Great article by Etan Thomas. Not only is he well-educated and speaks his mind, he also offers a unique perspective that other journalists and so called "experts" can't give. Interesting and highly-reccomended read all around. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which is the statute that governs the relationship between labor and management, management must bargain with the union over three things: wages; hours; working conditions. We (the union) claimed that the NBA was not entitled to make such a fundamental change to our working conditions, unilaterally, without bargaining with the union. Before the charge could be found to have merit or not, the NBA decided to change back to the leather ball, with the Commissioner conceding that he made a mistake and that the players should have been consulted before instituting such a significant change. </div> http://slamonline.com/online/2006/12/etan-...n-of-a-new-era/ He also compares David Stern's regime to Bush's regime.
David Stern is sometimes out of touch with the players and fans, but he's pragmatic enough to correct some things as well as play hardball with some of the players union. NBA players are the highest paid athletes in professional sports and somebody has to keep them in check and stop bitching about money. I'd hate for their to be a lockout because nba players get greedy again. The guys making too much money should give some of that to minimum paid players, I think. Also, I don't mind Stern cracking down on punks because if a few guys get into trouble, the whole league gets blamed. It's like when a few U.S. Marines get in trouble, the Marine Corp reputation gets damaged by the general masses that don't know the Marines and what they stand for. Same thing with the nba. It doesn't take much for a few bad apples to ruin the bunch.
