John Wall shines in charity game, but he and Kevin Durant worry about NBA lockout

While the “Clash of the Superstars” exhibition on Saturday lacked the intensity and jam-packed, energetic crowds of previous charity games in the region, there wasn’t a shortage on NBA talent, with Durant, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Jeff Green, Greg Monroe, Michael Beasley and Kemba Walker taking the floor at Calvin Coolidge High in Northwest.

A sparse crowd of a few hundred fans were in attendance. For the players, it was a chance to stay sharp, even as little progress has been made in labor negotiations between the owners and the players’ union.

“I just want to play basketball. That’s why you see me out here,” Wall said after scoring 40 points as his black team won, 144-128. “I’m ready for them to get [the lockout] over with so they can see us play during the season.”

Talks stalled when both sides met in New York on Tuesday, suggesting that the season won’t start on time, if at all. Owners are demanding a hard salary cap and players refuse to budge. Training camps are scheduled to begin on Oct. 3, and Wall suggested that more would have to be done to reach an agreement.

“I think we’re going to have to have guys like Kobe [Bryant], LeBron, the face of the NBA, to step up and say something,” said Wall, who was in Las Vegas this week when National Basketball Players Association President Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter updated the players on the labor impasse. “Derek Fisher and those guys are doing a great job, but I just want it to be over. I can’t really say too much. I only have one year under my belt. . . . I just want to sit back, learn and listen and see what’s going on during the meetings.”

Durant, who played on the same team as Wall and Cousins, has moved into the NBA elite in recent years, and was asked if he felt that more of the league’s premier stars, such as Bryant and James needed to take a more prominent role in the negotiatons. “That could help as well, but everybody knows all the top tier guys in the league want to be involved in it, they want to be locked into what’s going on, but because of what we have going on as players, throughout the summer, we can’t be in some of the meetings,” he said. “But we are going to stand behind the union. We all want to get a deal done. We want to start on time, but we have to stand up and fight for what’s right for us as players. Just stand up.”

While Durant doesn’t want to lose a large chunk of the season, he said the players have to push for a deal that works for them. “I think we’re going to stand up and stick to what we want,” he said.