Al Horford says NBA owners are to blame for the lockout crisis – NBA Update
Atlanta Hawks star Al Horford has joined the list of NBA players, who believe that the current NBA labour crisis is the fault of owners only. With the NBA lockout stretching into the fourth month, more and more players have started
to tread this line.
Horford was confident that the NBA players will not bow down to the unfair demands as they have to look out for themselves as well as the future generations in NBA.
"We owe it to ourselves and others like the guys who are coming up to have a good deal," Horford said.
The labour dispute has cost the league 100 regular season games already and threatens to wipe out the entire NBA season if not resolved soon. A new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is at the heart of the dispute; with both
sides fighting for a system they believe is fair.
The Hawks centre also said that the NBA players had already conceded a lot of ground to the owners and was of the view that the players will not come any lower than they did in the presence of federal mediator George Cohen last
week.
"I felt like in the past, the players have given up a lot to the owners and I just feel like it's excessive that way they're trying to do it. ... “
The fans have been crying out for a deal to be reached so that the lockout can end. The NBA season, slated to begin on November 1st, has already been delayed and that has irked a lot of the fans. They have started criticizing
both sides for their persistent bickering over monetary issues.
To the fans, the dispute is simply over money between millionaires and billionaires, players and owners respectively. Horford though maintains that the NBA players hold fans in the highest regard and want to be out on the courts
playing right now.
He instead blamed the owners for being greedy and forcing the players into a situation that they didn’t want to be.
“At the end of the day, if you look at who's asking for money and all that, it's the owners. They're the ones that want to make all the drastic changes to all these things that haven't really been an issue."
The owners have indeed pushed for whole sale changes to the financial system in order to guarantee a profit for themselves. The NBA Commissioner David Stern has said these measures are necessary because the league suffered losses
worth $300 million last season.
With 22 out of 30 franchises losing money, Stern says it is only natural that the NBA would want more money in a new CBA.
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