Tag: Michele Roberts

NBPA not opting out of current CBA

The league and union each have the ability to opt out of the current CBA at the end of this year. Tremaglio’s intent is to operate in a way that is least disruptive to everyone involved. “There is no benefit for any of us to opt out,” she said. “There is always the opportunity for us to work together. I do think Michele has been able to build a really great relationship with the league and I cannot see that not continuing. I think Adam has been incredibly welcoming. Michele helped to set up a really great transition for me. I think I’m coming in at a time that is needed, for certain, but I also feel I am coming in at a time that we can continue the path that we have already been on. Which is the path certainly of least resistance and much more partnership in terms of what we can accomplish.

The time since has been a whirlwind. …

The time since has been a whirlwind. The NBPA has negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement, and since 2020, the union, with Roberts at the helm, has helped steer the NBA through the pandemic, locking down in a bubble in Orlando and constantly changing health and safety protocols as one variant emerged after another. “Seven years goes by real fast,” Roberts said this week. “I wasn’t expecting to be here more than four.”

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts blames Sixers in Ben Simmons saga

NBPA executive director blames the Philadelphia 76ers for the Ben Simmons saga.

One of the biggest storylines in the NBA in the 2021-22 season has been the saga going on between the Philadelphia 76ers and star guard Ben Simmons. A lot has happened over the past couple of months dating back to Game 7 of the Eastern semifinals.

Simmons and the Sixers were ousted by the Atlanta Hawks at home and things have not been great between Simmons and the franchise. He officially requested his trade in late August, but Philadelphia has maintained two things: they want him back with the team and they also want a top 25 player in return for him if they do make a big trade.

Simmons reported to the Sixers on Oct. 11 after starting the season with a holdout, but he has yet to play for Philadelphia this season through 37 games. There have been plenty of reports that a deal could be happening soon, but there has been no indication that things will change.

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts hopped on SiriusXM Radio with Antonio Daniels and Rick Kamla and she blamed the Sixers for what is going on in Philadelphia:

This is not an issue that emerged at the start of the season. There has been an issue with this player and that team for a while. Rumor has it promises were made about being able to move the player and obviously those promises either weren’t kept or couldn’t be kept. But at some point there’s got to be, as best as I can tell, they have been at loggerheads since the beginning of the season with very little communication between the player and the team. I just don’t roll like that. I don’t roll like that. If I got a problem, we’re going to sit down and we’re going to figure it out. I’m not gonna say ‘Well you call me, no you call me’. That’s not the way grown ups should behave. That’s the way grown ups are behaving, but frankly, and blame and accuse me if you want for taking the player’s side, OK that’s probably not an unfair accusation, but the way I view it is the team is in a better position to be able to resolve this than Ben can alone. The lack of communication between the team and the player is what I find to be totally infuriating.

Simmons is a 25-year old 3-time All-Star who makes a huge impact on the game despite not being some big-time scorer. It’s obvious that the Sixers are missing his presence out on the floor, or at least somebody who can replace him, and it is just an all-around tough situation.

Roberts added:

It clearly isn’t working to anyone’s benefit. He’s a great player and Philadelphia should be playing this guy or getting somebody else that can play in his stead, but I just don’t see how this is helpful. If I’m a Philadelphia fan, I’m pissed.

The trade deadline is set for Feb. 10 and it will be interesting to see if president Daryl Morey and the franchise can find a deal for Simmons or they can convince him to come back and play for them again.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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“I’ve been getting calls from our …

“I’ve been getting calls from our players all day – ‘Michele, are they going to cancel Christmas (games)?,’” National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts said Sunday. “People are concerned about who would ultimately be available to play. And the answer is, I don’t know. .. it is, obviously, concerning. There are some questions right now about some of our so-called marquee players’ availability to be able to play on Christmas. That’s our day, and we’d hate to not be able to continue to own that day, But one might ask the question – if your marquee guys are all in quarantine, is it worth playing those games, or should those games be, if they can be, postponed? No one’s asked me. But at this point, I think it’s still coming down to prayer.”

It’s the renewed anxiety about having …

It’s the renewed anxiety about having to go through this again, just as crowds had returned to the league after a year-plus of playing in empty buildings. “We thought we’d gone through the worst, and the notion it might not be the worst is pretty spooky,” Roberts said. “We had, what, 97, 98 percent vax rate. … We thought we’ve done all that’s humanly possible, and we’ll be able to plow through the season. And all of a sudden, it’s worse than it was before. There’s a certain amount of, I guess, depression – now, what else?”

NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said the …

NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said the league has not “received a complaint of misconduct at the Suns organization through any of our processes, including our confidential workplace misconduct hotline or other correspondence.” NBPA executive director Michele Roberts said she was not aware of any reports from players of misconduct by Sarver or the Suns. “Apart from [point guard Chris Paul] and James Jones, we have not had much official contact with the team and none that I can think of with Sarver.”

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts defends Sixers star Ben Simmons

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts comes to the aid of Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons.

The Philadelphia 76ers are still dealing with the ongoing Ben Simmons saga that took yet another turn on Friday when he expressed his desire to return, but he needs more time to get mentally ready. This comes after a tumultuous offseason that has continued to head into the season surrounding the Simmons drama.

Recently, president Daryl Morey warned everybody to buckle in as this could go on for the entirety of Simmons’ 4-year contract. The Sixers expect him to show up at some point to help the team win while also working with them to help facilitate a deal.

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts then stepped in to defend Simmons from Morey as she told Yahoo! Sports’ Vincent Goodwill:

“Really? Is it so hard to believe that Ben’s not mentally at a place to compete? Professional athletes — like the rest of us — have difficult periods in our lives that require time and energy to heal. We have and will continue to provide Ben with the support and resources he needs to work through this. Threatening the prospect of ‘another four years’ serves no one’s interests. Like Tobias [Harris], I say let’s respect Ben’s space and embrace him while allowing him the time to move forward.

“So, take a breath and count to 10: We are all too good to continue to play this perpetual game of chicken.”

The Simmons saga is far from over and the Sixers will have to understand that. In order to move forward, everybody will have to accept responsibility, and the team will have to work with Simmons just as much as he will have to work with them to get this thing resolved. Until then, they have to respect his privacy.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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‘It’s revenue’: Michele Roberts on impasse between NBPA and NBA owners

It turns out that the financial ramifications from the coronavirus pandemic might be the underlying cause of contention.

At this point, there’s no reason to believe that the 2020-21 NBA season is in jeopardy, but it is fair to say that we don’t know when it’s going to begin.

The league’s owners want next season to begin on Dec. 22, while the players are in favor of delaying the season for an additional month and beginning on or around Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is January 18, 2021.

On Friday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski penned a report in which he laid out the owners’ case for wanting to start next season so soon after the 2019-20 season concluded. For the record, under the owners’ proposal, there will have been seven weeks from the time the 2020 Finals concluded to when players would report for training camp — less than half the usual duration.

The day after Wojnarowski’s report, Michele Roberts, the executive director of the NBA players union, spoke with veteran NBA reporter Chris Sheridan of BasketballNews.com about the current impasse and was rather frank about its underlying cause.

“…I hate to say it because it is so predictable – but it’s revenue, the revenue split. Our game has taken a huge hit because of the virus. The projections that we confidently had about the game’s growth, both this year and last year and next year and the year after that, those things are not going to happen… So we’ve got to figure out a way to live in an environment in which billions of dollars we expected to enjoy are no longer here.”

Immediately thereafter, Roberts seemed to express some confidence in the fact that the sides would be over to figure out when to begin next season and how many games to play once the underlying financial issues have been worked out.

The early reports suggest that the league would like a 72-game season while the players — who are concerned about when the season will begin — might lean toward a 50-game season beginning in January.

Still, Roberts didn’t seem too concerned.

“Everyone is confident the game will rebound, but until it rebounds, how do we deal with this revenue shortage?… it’s just very important that the parties find a way to deal with it where everyone walks away thinking, ‘I’ve taken my share of the pay, have you?’ If we get past that, then almost everything else we can agree on – how many games, when will we start, are we going to get there?

The 2020 NBA Draft is scheduled for Nov. 18. The league’s incoming class of rookies will be entering an interesting situation, to say the least.

Even more than usual, Roberts is carrying a lot on her capable shoulders.

NBPA executive director doesn’t see Friday as ‘drop dead date’

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts doesn’t see Friday as a date that is set in stone for the players to improve a new plan.

Friday is the current deadline for the NBA and the NBPA to agree to changes to the current collective bargaining agreement, including financial adjustments and other modifications to the schedule for the 2020-21 season. Reports for the past week have pegged a start date just before Christmas Day as the scenario the NBA’s Board of Governors, but from the words from NBPA executive director Michele Roberts to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, expecting an agreement to come on Friday is a little unlikely.

“The union and the players are analyzing all of the information and will not be rushed,” Roberts told The Athletic. “We have requested and are receiving data from the parties involved and will work on a counterproposal as expeditiously as possible. I have absolutely no reason to believe that we will have a decision by Friday. I cannot and will not view Friday as a drop dead date.”

Reports coming from earlier this week on the player’s side indicated a significant portion of the players, including stars, were pushing for a start to the season on January 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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