Wade leery about NBA labor status

Dwyane Wade thinks it's "unrealistic" for the NBA to expect every team to be competitive every season, is bothered by the notion that player greed is fueling the lockout, and sounds less than optimistic that mediation will end the impasse.

And he suspects some owners are in no hurry to see a new labor deal because of lingering bitterness over what the Miami Heat did last summer.

In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, the All-Star Heat guard said he's growing increasingly concerned that more games - maybe many more games - might be canceled before this lockout ends.

"The longer it goes on, the more fans we're going to lose," Wade said.

That may be the one statement on which both sides can agree.

On everything else, as Commissioner David Stern said this week when he canceled the first two weeks of regular-season games, there's a gulf between owners and players. The sides will try to get closer to a deal next week by meeting with a mediator. Stern has said that if progress isn't made by Tuesday, more trouble may loom.

Wade said the NBA has done an "amazing" job in getting its message out to basketball fans during the lockout. Players, he said, have not wanted to take the same approach as the NBA on the battle of perception.

"We haven't done a great job of complaining," Wade said. "That's what the NBA has done, they've done a great job of complaining. We haven't done a great job of that so no one sees our side. They more so see the owners' side."

And that side is this: Without more competitive balance, the league can't succeed.

"There's a real willingness of the high-grossing teams to pitch in and put in some dollars," Stern told NBA TV in an interview broadcast Thursday night. "And there's a real desire on the low-grossing teams to have the money to make them competitive."

Wade and Stern discussed that point during a sometimes contentious meeting several top players attended in New York a couple weeks ago, and just as he did then, the star doesn't agree with the commissioner.

"Let's just take the owners and the NBA saying we want every team to be competitive," Wade said. "We want every team to have the same chips to start with. You tell me that corporations and business around the world that every is equal one and I'll show you a lie. You have some up here, you have some down here. That's the game. We have some huge markets. We have some small markets.

"To me, it's not about who has the most chips," Wade added. "I think it's about who manages their chips the right way. That's why I think we have a management problem. Small markets have won championships. San Antonio is a very small market and they have four championships in the last 10 years or whatever the case may be. So I don't know how you ever fix it unless you have realistic goals. It has to get a little more realistic and right now, it's not."