Steve Nash urges the players and the owners to put the NBA lockout behind them
Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash has said everyone involved should get over the NBA lockout and the animosity it created. He said all parties should now look ahead and do the best they can with an NBA season.
"I think there was a lot of animosity and I think at times it got personal," Nash said, according to ESPN "but I think that everyone is man enough to recognize what it is and even to admit maybe to their mistakes in the process
and put it behind us and go back to where we were, as far as working together as business partners or teammates."
The lockout started in on July 1st and is technically still on; although a tentative deal to end it has been reached. The labour dispute revolved around a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and caused a lot of ill feeling
among NBA players and owners, not to mention Commissioner David Stern.
In the end, it took for the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) to disclaim and have players sue owners in federal courts to get them to the negotiating table in earnest. With the threat of litigation hanging over them,
Stern and Co. didn’t take long in agreeing to a handshake deal.
If the tentative deal is ratified by the players union, which will have to be reformed once lawsuits are withdrawn by players, and the owners, we can expect training camps to start on December 9th and regular season
games could kickoff on December 25.
Nash, like all NBA players, is pleased that a conclusion to the long drawn dispute has been reached and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. He was of the view that players and owners should once again work together
and make this league as successful as it was for the past few years.
Nash also talked about the fans and the disillusionment they have had to deal with due to the dispute. Because of a fight between two very rich groups of people, the common NBA fans were deprived of the game they love, so it is
only understandable that they would be angry.
Nash though said the fans should try to forgive the players because they only did what they needed to do. He promised that he, along with his fellow basketball players, would do their best to win them back next season.
"If I were in their shoes, I couldn't say that I wouldn't feel the same way," he said. "On the other hand, I feel if they were in our shoes they would have behaved the same way we would have through this situation.”
“We'll try to win back their support and trust by playing our butts off and being good citizens."
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