New Jersey Nets All-Star Deron Williams frustrated with the NBA lockout
New Jersey Nets star Deron Williams expressed his frustration at the ongoing NBA lockout during a recent interview. The NBA lockout began on July 1st and so far there have been not many positive developments to report
on the matter.
It all stems from a dispute over the new Collective Bargaining Agreement since the old one expired. The NBA players want a system similar to the previous one but in light of claims of losses from the league they are prepared to
take some pay cuts. However that doesn’t seem enough for NBA Commissioner David Stern and the owners.
They have proposed a system with drastic changes; a lot of them the players consider non-starters. These include a hard salary cap, non-guaranteed contracts and around a 15 percent drop in the players overall share of BRI, the
Basketball Related Income.
Deron Williams is a big name in the NBA and one of the many stars that make very good amounts of money. He says however that more than the money, it is frustrating to not be able to play the game that you love.
"Yeah, it's definitely frustrating," Williams said. "Because we want to play and we want to have the season but it's not looking too good right now."
He also revealed that as a person and single entity the situation did seem desperate because "ultimately you have no control."
The point guard has therefore decided not to stress about the situation too much. He was one of the players who wanted to get involved in the whole negotiating process but after a while became disheartened with the situation.
"You can go to all the meetings you want. I went to two of them," Williams said. "Nothing came of the meetings. Or, there was stuff said but then nothing happens after that. You can't just sit and be concerned about it."
Williams is just one of many NBA players and fans who cannot get their head round to how the league, one of the highest earning sports leagues in the world, came to this point. Amid claims by people as relevant as the Executive
Director of the National Basketball Players Association that an NBA season for 2011-2012 looks unlikely, Williams has decided to pack his bags and head across the pond.
The player was one of the first to agree a deal with a foreign side to play basketball during the NBA lockout. He signed a contract worth around $5 million with Turkish side Besiktas for next season and believes he will have a
good time there,
"David Hawkins, I played with him in the preseason -- he's over there," Williams said. "You got Zaza (Pachulia). We should be good. That's three good players and I'm sure they've got some good players as well. I'm fine with that."
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