Dennis Rodman blames owners for NBA lockout; asks players to compromise – Labour Dispute Update
NBA icon Dennis Rodman has come down hard on both NBA owners and players, the two sides responsible for the current lockout in the league. The former Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons forward expressed his disappointment at what he called a “very touchy situation".
Rodman insisted that the NBA owners have already made up their minds to shelve the next season and it is now up to the players to save the coming NBA season. For the good of the game, he said, that the players should retract their demands.
"I think the players should bow down," he said Thursday, October 13."It's not the players' fault, it's the owners' fault and I think (the players) should give a little bit," the Hall of Famer said. "And that way, things will move on."
That is a point of view which is becoming increasingly common among the NBA community. The NBA lockout, which began on July 1st, stems from the expiry of a previous Collective Bargaining Agreement. A new one has to be formulated before the NBA can start another season, but both sides are miles apart on what they believe would be a fair deal.
On paper, it does look like the owners want too much. The NBA players received 57 percent of the Basketball Related Income (BRI) as per the last CBA. However, now the owners want that brought down to 47 percent due to the losses they have suffered in the last decade or so. Their best offer in this regard was 50 percent, but after the players refused to accept, the owners have since retracted that.
There are other issues to sort out as well, but Rodman knows, just as most people, that the dispute is principally about money. Greed has caused the mess which NBA community finds itself in right now, and Rodman doesn’t think it is only the owners who are greedy.
"Most players don't give a d**n about the game," he said. "They want the money and all of a sudden they want unity. I'm not taking the owners' side. I think the players should look at themselves."
Dennis was an outspoken and flamboyant player in his time, but no one could question his work ethic or commitment to the game of basketball. The player who won 7 NBA rebounding titles was still active when the league last went through a lockout, back in 1998-1999. That season was shortened to just 50 games after the owners and players reached a compromise around December-January. Some people have drawn parallels with that era, but Rodman warns that things are different now, especially given the financial peril most NBA teams find themselves in.
"Now you've got maybe 10 teams that are making money," he said.
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