Talking the talk
Players dig in for a long, hot, contentious summer
Posted: Wednesday June 24, 1998 04:20 PM
| |
Corbin, Atlanta's starting small forward, earned more than $100,000 less than any of last season's first-round draft picks
(Matthew Stockman/Allsport) |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- For 13 years, Tyrone Corbin
has been a solid NBA role player, a sometime starter and an all-around good
citizen. He'd like to keep it up for a few more years.
But, for a man who doesn't have that many seasons left in him, the
impending labor lockout could prove to be another force pushing him
unwillingly out the door.
"I get disgusted some times, with all the bickering back and forth. It
gets a little nerve-wracking," Corbin said of the talks between the players
and owners. "But I love the game, and I hope once I'm done playing I can be
part of the game in some other fashion."
Corbin, a small forward with the Atlanta Hawks who also
has spent time in San Antonio, Sacramento, Cleveland, Phoenix, Minnesota,
Utah and Miami, is getting a close-up view of the negotiations this summer
as a member of the National Basketball Players Association executive
committee.
If the lockout stretches on, that may be all he's doing this summer.
"Financially, at this point, it won't hurt me that much 'cause I've been
around a long time," said Corbin, who has a computer science degree from
DePaul and who has interned as a financial planner during the off-season.
"As far as the game, I would continue to play and stay in shape, just
because I like staying in shape.
"But [if the lockout stretches out] a lot of guys will stop working out,
and stop working on what they need to do to get better. And if we do go
into November and don't start the season until December, it will hurt the
young guys in the draft, and free agents wouldn't have a chance to go in
and visit with teams before the regular guys come in. So it would really
hurt them."
Corbin, 35, is a perfect example of one of the problems the players have
with the current collective bargaining agreement. Even though he's been a
valuable contributor for a lot of teams for a lot of years -- he's averaged
almost 10 points and five rebounds in his career and once played in 415
straight games -- Corbin makes only $326,700.
That's more than $100,000 less than any rookie first-round draft pick made
last season and about $33 million less than the league's top player,
Chicago's Michael
Jordan, made in 1997-98.
In the NBA, it seems, you're either a multi-millionaire or playing for the
minimum. That's something the players and owners want to change.
"You have to get some more parity in the pay structure," Corbin said. "It's
all about restoring the middle class in the NBA."
Still, when talking about players wanting more money in a $2 billion
industry, Corbin is aware it's a tough public sell.
"We have to be really careful about it, getting into the negatives,
everyone bickering about a lot of money," Corbin said. "The average person
never comes close to making that.
"[A work stoppage] would be really disappointing from a standpoint of what
it could do the game from a public image standpoint. I don't think we can
afford to do that. From a player's standpoint, I think we'd do best not to
have a work stoppage at all. But it's all on the owners now."
-- John Donovan
The NBA Labor Talks
Next story
| 
