US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama has called on the NBA’s owners and players to quit their fussin’ and feudin’ and get down to some lovin’.
Well, not quite. Obama – appearing on Tonight With Jay Leno – warned that the labour stoppages affecting basketball in the States will take a lot of time to get over, and that the billionaires and millionaires need to think of their fans.
The President said that the NBA should follow the example set by the NFL, who solved their row before the season had started.
“We should be able to figure out how to split a nine-billion-dollar pot so that our fans, who are allowing us to make all of this money, can actually have a good season,” he opined.
“I think the owners and the basketball players need to think the same way. I’m concerned about it. I think they need to just remind themselves that the reason they are so successful is because a whole bunch of folks out there love basketball.”
Owners and players are currently wrangling over a deal to replace that which expired on July 1st, and the first two weeks of the season have been lost. More than 100 games had been scheduled between 1 November and 14 November that will now not take place. The row is centred on division or revenues and a salary cap structure.
