Spurs’ owner saves season; the NBA owes him…

[Note: this post represents the views of The Funk, not SpursDynasty.com]

(JERRY LARA/EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF)

It was no accident that (San Antonio Spurs’ owner) Peter Holt announced the lockout was broken and the season was saved.  Naturally, he’s an advocate for parity and a critical counterweight to the greed of the Lakers of the league.

I’m of the opinion Derek Fisher was a saboteur who undermined the Players Union and represented conflicted interest as both a Laker and head of the union.

Peter Holt triumphed, Fisher looked exhausted and beaten, and the season was saved.  You can thank the Spurs’ owner, NBA fans, for fighting for the whole league and ending a potential multi-year lockout… (“Spurs owner Holt holds key to ending lockout“)

Now, sources say, Holt is the central figure. He is the chairman of the league’s labor committee, and he has given commissioner David Stern the outline of compromises Stern will be able to bring to the union today.

Holt is widely respected around the league, a cool head on a committee that Stern pieced together two years ago, probably with some regrets. Among its members are big-market owners in favor of a deal, like the Knicks’ James Dolan and the Lakers’ Jeannie Buss. There are reasonable small-market owners on the committee like the Timberwolves’ Glen Taylor and Magic president Bob Vander Weide. But there are also tougher small-market representatives like the Trail Blazers’ Larry Miller and two of the most outspoken (for better or worse) new owners, the Suns’ Robert Sarver and the Cavaliers’ Dan Gilbert.

Holt had to get a consensus from that group, a set of parameters within which Stern can work with the union on the deal offered this week—the deal that, if it is not accepted by the end of today, will be taken off the table in favor of a proposal with much harsher terms for the players. How far Holt was able to push the committee is what will determine whether the lockout ends this week.

“People like Peter Holt,” one management source said. “He is direct. He’s no-BS. But he is someone who knows what a fair compromise is, and now that we’re at the endgame—or the endgame for this part of it at least—he has to be able to talk some sense into the rest of the committee so that Stern can go to Hunter and give him enough to get this thing to a player vote.”