket. We just got to be a little bit more certain with what we are looking to do and back our defenses, trust our preparation that we had and just fight through the tough periods." he said.

"The starts have been crucial for us. We have had guys get in and get out, so it's just a matter for us to stay a little but longer in our game plan and be a little bit more patient as well and wear the Indian bowlers down. We saw a little bit in the second innings after a spell or two they tend to be a little jaded. So just to keep them a little bit more on their feet as possible and here in Jamaica it tends to be very hot and humid as well, so the longer we keep them on their feet, the better off we will be."

NEW YORK -- Naomi Osaka smacked a forehand winner into the open court, bringing Colin Kaepernick and Kobe Bryant to their feet in applause.

Osaka has power in her strokes and star power in her corner.

The defending US Open champion moved into the third round Thursday with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Magda Linette, setting up a possible third-round showdown with Coco Gauff.

With Kaepernick and Bryant sitting with her team just a few rows off the Louis Armstrong Stadium court, Osaka did her part and waited to see if the 15-year-old Gauff would win her match later that night.

Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who three years ago began kneeling during the national anthem before games, has been working out in the area in hopes of getting another shot in the NFL. Bryant, the retired NBA superstar, came to the US Open on Thursday to promote "Legacy and the Queen,'' a new book that he conceived and that Osaka has supported.

Osaka was grateful for their attendance, she said, and motivated to win quickly so she wouldn't keep them in the sun too long watching.

The No. 1 seed gave them plenty to cheer along the way, especially the forehand winner on break point that gave her a 4-3 lead in the second set after Linette had grabbed the first three games.

Gauff was scheduled to face qualifier Timea Babos in the leadoff night match on Armstrong, where she picked up her first US Open main-draw victory Tuesday against Anastasia Potapova, coming from behind just as she kept doing during her run to the fourth round of Wimbledon in July.

"It's amazing at that age," Bryant said. "Not just the skills she possesses, but the poise."

While Osaka moved on, another two-time Grand Slam champion was eliminated when No. 6 Petra Kvitova was upset by Andrea Petkovic 6-4, 6-4. Wimbledon champion Simona Halep tried to avoid falling when she played Thursday afternoon.

Other early winners included No. 16 Johanna Konta, who routed Margarita Gasparyan 6-1, 6-0; and No. 20 Sofia Kenin, who swept past Laura Siegemund 7-6 (4), 6-0.

The Golden State Warriors promoted Mike Dunleavy Jr. to assistant general manager Thursday and added former player Zaza Pachulia as a team consultant.

Dunleavy, a Warrior from 2002 to 2007 and a veteran of 15 seasons in the league, has worked for the past year as a scout for the team. Dunleavy, the son of former head coach Mike Dunleavy Sr., also played for the Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks.

"As I was winding down my career, I knew I wanted to stay in the game," Dunleavy said last year. "I knew I didn't want to do media. Everybody always asks me if I want to coach, expecting me to say yes because my dad coaches, my brother coaches. I just always had more of an interest in this side of it, the front-office side.

"For me, it's not much of a change from just watching games. I'm always evaluating, whether it's opponents or rookies. So it's somewhat natural for me."

Pachulia, 35, won titles with the Warriors as a member of the 2017 and 2018 teams. His role, the Warriors said, will include consulting on both the basketball and the business sides of the operation.

A 15-year veteran known for his toughness and leadership, Pachulia spent last season with the Detroit Pistons. He averaged 6.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 20.3 minutes over 1,098 career games.

"Zaza was such an important part of our foundation," Steve Kerr said earlier this year. "He was a key player for us, with his screening and his size and his physicality, but he was also a key human being for us because he was a leader. He was funny, he was hard working, humble -- everything you want in a player, that's Zaza."

The Warriors also announced promotions for Kirk Lacob and Kent Lacob, both sons of the team's owner, Joe Lacob.

Kirk Lacob was promoted from assistant general manager to executive vice president, basketball operations.

Kent Lacob, who spent the previous three seasons as general manager of the Santa Cruz Warriors, was named director of team development.

An arrest warrant for Los Angeles Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge has been issued in Mobile, Alabama.

The Mobile municipal court website lists a third-degree harassing communications charge against Cousins, but no other details have been disclosed. A police spokesperson told USA Today Sports that "an arrest warrant has been issued."

Christy West, a former girlfriend of Cousins', is seeking a restraining order against him after she said in court documents and in a police report obtained by TMZ that he threatened her and has previously choked her.

West, according to TMZ, alleged that Cousins said he would put a "bullet in (her) f---ing head" during an argument over allowing their 7-year-old son to attend Cousins' wedding to another woman.

The NBA and Lakers on Tuesday said in statements that they were "investigating the allegations."

Cousins has declined to comment.

TMZ shared an audio recording West took of the incident, and she said that the male voice heard is that of Cousins.

During the argument, the man says, "I'm gonna ask you this one more time before I take it to another level ... Can I have my son here, please?"

After West responds "No," the man makes the threat and the audio clip ends.

Cousins got married in Atlanta this past Saturday, and his son was not there, according to TMZ.

The 29-year-old former All-Star suffered a torn ACL earlier this month and could miss the entire season -- his first with the Lakers.