Heinsohn - Big O Take Sides On Lockout - San Francisco Examiner Compilation

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Legends Takes Sides
Dwight Chapin
San Francisco Examiner - November 5


Tom Heinsohn and Oscar Robertson share a lot. They both
starred in the NBA in the 1960s and went on to the
Basketball Hall of Fame. They were the first two
presidents of the National Basketball Players
Association, the union currently embroiled in labor
negotiations with team owners. 

And both men are justifiably proud of the roles they
played in shaping the league's history. 

But for all they have in common as pioneers of arguably the
strongest union in professional sports, Heinsohn and
Robertson have different allegiances in the current
dispute. 

"To me, these guys have been so spoiled since seventh
grade,"  Heinsohn said of the players,  "since the AAU
tracked them down and began pampering them. They think the
world owes them a living. And it reaches a point where they
can't understand that someone is treating them like
anyone else in the world, not willing to give them
something because business isn't going the way it was
expected." 
 
Robertson countered,  "What the general populace seems
to overlook is that the players were locked out. So the
perception is always, "Oh, God, you greedy basketball
players.' I am heartened to see that they are unified. My
question is, are the owners unified? Or is it just because
they have ($16 million in TV revenue) already, which
raises a better question: Why have they been guaranteed
their TV money when players with guaranteed contracts
can't get theirs?"  
<snip>