Deron Williams opens up about going to Turkey – NBA Update
Deron Williams has been the centre piece of attention, ever since he decided to go play in Europe during the lockout. While many super stars of the league, like Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki, have hinted to this effect, Deron is
the biggest name to have actually agreed a move so far.
Williams agreed a contract with Turkish club Besiktas for very little money- at least when compared to his salary in the NBA – and will be allowed to come back to the New Jersey Nets if the lockout ends. Since the news of his impending
departure became public, a lot of people have been talking about it.
Williams sat down for an interview recently to talk about the deal and the scepticism surrounding it,
“People say, ‘Oh, you’re going to get hurt,’” Williams said. “I can get hurt playing at (the University of San Diego) or wherever I’m at. I can get hurt walking down these steps. Of course, that’s a big part of it. But I also did
my due diligence, researched insurance. I’ll be covered.”
The fact that the Nets star is insured should calm a lot of nerves back home. However, there are also a lot of questions as to why the player agreed to such a small salary package (five million dollars) and so forth. Deron’s answer
was simple; he just wants to play,
“Experience and being able to compete and play basketball. I don’t want to sit around.” He said, before taking a swipe at the NBA for forcing his hand on the matter, “That’s what the NBA wants us to do right now. They locked us
out of our gyms, they locked us out of facilities. We got to go find somewhere on our own to go hoop, to put games together.”
The league locked the players out on July 1st and the lockout is expected to continue until an accord is reached on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement or CBA.
The NBA says the old system is broken and caused massive losses to the league over the last decade. They want a new deal, with player salaries and benefits drastically lower than what they are now and also want to set the player
share at limit, locking them out of any growth in league revenue over the next ten years.
The players, of course, rejected NBA’s proposals, although they did offer to roll back salaries to a certain extent. However, since the lockout both sides have taken firmer stances and many NBA players are heading overseas to play
basketball and keep in shape for when the lockout does end. Judging by the way things are going at the moment, it could be quite a while.
Tags: