Update: Union comes to town; Jefferson out
Posted on November 12th, 2009 – 3:59 PMBy Mark Wollemann
UPDATE (from Phil Miller):
The Timberwolves held an upbeat practice on Thursday, then locked themselves in a room and plotted the overthrow of their corporate masters.
OK, it wasn’t quite Norma Rae, but that doesn’t mean NBA players don’t have important union business to conduct. Their collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2010-11 season, and speculation is growing that NBA owners will insist upon major givebacks – perhaps an exception-free “hard” salary cap — in the next agreement.
So the Wolves’ 90-minute meeting Thursday with NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter was more than a simple hey-how-are-ya. The agenda was private, but it’s a good bet players were advised to prepare financially in case the 2011 season is disrupted.
“It’s important to stay informed, so it was a good meeting,” said rookie guard Jonny Flynn. “You never know, there could be a possible lockout. So (Hunter was) just keeping us up-to-date on what’s going on.”
The start of the 1998-99 season was delayed by three months when owners locked the players out, and the schedule was truncated to 50 games.
Earlier in the day, Phil Miller, subbing for Jerry Zgoda, reported that Al Jefferson will not play in games Friday night against Dallas at Target Center and Saturday in Memphis due to a family member’s illness in Florida. It’s expected he’ll return to the team early next week.
Jefferson, who missed the last 32 games of last season because of knee surgery, is still rounding back into shape. He was not present at Thursday’s practice.
The Wolves, in the midst of an eight-game losing streak, had not landed on a starting lineup, according to coach Kurt Rambis. The team did post a “probable starting lineup” on its media game notes that looked like this:
SF: Ryan Gomes
PF: Oleksiy Pecherov
C: Ryan Hollins
PG: Jonny Flynn
SG: Corey Brewer
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters