Chauncey Billups working to keep union
Billups became proactive, telling players wherever he found them to stick with the union. While training in Las Vegas, he spoke to guys before or after workouts. While at Chris Paul's wedding in North Carolina a couple weeks ago, he pulled LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony aside for a moment.
After speaking with nearly 50 players, Billups is now convinced that most of the league's players understand they should not let their agents lead them towards decertification.
"I felt like this thing is really between the players, our union, and the owners," Billups said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "That's been my stance. I'm not saying agents are not important at all. I love my agent and we have a great relationship. But this is not really between the agents and the owners. We shouldn't be persuaded to decertify by somebody who shouldn't be doing any persuading. I expressed that to some of the guys and they agreed with me, and that's why we have such great unity right now in the union."
Billups, who is represented by Andy Miller, is not against using decertification as a last resort. But he feels like the players should put their full support behind players association head Billy Hunter and the union and let the negotiations play out before opting to decertify.
Billups will turn 35 next week and he's one of the most respected players in the league. His back story of having been at every level of the pay grade has enabled him to relate to the different types of players he's talked with. The 14-year veteran had two mid-level contracts before finally reaching eight figures annually in 2007. And now that he's scheduled for the biggest payday of his career ($14.2 million), the season is in jeopardy. But Billups said he's willing to forgo that to get a good deal for the players going forward.
"It's a tough situation for me," he said. "Selfishly, I want that money. I earned that money over a long time. I feel like it should've come to me a long time ago, but it didn't. But I remember the first lockout in 1998 and all those guys who were in the position I'm in now -- Charles Oakley, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan. They were finally getting their balloon payments but they stood up and said, 'Listen we're going to do what's right and make sure the league is in good shape when we're done.' I remember that vividly. So now I want to make sure the Derrick Roses and all the young guys coming up have the opportunity to one day be able to get paid.
"The guys who have played the amount of years that I've played -- we know this deal is not really going to affect us that much.
We're in the twilight years of our careers. The importance of this deal is for the young guys."
