Tag: basketball

Stern rips players, remains pessimistic after negotiating session

NBA commissioner David Stern didn’t come away with much hope after Monday’s negotiating sessions between players and owners.

Stern didn’t take the high road after the first session, as players union president Derek Fisher did. Instead, the NBA  commissioner blasted his players after telling the Associated Press that “nothing” in a nearly three-hour meeting .

“I don’t feel optimistic about the players’ willingness to engage in a serious way,” Stern said.

It’s no surprise that the players are entrenched on their position. It is still very early in the negotiations and we’re still a long way from missing any games.

The owners want a much larger piece of the “basketball related income” pie, a hard salary cap and shorter contracts that aren’t guaranteed.

The players aren’t willing to budge much on what they have now. It looks like both sides remain are adamant.

Stern told CBS Sports.com that the , which limits any real negotiating in his opinion.     

“I think it’s fair to say that we’re in the same place as we were 30 days ago,” Stern said. “And we agreed we’d be in touch to schedule some additional meetings … But right now, we haven’t seen any movement.”

Spurs majority owner Peter Holt was one of two NBA owners who were present Monday in New York City for the negotiating session. Holt was joined by Minnesota’s Glen Taylor among other NBA owners.

We likely won’t see any more constructive negotiating for the next several weeks. The next milestone will be when the players receive a ruling on their complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in the next 30 to 60 days on whether the owners are negotiating in good faith or not.

If the board agrees with the players, they can go the courts to end the lockout giving them a huge boost in negotiating leverage.

But if not, it should be a long, long wait. 

Don’t look for much in the next several weeks — except for the occasional NBA player signing a contract with an overseas team.  

Kobe headed for soccer action over the weekend

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant will return to athletic competition Sunday.

He’s trading his sneakers for a pair of soccer cleats as he performs at the at Kastles Stadium in Washington, D.C.

Bryant knows a little bit about soccer after playing during his childhood in Italy, when his father was playing in Europe.

And Bryant told CNN.com that he’s always , even after returning to the United States.

“AC Milan was always my favorite team growing up,” he said. “It actually started in Italy when I used to go to the basketball courts to play by myself and you used to have the little goalposts underneath the basket.

“I’d show up wanting to play basketball and there would be 12 kids waiting to have a match.

“They just put me in goal because I had these long arms and long legs, and I just had to stop everything that came my way.

“Then as months went on, they finally let me out on the field a little bit.”

Four members of the United States Women’s National Soccer team will be there as well. It’s for a good cause as it benefits the Mia Hamm Foundation and Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.

And it will be as interesting if Bryant is as fierce a competitor in a pickup soccer game as he is on the basketball court.

Here’s another piece of news about Bryant, courtesy of the Orange County Register.

Derek Fisher, Bryant’s backcourt mate with the Los Angeles Lakers,  played with Bryant in an exhibition game in the Phillipines earlier this month.

Fisher said Bryant’s ailing right knee . 

“He’s telling me — and I saw for myself — that his knee is the best it’s been in a long time,” Fisher told the Register.

Retirement isn’t end for Yao

By Jonathan Feigen
jonathan.feigen@chron.com

HOUSTON — With the door to the NBA that swung open nine years ago now closed on him, Yao Ming on Wednesday chose “a new life.”

Yao announced his retirement in a ceremony and news conference in Shanghai, citing the repeated injuries to his left foot and ankle.

“At the end of the last year, my left foot had a third fracture,” Yao said. “Today, I need to make a personal decision. I will stop my basketball career, and I will formally retire. Today, thinking back and thinking of the future, I have been very grateful. First of all, I need to be grateful to basketball. It has brought happiness to many people, including myself.

“Life is my guide. Just follow it, and it will open doors. Out of each door, there will be (a) beautiful world outside. Since I am retired, one door is closed. But a new life is waiting for me. I have left the basketball (court), but I will not leave basketball.”

He also will not leave Houston and sent a message to his “second hometown.”

“I’d like to thank you for giving me a great nine years in my career,” Yao said. “Nine years ago, I came to Houston as a young, tall, skinny player. An entire city and team changed me to a grown man, not only as a basketball player. I gained my first daughter over there. I feel I’m a Houstonian, and I will always be with you.”

While Yao moved on, the NBA could not quite let go.

NBA commissioner David Stern said he would soon offer Yao a place in the NBA, likely working with the league’s initiatives in China that have taken off since the Rockets made Yao the first pick of the 2002 NBA Draft.

“It’s sad,” Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said. “He had such great potential. He fulfilled it, really, but we would have been a great team with him. It’s sad for him because I know he wants to play very badly. It’s sad for the Rockets.”

The day after Yao was drafted, Alexander had said that Yao would become the greatest sports star in the world. That seemed to be hyperbole at the time, driven by the excitement of landing a 7-foot-6 tower of potential. But Alexander’s expectation turned out to be prophetic.

“At his peak, he was that,” Alexander said. “If he had been healthy, and we would have won championships, he would have been even bigger. But he had the most name recognition in the world. He was a sports icon.”

Stern also flashed back to Yao’s first giant steps to the NBA and the night it all started. He knew then that Yao’s impact would stretch far beyond the court, even if he could not have predicted then the growth of the game in China that Yao would inspire.

“I remember the exhilaration of calling his name as the first pick … and contemplating that he would be a bridge between Chinese fans and American fans,” Stern said. “That all happened with a wonderful mixture of talent, dedication, humanitarian aspirations and a sense of humor.

“What a wonderful combination.”

Alexander said he would like Yao to continue to work with the Rockets but was not sure that would be Yao’s preference.

“Yao’s got so much going for him worldwide, I don’t think he’s the kind of person who would work with one team,” Alexander said. “He’s bigger than that.”