Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett talks Lockout; Compares the NBA-NFL situation
Boston Celtics’ veteran power forward and the ace in the C’s big three, Kevin Garnett recently gave his views on the two major lockouts that have dominated the American Sports landscape this year; the NFL and the NBA.
The NFL lockout ended just a while ago after the parties involved resolved their differences, but the NBA lockout is still going on.
The NFL players took a different approach to that of their NBA counterparts. Unlike the NBA where the National Basketball Players Association continues to be committed to negotiating on the table, even after NBA Commissioner David
Stern pulled a fast one and filed a lawsuit against the union, the NFL players decided to take matters to court.
The NFL players decertified the union and sued the league in federal court. In the end the dispute was settled outside the courts, but there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the presence of a judge accelerated the process. NBPA
President Derek Fisher and Executive Director Billy Hunter have so far rejected demands to follow the same route, but it is yet to be seen for how long.
Kevin Garnett was asked about the comparison between the lockouts of the two prestigious American sports leagues and a perceived lack of coverage the NBA is getting compared to the NFL. The forward made some insightful comments
regarding the matter,
“I just think that, yes both lockouts happening at the same time was, first off, uncertain. As a fan, you just want to see sports. There’s a business part of it that you obviously have to pay attention to. But I just think because
of the significance of the two biggest leagues, the two biggest brands in the world just so happened to have the same kind of similar labour disputes, so I understand that. But then again the thing that I hate, because you’re a fan of football and vice versa.
And you never want things when it comes to entertainment slowing that down. But that’s part of it.”
The NBA labour dispute did show some signs of progressing at the end of last month, when the players and the owners held only the second meeting since the lockout began on July 1st. Although only minimal targets were
achieved in the meeting, both sides are hoping that it will at least provide a foundation on which they can rebuild the negotiations.
The work done over a year and a half of negotiating earlier seems to have been undone when the league decided to lockout the players. Now the lockout is in its third month and the NBA fans are hoping that just like the NFL, things
will start moving a lot faster now that the season draws ever so close.
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