NBA Lockout puts off the Rookie Transition Program – Basketball Update
After the suspension of the free agency and the cancellation of the Las Vegas Sumer League, the National Basketball Association officially faced another postponement as a result of the Lockout.
On Tuesday, the NBA executives decided to put off the Rookie Transition Program (RTP) which was scheduled for 9-11 August. The RTP will be rescheduled after the league gets back to business and a new Collective Bargaining Agreement
(CBA) is reached.
The deputy Commissioner of the league, Adam Silver made an official statement in this regards.
"Without a new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players' union, we will be unable to hold RTP as originally scheduled. This is an important educational program for our incoming players, and it will be
rescheduled once the parties agree on a CBA."
The Rookie Transition Program is a yearly organized curriculum that helps the first-year players to learn and develop the skill set and knowledge to make a successful transition into the league. The NBA and the players association
work jointly to establish a series of such programs to guide the players in the professional world of NBA.
The RTP was created in 1986. It is the most extensive and the longest running system in the professional sports and is comprised of substantial assortment of development and educational curriculums.
Every year, the NBA rookies take part in the RTP, which is now a mandatory workshop for every new comer. The program is designed to educate the new NBA arrivals about the systems of the league and acquaint them about all the do’s
and don’ts. However this time, the young recruits will have to wait for an indefinite period for this to happen as there are no certain answers of when the work stoppage will end.
NBA officially locked out its players on 1st July, upon the expiration of the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement and the work stoppage is about to complete the first month. The league owners and the players association
are still nowhere close from making a settlement and only today, there is a vibe that the two parties will meet on Monday.
On the surface, the postponement of the Rookie Transition Program is just another ugly lockout consequence. However, it can be rescheduled later on. The league though will bear an unredeemable loss if the lockout wipes out the
games in the next season. Even the possibility of a complete season wipe out cannot be ruled out. Last time when the league faced the same situation, NBA decided to reduce the number of games to warrant the beginning of the season.
In order to ensure that this does not happen, the NBA owners and the players association have to make headway soon.
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