NBA lockout: Negotiations could be hijacked by racial perceptions

The NBA is too important to be hijacked by egos. I hope that cooler heads will prevail. However, I do know what it is like to be disrespected and to feel like you are being taken advantage of. I hope the players won't let their pride and greed get in the way of business. I hope the owners won't let their greed and sense of entitlement get in the way of business.

The owners “lied to you,” Derek Fisher said, moments after the players’ union president walked out of fruitless labor talks in Manhattan on Thursday night. And with that the mutual distrust and name-calling began anew.

Now the NBA is again facing the prospect of a bye year. Soon, it won’t be about money. Soon, the Rev. Jesse Jackson worries, it will be personal and irreconcilable and no longer about the color green.

"I hope it doesn’t degenerate into names and language that’s hard to take back once it’s started,” Jackson said from his Chicago office late Thursday afternoon. “If it goes down this road, that could amount to irreparable damage. If it goes away from labor negotiations, things could become irretrievable.”

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