NBA players union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler on Tuesday likened his players treatment by NBA owners during the lockout on Tuesday to “plantation workers.”
Speaking to the Post Kessler said that a proposal to split basketball-related income in half was not fair to players while Stern gave players until the end of business on Wednesday to accept the deal or be offered a far worse contract.
According to Kessler:
“To present that in the context of ‘take it or leave it,’ in our view, that is not good faith,”
He continued:
“Instead of treating the players like partners, they’re treating them like plantation workers.”
NBA Commissioner David Stern in the meantime responded to the sun by noting:
“Kessler’s agenda is always to inflame and not to make a deal … even if it means injecting race and thereby insulting his own clients. … He has been the single most divisive force in our negotiations and it doesn’t surprise me he would rant and not talk about specifics. Kessler’s conduct is routinely despicable.”
The Players Union has promised to reprimand Kessler for playing the race card and in the meantime they say Stern’s “ultimatum” to accept the owners offers will not be accepted.
On a personal note nothing is more amusing to me then hearing the “plantation” card being used when a bunch of millionaires are the subject of that race card.
Do you think Kessler is going to far by focusing the issue away from salary caps and revenue sharing and directly on the racial makeup of the league?
