Michael Beasley Says What You’re Thinking
It was only a matter of time.
At some point, you knew a player was going to come out and speak his mind.
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley on Sunday did just that about the stalemate between players and owners in the NBA’s labor dispute. After talks between the two sides broke off last week, Beasley apparently couldn’t understand why. The union had come off their insistence to not accept less than 53 percent of basketball related income. The players union had offered to take 52.5 percent. But the owners rejected that concession and maintained their stance of an even split. The union then said no deal and added there was nothing left to discuss.
Following the US Fleet Basketball Invitational, Beasley shared his feelings of the latest rift.
Fighting over 3 percent, that’s kind of retarded to me. But it is what is. We’ll come to an agreement. The quicker we can get a deal done, the better. Like I’ve been saying before, the main ones suffering are our fans.”
I’m kicking myself for not having my tape recorder in Beasley’s face when he said this. One of my goals Sunday night was to get as many players as possible explaining how they would feel about a 50-50 split. And at the start of the night, I knew there was a good chance that Beasley would be the player who would most freely speak his mind. Turns out, I was right. It’s just I was preoccupied with interviewing James Harden and trying to chase down others to get this quote. But I would have loved to have gotten it so that I might have also gotten Beasley to expound on it.
At any rate, you might disagree with the adjective Beasley used, or even consider it offensive. But you get his point. He thinks it’s ridiculous that the union and owners are haggling over 3 percent and costing the league games in the process. It’s hard to argue with him there. Unfortunately, few will pay attention to Beasley’s feelings because he’s largely been a basket case since entering the league in 2008. Had LeBron James or Kobe Bryant said the same thing, even choosing their words more carefully, it’d be huge news.
Follow
