LaMarcus Aldridge blames NBA owners for the loss of games in the next NBA season
Portland Trail Blazers star forward LaMarcus Aldridge has put the blame on the NBA owners for the loss of regular season games. NBA Commissioner David Stern, true to his word, announced the cancellation of the first two weeks of
the next NBA season after the owners and players failed to reach an agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) by Monday, October 10.
The announcement came after a 7 hour negotiating session between NBA owners and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) ended without a compromise. Stern said in remarks made after the announcement that he was sad and
disappointed, things had to come to this.
However LaMarcus believes that Stern and owners wanted this all along.
“I definitely want to play. I don’t think fans really understand it. We didn’t want this lockout. The owners wanted it. I’m reading that the fans are attacking the players because they think we are not working with the owners,
but we are. The owners are not working with us.” Aldridge said in comments that appeared on Yahoo.
He also expressed a resolve to stay the course and not to bow down against the pressure tactics of owners.
“If this is what it takes, than I guess we have to do it”
Aldridge conceded that the announcement took him by surprise, as he had not expected games to be cancelled. The player believed the NBPA had made significant concessions to the owners and their demands were justified.
He was wrong in his assessment though and things could get ugly now that games have been cancelled.
“It could get bad,” Aldridge said. “We thought it was going to be a good negotiation this time. We didn’t actually think this was going to happen. But we prepared for the worst. It’s a little more dramatic for me now that two weeks
of the season are cancelled.”
The most dangerous part of Stern’s comments after Monday’s meeting was that the two sides still remain very far apart on almost all issues. The key issues are believed to be the split of Basketball Related Income (BRI and the structure
of the salary cap.
Both sides have principle differences on both matters, but they are also almost as far apart on the other, so called, B-list issues.
In light of the situation, it would be fair to say that much more than the first two weeks could be lost in near future. If a compromise is not reached by December, analysts believe the whole season could be in danger of being
cancelled.
Tags: