The massive new TV deal the NBA signed with ESPN and TNT will bring in over $24 billion in the next nine years. The new deal in addition to the significant rise in the worth of NBA teams has players looking towards to the collective bargaining agreement. Following the lockout of 2011 the players and owners came to an agreement but the players felt they conceded a lot. They can opt-out of that agreement following the 2016-17 season and the players are already letting it be known they will not concede again. LeBron James says there’s no way the owners can claim to be losing money this time around and that excuse will absolutely not fly over with them. James however wants a new agreement to come sooner than later, Deron Williams on the otherhand says he hopes players are preparing for an impending lockout.
Brooklyn Nets guard Deron Williams bolted to Turkey during the last lockout, and hopes fellow players have a plan in place.
via NY Daily News:
“I think it’s going in pretty much the same direction as it was last time (lockout of 2011),” said Deron Williams, who is Brooklyn’s union rep. “So I feel like we made a lot of concessions last time, and it’s going to be hard for us to do that again. With the new leadership we have and (former NBAPA president Billy Hunter) finally being out of the picture, which is a great thing, hopefully things will go better for us.”“I hope guys are preparing (for a work stoppage),” said Williams, who played overseas during the 2011 lockout — a stoppage into December that cut 16 games off the NBA season. “When I first got in the league (in 2005), it’s when the old collective bargaining agreement was just kicking in. And as soon as I got in the league, they were already telling us to prepare for the next lockout. And it was ingrained in my mind. And I was prepared for that. I didn’t know that everybody did.
“We’ll be better prepared this time, we’ll be more ready to take different actions if need be.”
