Jason Terry says NBA owners are trying to eliminate middle class players
Dallas Mavericks veteran guard Jason Terry has rejected the current proposal made by the NBA owners, saying it is detrimental to the financial well being of NBA players.
The lockout, which is now over 4 months old, continues to drag on as the rhetoric from both sides intensifies with each passing day.
Currently, the NBA owners appear to have an advantage in the negotiations and have taken a very hard line approach. NBA Commissioner David Stern once again issued an ultimatum to the players, offering them more or less the same
50-50 BRI split that was on the table earlier, and has ruled out any more negotiations.
Players have reacted strongly to Stern’s ultimatum and anger seems to be growing within the National Basketball Players Association at the harsh tactics employed by owners. Terry, who is a representative to the players union for
the Dallas Mavericks, has called the current deal unfair.
He is of the belief that the owners are not willing to let NBA players share in on the financial growth of the league and that is not acceptable for the union.
"Our reasoning and what our strategy is, is we are trying to grow the game of basketball, and under the terms that have been presented to us, the game of basketball for us, from a players' perspective, financially, will not be
growing," Terry said Friday morning during an appearance on the "Ben and Skin Show" on 103.3 FM ESPN.
Terry also raised the salary cap issue, citing the owners’ model would wipe out a whole class of NBA players. The owners had called for a hard cap and have more or less stuck to the stance, offering NBA players a deal with a very
punitive luxury tax that would serve as a de facto hard cap.
Jason reasoned that such a system would polarize salaries within the NBA, with a handful of super stars walking away with bumper contracts while the rest of the players would be left to scrap at the lower end.
"We will actually be getting rid of a class. In life and society there are three classes: There's the upper class, the middle class and lower class. And what the owners are trying to do right now, what their proposal is, get rid
of the middle class so you have one or two guys on each team making 'X' and the rest of the guys crunched down at a smaller number and then no middle ground."
With such discontent within the NBA players towards David Stern’s latest proposal, it is no surprise that the union is strongly considering decertification. If they were to take that drastic step, the NBA season would most certainly
be lost.
Tags: