Shannon Brown says Steve Blake wanted to take the finals NBA offer – NBA Lockout Report
The team representative of the Los Angeles Lakers to National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) accepted recently in an interview that not all NBA players wanted to reject the owners’ offer on Monday.
Brown asserted that although the decision was taken unanimously in Monday’s meeting by all 30 reps, some other players did raise a dissenting voice.
Brown quoted the example of his teammate Steve Blake, saying that the guard was one of the players who said they would take the deal on the table.
"I spoke to (Blake) and he was one of the guys who wanted to take the deal," Brown said in a phone interview with ESPNLosAngeles.com on Tuesday. "I respect his opinion.”
NBA Commissioner David Stern gave players an ultimatum last week, telling them that owners would not negotiate further and players should accept the deal on the table. Stern warned that if the players did not oblige, he would present
a much worse offer the next time.
The NBPA rejected the offer though and sued the league after disbanding. The decision was taken without putting the proposal to vote for the 450 or so NBA players, and some, like Blake, could have voted in favour.
A majority however was against it.
Brown said he didn’t try to influence Blake when the latter told him he would like to take the deal, but remained comfortable that the union had more than enough numbers to reject it.
“I didn't try to sway it. I gave him the advantages and the disadvantages of taking the deal and not taking the deal. Going into the meeting, I understood that he was one of those people that were for taking the deal.” He said.
"I'm not going to say that everybody was for not taking the deal, but I can say it was a majority that was for (turning it down). I can say that much." He added.
The owners’ last proposal would have given players just a 50 percent share of the Basketball Related Income. By comparison, they got 57 percent in the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement and the owners also wanted to take
away other advantage, such as the “Bird” rights.
Union President Derek Fisher and Executive Director Billy Hunter therefore took the decision to reject the offer, after consultation with members of the executive committee and team reps. They flirted with the idea of putting the
deal to a vote, but didn’t follow through because they thought it would be taken as a win for the owners.
With the offer now rejected and the union decertified, the matter will most likely be settled inside a federal court.
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