Danny Granger blames NBA Commissioner David Stern for the lockout
Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger was one of those players, who vowed not to bow before the league owners even before the National Basketball Players Association meeting last Monday.
Now, when the players have moved to decertify the union and take the matter to the court, the 28-year-old NBA has lashed out at the NBA commissioner David Stern.
Granger believes that the NBA Commissioner David Stern is the man responsible for the lockout. While giving an interview to the NBC Sport Talk, the former player representative of Indiana Pacers said that although Stern is the man behind the league’s remarkable growth in the last decade or so, but he has completely mishandled the negotiation process, which started nearly two years back and picked up pace in the last 6 to 8 months.
"Definitely let a little upset about it. David Stern, to his credit, he has grown the NBA. But as far as with the negotiations and where they have went in the last six or eight months, I don't think he's done a good job of conveying to the owners what's the most important thing for an NBA team, for an NBA season. And, for the NBA as a whole organization, the lockout has really damaged the game. How much, I don't think we know yet, but we'll find out. As commissioner, I just don't think he should have let it get that far, to the point where it is right now."
According to Granger, the NBA Commissioner David Stern had the power and influence to ensure a complete 82-game season and not let the lockout situation go that far, only if he had put his mind to it. However, what Stern did was to keep on pressurizing the players which ultimately led to the decertification.
The hard handed attitude of Stern especially became pronounced in the last two bargaining sessions when he resorted to giving ultimatum to the players with the ‘accept it or leave it’ sort of proposals. However, the players refused to budge from the stance, they still consider as rightful.
The NBA owners and players though still have about 40 days to resolve the labour dispute on the table and David Stern can play an important role in this situation. However, if this final opportunity is missed, then there will be no saving the 2011-12 NBA season.
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