Former Indiana Pacers superstar Jalen Rose blames owners for the ongoing lockout: NBA News
Former NBA superstar Jalen Rose, who now works as an analyst for basketball, recently shared his views on the ongoing lockout and perhaps, he is the best man to refer at the moment.
Back in the 1998-1999 season, when former Indiana Pacers forward Rose was all set for a breakout year, the season was shortened to 50 games as a result of the previous lockout. At that time, the players were given 57 percent of
the Basketball Related Income (BRI) in the Collective bargaining Agreement which brought NBA back into business.
Having the experience of such a situation, the 38-year-old Jalen Rose stated that it’s a huge blow when you find out there will be no game for an indefinite period. "If we wake up and there isn't basketball from sunup to sundown,
it will be a huge blow. Players and owners will be in a compromising position."
However, this time, the NBA owners are not only insisting for a substantial decrease in the BRI percentage from the players, the implementation of the hard salary cap and reduction of the contract lengths are also demanded by the
owners in the new CBA which has made the situation more worse.
Jalen Rose completely blames NBA owners for the lockout stating that they are in a position to dictate what happens. Players are responsible for strike but when it comes to lockout, Rose believes that the responsibility totally
lies on NBA owners.
"If the company is thriving, they're in a position to dictate what happens. They're billionaires. The beat goes on until they come around. If it was a strike, I'd blame the players. It's a lockout; you'd have to say the owners."
Rose said.
While defending the players, Jalen stressed that owners have unrestricted time to make money and players work like an average person from 9-5 to earn a living. Rose feels that people don’t’ realize this different which makes both
the parties diverse from each other.
"It's upsetting the public doesn't realize that an owner gets an unlimited time to make money; a player doesn't. Because there are 410 players who aren't superstars, they're like the average person who works a 9-to-5.” Rose said.
The NBA Commissioner David Stern has already cancelled first month of the regular season and more games will go down to drain soon if NBA owners and players association fail to show any progress.
Owners have proposed a 50-50 split however the players are not ready to agree on anything less than 52 percent share of the Basketball Related Income.
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