Isiah Thomas urges NBA owners and players to look at bigger picture
NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas has urged the NBA owners and players to set aside personal interests for the larger good of the league. The former Detroit Pistons star said both sides should be willing to sacrifice if the current
NBA lockout was to end any time soon.
He said the personal interests, largely monetary, of both sides were holding them back from coming to an amicable solution and easing the pain they had inflicted on the NBA fans.
“We’ve always put the game ahead of our own personal interests. Right now it seems the game is being held hostage by the personal interests of the owners and the players.” Isiah said in an interview published by Sports Radio Interviews.
The lockout began on July first due to a labour dispute regarding the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The owners claim they suffered losses under the previous CBA and want a complete overhaul to the system, basically one that
guarantees them profit.
The National Basketball Players Association has agreed to some changes but is resisting drastic measures, resulting in the loss of pre-season, training camps and 100 regular season games.
Now Thomas has urged that the sides must look into their own past and rediscover the things that brought them together back then,
“I think you would probably need to do some historical analysis in terms of bringing the players and the owners to the point of where we are today from a historical standpoint and how the game has grown.”
The NBA last went through a lockout in 1998. That year many games were lost before a deal for the CBA was reached in January, and subsequently a shortened 50 game NBA season was played.
This time around the stakes seem to be higher. NBPA executive director Billy Hunter warned long ago that he didn’t expect there to be an NBA season for 2011-2012. Similarly, NBA Commissioner David Stern has remarked that if a deal
is not reached soon the whole season could be wiped out.
Isiah, who has served in the NBA as a player, coach and an executive, said both sides need to realize that theirs is a profitable relationship. He was of the view that the NBA had grown a lot over the years and the principle reason
was the partnership between owners and players.
Now more than ever, the two sides need to find common ground.
“The game has grown through a unique partnership from the players and the owners unlike any other league has ever enjoyed. Because of that unique partnership of trust, argument, fight, disagreement and everything else … in time.”
Tags: