Washington Wizards JaVale McGee lets the Player's Union down – NBA Update
Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher, two people who are at the helm of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), have been stressing for months that all the member players of the union are united behind them.
They certainly had their reasons.
For one, when Derek Fisher, president of Player’s Union launched a Twitter movement aka ‘LET US PLAY’ against the lockout, almost all the players participated. And secondly, a few days before that, players had reacted aggressively to an anti-union letter by some powerful agents and things seemed to going in just the right direction.
Well only just.
Last Friday, after a meeting between the union officials and some 30 odd NBA players, something went horribly wrong.
The meeting was held to brief the NBA players about the latest developments in the labour dispute talks. Washington Wizards center, JaVale McGee was also amongst the players who attended the lengthy meeting, but left an hour ago before it ended.
While leaving the hotel, when McGee was asked to shed some light on the details of meeting, he said something that later became the cause of a major uproar in the Union.
“There’s definitely some guys in there saying that they’re ready to fold. But there are some guys — the majority are willing to stand strong.”
In a few hours, this message went viral and drew a huge backlash from the players and union officials.
Derek Fisher showed his displeasure immediately;
“The person that spent the least amount of time in the room can’t make that statement. He’s in no position to make that statement on behalf of the group.”
Billy Hunter, the Union’s executive director, continued from where Derek left off;
“It was a shame he left so soon, as it turned out, the pacifists in the room happened to be me and Derek. The guys behind us,” referring to the other players at the meeting who attended the news conference, “are extremely strident and they thought we had started to weaken.”
McGee later denied that he had said anything of that sort, but the fact is that he has revealed some of the cracks appearing in the player’s will to stay united. The NBA Lockout is deep into its fourth month, and with the season all set to be cancelled if the talks over the new Collective Bargaining Agreement bear new result on Tuesday, some of the less wealthy players in the league may start to fret.
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