Dwyane Wade slams NBA over Lockout – NBA Labour Dispute Update
Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade has come down hard on NBA over the continuing labour dispute.
The players and owners have been embroiled in a bitter dispute for a long time now with no end in sight. This issue is now threatening the cancellation of the whole NBA season.
The NBA owners and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) have met time and again to work out their differences, but the sessions have proved facile so far.
Wade believes the NBA owners are dragging their feet over the matter and have consciously misled the NBA fans over the matter. He criticized the public rhetoric from the likes of NBA Commissioner David Stern and said the players
have refrained from similar propaganda.
"We haven't done a great job of complaining," Wade said. "That's what the NBA has done, they've done a great job of complaining. We haven't done a great job of that so no one sees our side. They more so see the owners' side."
The dispute between the two sides principally revolves around a split of the revenue generated by the league, or the Basketball Related Income (BRI). NBA players say they should get the larger share, as they did under the previous
CBA, because they are the main attraction in basketball.
The owners argue that they need the money to strengthen small markets franchises which have suffered losses in the last few years and cannot compete with other teams. Dwyane though completely dismissed the notion, saying the struggle
of these franchises was mostly down to poor management rather than a lack of resources.
He quoted the example of San Antonio Spurs to support his argument. Spurs have been one of the most successful teams in the past decade despite having a very small market base.
"To me, it's not about who has the most chips," Wade added. "I think it's about who manages their chips the right way. That's why I think we have a management problem. Small markets have won championships. San Antonio is a very
small market and they have four championships in the last 10 years or whatever the case may be. So I don't know how you ever fix it unless you have realistic goals.”
San Antonio built a dynasty around legendary power forward Tim Duncan in the last decade. The Spurs benefited from a smart management and a great coach to achieve success on a consistent basis. Their strength was not a drawing
power like that of the Los Angeles Lakers, but a sound game plan revolving around Duncan and relatively unknown players, at the time, like Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
Then there is also the fact of the franchises sharing the revenues in between to cover the losses. Not all teams can be based in California, Dallas or Miami, cities where the fan base is huge. The players union has made this argument
a number of times; however the NBA owners just seem bent on covering their losses from the pays of the players.
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