In case anyone hadn’t seen the line drawn in the sand between NBA owners and the National Basketball Players’ Association ahead of next summer’s expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement, NBPA president Billy Hunter made sure it was demarcated clearly on Monday.
“I think it’s highly probable that there will be a lockout and that’s what I’m preparing for because I don’t see anything else right now,” Hunter said.
With that in mind, I sought out comments from the Wizards and the 76ers this morning ahead of their tilt later today at Verizon Center.
In the process, a very interesting piece of information came to light, that one Gilbert Arenas is one of the team’s union representatives. A tweet from the NBPA this morning confirmed that Kirk Hinrich is actually the elected rep. Arenas is the alternate, but he had seen Hunter’s comments.
Because he only spoke for about 45 seconds, we’ll have to hold off for now on a deeper discussion about Arenas getting the vote of confidence from his teammates to represent them, a subject that is certain to be analyzed thoroughly in due course.
“Just like in the past, the players gotta stick together,” said Arenas. “The people fought before us, and we’ve got to stick together, stick together as a union. If there’s a lockout, we gotta be prepared for it. If there’s not, we gotta be prepared to play.”
Jason Kapono is the elected rep for the Sixers, but he didn’t make the trip to Washington, having been excused for personal reasons. His alternate, Spencer Hawes, wasn’t surprised by Hunter’s comments.
“I think it’s what they’ve been telling us for the last two years, really,” he said. “I don’t think it’s any new news. We know that the bargaining runs up June 30. I don’t know if there’s a lot of incentive from either side in that interim between there and at least getting toward the start of training camp for either side to really concede anything because there’s no salaries being lost, no sponsorships being lost in that period. I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes on through that period. The big question is once the games start, once it gets close to the season, that’s when the pressure turns up for both sides.”
Both Hawes and Arenas played down any growing sense of anxiety among the players. The tone could change by midseason, especially when labor negotiations become a central theme of All-Star Weekend in February.
“Until it comes time to really get down and start bargaining and start voting on stuff, right now there’s nothing we can do about that other than put out the best possible product that we can for the fans and for the image of the league,” said Hawes. “That’s what we’re focused on. Once it gets close, I imagine the stress level will go up, but I think credit to the guys and the players association, I think, as a group, we’re a lot more prepared this time, not just financially and the steps guys are taking that way, but for knowing psychologically and understanding the issues from a broader range of guys that probably would’ve paid attention to it in the past.”
“Nobody’s paying attention because we’re playing right now,” said Arenas. “We’ll worry about all that this summer. Nobody’s really thinking about something that’s going to happen next year. We’ll wait for next year to happen.”
