New York Knicks veteran Chauncey Billups fighting labour battle for younger generation – NBA Update
Chauncey Billups is one of the veterans of the NBA with 14 years of league basketball behind him. The New York Knicks star now finds himself, in the twilight of his career, embroiled in a labour dispute that is threatening to kill
of the next NBA season.
It would be a particularly painful blow to Billups if a new CBA deal wasn’t reached in time to save the season. For Billups has been around the NBA and has seen it all. He wasn’t a super star coming into the league as a rookie;
he worked his way through some tough years and mid-level contracts. Slowly Chauncey gained the respect and admiration of the wider NBA world and shone as one of the premier players in his position.
With that came the beefy contract which carries into next season, a season set to be the most profitable of Billups career. If the NBA season is cancelled, Chauncey Billups is set to lose $14.2 million. He won’t get a contract
anywhere near that the year after thanks to his aging bones.
So this is a difficult moment for Billups and he admitted to his frustration in an interview given to ESPN,
"It's a tough situation for me," he said. "Selfishly, I want that money. I earned that money over a long time. I feel like it should've come to me a long time ago, but it didn't.”
The point guard though was around the last time the league went into a lockout. That season a lot of games were lost before an agreement was reached. Chauncey saw first hands the sacrifices the veterans of those days made, who
were in the same situation as Billups is in right now, and that’s what has strengthened his resolve of doing it for the larger good and not thinking about just himself.
“I remember the first lockout in 1998 and all those guys who were in the position I'm in now -- Charles Oakley, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan. They were finally getting their balloon payments but they stood up and said, 'Listen
we're going to do what's right and make sure the league is in good shape when we're done.' I remember that vividly. So now I want to make sure the Derrick Roses and all the young guys coming up have the opportunity to one day be able to get paid.”
Billups has taken an admirable stance despite his personal predicament. He has talked to as many as 50 NBA players, telling them to stay the course and not back down. He is an ardent supporter of the players union and one of the
leading voices against decertification, knowing his stance could cause him to miss out on the biggest pay day of his life.
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