Owners Tighten Grip In The Lockout; Ricky Rubio Wants To Study Steve Nash

The whole situation is just messed up. Depending on who you listen to, the players are slowly losing their strength. There were the questions about Derek Fisher‘s loyalty, and now reports that many big-name players participated in the decertification calls this week. On the other side, the owners’ offers keep getting worse and worse. You give them a little bit, sacrifice a little money, and then they want more. According to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, even if the players were to agree to a 50/50 split, there’s no guarantee that the owners would take it anymore. The owners also have questions about certain system issues that were already previously agreed upon. Not good signs … Michael Jordan ate up a good portion of lockout news on Friday, and the reaction continued yesterday. A source close to Jordan told Newsday that “He is seeing opportunity to make the Bobcats profitable, and this is his only chance to do that.” But a few folks, like Chris Sheridan, figure that those hard-line owners – the group reportedly pressing to drive the players’ BRI percentage down – are only posturing to get the players to agree to a deal. Sheridan writes that he finds the whole situation to be about pressuring the players into agreeing to something because of the doomsday promises certain owners are making … Tyson Chandler is one player not happy with the owners’ latest proposals. He says the new terms of the salary cap would be so restrictive that he wouldn’t even be able to re-sign in Dallas, unfair in the sense that teams like the Lakers have been spending money all along to defend titles while the Mavs finally get one and might not have that chance. Do you think these new restrictions would be a good thing? Basically, it would be like stealing from the rich and giving to the poor … Ricky Rubio has to be so frustrated at all of this. He has the worst timing, saying all he can do right now is play pickup against other NBA players. Rubio came all this way to get ready to play in this league; He doesn’t really want to turn around and go back home. But it’s not all bad news for the Spanish star. As we’ve written previously, Rick Adelman is nearly perfect for him. Rubio knows this too, having read and studied up on his coach’s history. Rubio spoke about the comparisons with Jason Williams and how he loved watching Williams’ game when he was playing for Adelman. If Rubio can bring even half the excitement a rookie J-Dub did, we will be hyped. Rubio has been in L.A. working out and playing with whoever shows up, everyone from teammates like Anthony Randolph (Rubio says he catches everything and turns even the worst passes into assists) to Paul Pierce. One guy he still desperately wants to play with is Steve Nash … How much would it suck being the kid who bullied and made fun of Andrew Bogut all through middle and high school? The dude ends up making the NBA and all he’ll remember about you is how he hated you. Bogut says he had a ton of problems with stuff like this growing up, from students to even teachers. Being the tallest kid always made him a target, and he also fought back in one way or another. Bogut acted out all the time, was even expelled from a school and admits he had a problem. But he also credits that same attitude with getting him to where he is now … We’re out like bullying Bogut.

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