Chris Bosh admits it is strange not to be playing basketball in November – NBA Update
Miami Heat super star Chris Bosh is going through a strange phase; not playing basketball in November.
Bosh finds himself in the predicament because of the NBA lockout that is now 4 ½ months old, and doesn’t look like ending anytime soon.
Bosh has had a successful career in the NBA so far, first with the Toronto Raptors and now the Miami Heat. One of his attributes is fitness, which has meant that the power forward almost always plays. November traditionally has
been a month where he is in action, playing basketball on an NBA court.
Not this time, and that irks Bosh.
"It's still kind of weird not playing, because I've always played in November," Bosh said shortly after arriving at the Rutgers-Miami game, accompanied by his wife and some friends. "So it's feeling real out of place and I still
can't see it. But I think we're all aware of what could possibly happen. We don't see it happening it like that, but what can you do?"
That is an issue for a number of NBA players. Their hands are basically tied, they want to play, but the league won’t let them. Some have found a way round it with various pro-am games and exhibition events, but the summer leagues
are now long over.
It is NBA time now, but the NBA season won’t start with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The NBA owners and Commissioner David Stern want drastic changes in that, which the players are resisting. Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher,
who serve as the Executive Director and President of the National Basketball players Association respectively, have been negotiating with them for a long time now, but a breakthrough seems farther than ever now.
Last week Stern said he was done negotiating, and gave the union a take it or leave it offer. The deal proposed didn’t cater to demands made by players in return of a massive swing in share of the Basketball Related Income.
They have since rejected the offer, decertified the union and filed lawsuits against the NBA owners on anti-trust basis. The labour dispute is about to get real ugly, and Bosh isn’t pleased about it.
"I don't like it," Bosh said when asked his thoughts on where things stand. "I don't think anybody likes it. But sometimes when you're doing business it's so hard to kind of draw the line and work together, especially when it gets
separated a little bit.”
Bosh and others like him are still clinging onto hope that a resolution can be reached outside of the courts, but people who are most close to the negotiations have already started writing off the 2011-2012 NBA season.
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