Rajon Rondo says both sides wants the NBA season to begin – NBA Update
Boston Celtics star point guard Rajon Rondo believes everyone concerned in the NBA labour dispute wants basketball to begin and it was just some issues, which are causing a deadlock.
"Everybody's itching to play basketball," Rondo said. "Everybody wants to see basketball, even both sides. The owners want to see us out there playing and the guys want to be out there playing as well.
He spoke after hosting a charity game in Boston.
A lot of fans turned up for Rondo’s event, happy to have some basketball in the city after such a long time. Because of the NBA lockout, which began back in July, NBA fans have not seen any competitive basketball since the NBA
Finals ended.
The Vegas summer league was cancelled by the NBA, who later wiped out the entire pre-season. NBA Commissioner David Stern has since called off regular season games up to December 15th and more are expected to follow.
Rondo believes that everyone, including fans, players and owners, wants the season to begin. It was just a matter of creating the right circumstances to get things started.
It’s because of this belief that Rondo still has hope for a compromise. The Celtics point guard refused to rule out the chance an NBA season being salvaged, even though many have already written it off completely.
“Hopefully we can come to some type of agreement before it's too late. It's a simple matter of just compromising." He said.
There was a chance for the season to begin on Dec 15 a week ago. The NBA Commissioner David Stern presented the players union with a take it or leave it deal, and promised to start the season by mid December if it was accepted.
"Me personally, I didn't think it was a fair deal," Rondo said about Stern’s proposal.
His views were shared by the National Basketball Players Association. They rejected Stern’s proposal last Monday after a meeting attended by around 50 players and members of the union’s executive committee.
Since Commissioner Stern refused to come to the negotiating table and threatened that his offer will only become worse from thereon in, the union decided to take a legal route.
On Tuesday they filed two lawsuits against NBA owners over antitrust basis. The players have filed to receive treble damages, which means that if a federal judge rules in their favour, the NBA would have to give up around $6 billion
to players.
The legal process though is a very long drawn out one and if both sides decide to continue their walk down this path then the NBA season would definitely be lost.
Therefore many people are hoping that they can reach a settlement outside of the courts and some basketball can begin.
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