This summer was a strange one. Not only was it longer, but it left players up to their own devices to train. They could not get into arenas or talk with team trainers or coaches. As we are seeing in the early part of the season, players came back in decent shape. Nothing probably could prepare the players for the gauntlet they are going through right now.
That normal, or relatively normal, offseason rhythm was interrupted for 30 or so NBA players. Some were stars, some were veteran role players, some were getting ready to leave their rookie contracts and hit free agency for the first time, some were on the verge of being out of the league and seeing their careers end. They were all NBA Player Association representatives. And they all had the extremely difficult and arduous task of figuring out the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement.
Derek Fisher was the face of the NBA Players Association’s Executive Committee. He was spending a good chunk of his summer in board rooms meeting with David Stern and Adam Silver and with Billy Hunter. Ten- or fifteen-hour negotiating sessions make it hard to steal some time for the kind of intense workouts required for the NBA.
It is no surprise Fisher and several other players who spent that time in the boardrooms this summer are struggling at the beginning of the season. Fisher, who is also fighting some age, is averaging just 4.4 points per game and shooting 35.3 percent from the floor. Fisher is no longer int he starting line up for the Lakers as Steve Blake runs the show to open games.
Fisher’s skills, production and minutes have been declining over the last few years. A summer focused on basketball-related income and revenue sharing rather than conditioning and jump shooting probably did not help. So what about other players?
NBPA vice president Matt Bonner has gotten off to a slow start for the Spurs. He is averaging 4.8 points per game and is shooting 36.7 percent from long range. It is not that Bonner was such a fantastic player before the lockout, but it is clear he is not doing what he has made a career out of. In fact, you take out Bonner’s 17-point outburst against Dallas last week and he is averaging 3.3 points per game, shooting 32.3 percent from the floor and shooting 28.6 percent from long range.
Bonner would admit that he is not exactly right because of his union responsibilities:
“I did my best to work out, but towards the end, we were in meetings every day and traveling back and forth to New York,” Bonner told My San Antonio. “It was difficult to get myself ready for training camp.
“Normally, you can probably get away with that because you have a month to get yourself ready. But with one week, and then right into the regular season, it was definitely more challenging this year to get into game shape, game rhythm and get back to where I was last year at the end of the year.”
Not everyone is struggling obviously. Secretary-Treasurer James Jones is shooting higher 3-point percentage for Miami this year than he did last. First vice president Keyon Dooling has found a good niche in Boston backing up Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen.
Vice Presidents Maurice Evans and Roger Mason, now teammates in Washington, are not getting much playing time with the Wizards. But that might be a good thing considering how that team is devolving.
What Evans and Mason did learn is some leadership to bring back to Washington and they did gain the appreciation of a lot of players around the league, as Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld reports. Reportedly Evans was one of the players who organized the players only meeting in Washington, D.C. last weekend. That has not helped much to this point for the Wizards.
It is going to be a struggle for every player. They are still working to get into game shape and survive this schedule. These guys though were getting the work done to get us this season. Seems like they are paying a little bit more of the price for it.
