Matt Barnes admits that the NBA labour deal caught him off guard
Los Angeles Lakers star Matt Barnes has admitted that the tentative deal between the NBA owners and the players union over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement took him by surprise. The deal was struck on Saturday after a marathon
15 hour negotiation session that started on Friday.
Barnes, who is a teammate of National Basketball Players Association’s president Derek Fisher, said he only found out about the deal through a reporter,
"I got a call from reporter like at midnight, and I was like 'Huh?'" I was very surprised," Barnes told ESPN.
The player revealed that Fisher had told him not to expect movement on the labour dispute before January, and even hinted that the whole season could indeed be wiped off.
"I had just golfed with Fish last week, and he was saying mid-January, late January, if anything. So to get the call and hear that we had come to a tentative agreement, I was excited." He said.
The deal calls for NBA players to get somewhere between 49-to51 percent of the Basketball Related Income, down from 57 percent under the previous CBA. The NBA owners and Commissioner Stern had offered a take it or leave it deal
that gave the players 50 percent of BRI earlier this month.
The union had outright rejected that deal and followed up by disbanding and allowing various players to sue the league in federal courts on antitrust basis. The fear of litigation forced owners to ease their stance over several
system issues, after which the union believed it had a deal presentable to its members.
Barnes said not all demands of NBA players were met even in the latest proposal, but they had enough to OK it.
"It's tough," Barnes said. "Everything wasn't met, but I think it's as good as it's going to get for us. I'm definitely glad we took a stand.”
The NBA will now commence training camps from the 9th of December; the free agency will also begin at the same time. The season proper is expected to start on Christmas day and will comprise of 66 games for each team
before the playoffs.
"I wish we didn't have to miss so much time, I wish everything could have started a little bit earlier in the summer so we could have fought and still had a full season, but 66 games is going to have to do." Barnes remarked.
The deal is still to be ratified by NBA players after the union is reformed and lawsuits against the owners have been withdrawn. The owners will also hold a vote over proposal and whether it is acceptable to them. Several small
market owners have been known to be against many of the concessions made in the deal.
Tags: