Steve Blake refutes reports that he wanted to take the NBA deal – NBA Update
Los Angeles Lakers guard Steve Blake has rejected media reports that suggest he wanted to take the last NBA proposal for ending the lockout. His teammate and Lakers team representative to the players union, Shannon Brown, had said
that Blake was one of the players interested in taking the deal.
The take it or leave it deal was offered by NBA Commissioner David Stern last week after he refused to hold more talks with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). The deal was not put to a vote for the around 450 members
of the union, instead the executive committee and team representatives rejected it after a meeting on Monday.
There were rumours of some dissenting voices among the players at the deal being rejected, but by all accounts an overwhelming majority was behind the decision. Of the players accused of wanting to take the deal, Blake is the first
to refute such assertions.
The Lakers guard issued a statement to ESPN on Tuesday, explaining that he was committed to working with the Players Association and that he only wanted for the offer, or any offer, to be properly reviewed before a decision was
made.
"It has been my goal, throughout my career and even more so during the lockout to be a responsible and active member of our Players Association," Blake wrote. "With that said, many of the reports published have been inaccurate.”
“My stance is simply to make sure we weigh all proposals. I have not made a decision on whether or not a proposal was right to take, just simply encouraging all of our players and representatives to review everything carefully
and then make the appropriate choices as a collective body." He explained.
A majority of his teammates are known to be behind the union in any case. Apart from Shannon Brown, Lakers guard Derek Fisher, who is the President of the NBPA, fully endorsed rejecting the offer. Super star shooting guard Kobe
Bryant is also believed to be in line with the steps being taken by the union.
Those include decertifying and filing two lawsuits, to date, against the NBA owners on anti-trust basis. The cases have been filed in San Francisco and Minnesota and some prominent names, including Carmelo Anthony of the New York
Knicks, are included as plaintiffs.
The union made many concessions to NBA owners during the 4 ½ months of current lockout, but in the end the owners demands proved to be just too steep. The players were not given the dew liberties they had demanded and were left
with no other option then to go to the courts.
The NBA season will now most likely be wiped out.
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