NBA Player Agent Mark Bartelstein stands by Billy Hunter in labour dispute – Basketball News
Powerful NBA player agent Mark Bartelstein revealed in a recent interview that he is completely behind NBPA Executive Director Billy Hunter in the ongoing NBA labour dispute. Mark said he has sympathy for Billy and is totally supportive
of his handling of the affair so far.
Billy Hunter and NBPA President Derek Fisher have been at the forefront of the players struggle in the ongoing dispute that has led to a lockout. With the lockout in its third month already and little or no progress being made
so far in negotiations with the owners, there are some who have questioned whether Billy Hunter, or even the players union, can get the job done.
Rumours of an impending decertification of the union followed by several players suing the league have been doing the rounds for quite a while now. After the last player-owner meeting to discuss a new CBA ended in disappointment,
theses whispers can be heard louder than ever.
Bartelstein though believes that Billy Hunter has done as good a job as anyone in the negotiations. The influential agent revealed that he had been fully supportive of Hunter and Ron Klempner, the union’s legal counsel, during
the long negotiation process.
Mark also opened stringing fire on the NBA. NBA Commissioner David Stern has been criticized for being too heavy handed in the negotiations by many circles and Mark Bartelstein went a step further by calling the owners demands
as “Draconian”.
In the circumstances, Mark remarked, Hunter had done a very good job,
I, personally, and other people have engaged and try to engage with Billy and [NBPA lead attorney] Ron Klempner and everyone at the players’ association throughout this process.”
“I’ve been the first one to say that Billy is in a very, very difficult position. He’s in a very tough position, because the NBA has taken an extremely hardline stance from Day 1. The initial proposal [from the owners] … was Draconian
to say the least, and Billy is in this position where he’s trying in good faith to get a deal done, but you can’t negotiate by yourself.” Bartelstein said in an interview given to Sports Illustrated.
The accusations by the agent are in line with what the player’s community has widely complained about in the lockout. The union is of the view that the owners and NBA Commissioner David Stern have set unreasonable demands right
from the offset and do not show any inkling of budging from them so far, even with the scheduled start of training camps mere weeks away.
Billy Hunter had previously gone on record saying that due to the situation, he did not expect there to be an NBA season 2011-2012.
Tags: