"The comments that I made in The Washington Post took place in an interview late at night Monday after a very long day," Kessler said in a statement. "Looking back, the words that I used were inappropriate; I did not intend to offend. I was merely passionately advocating for the players."
Kessler says he will call Stern to keep this from becoming a distraction with the talks for today.
"I intend to call commissioner Stern and offer my apologies for the remarks," he said. "It is very important that there be no distractions now and that the parties try to make a deal to save the season."
Stern respnded to the remarks, saying, "Kessler's agenda is always to inflame and not to make a deal. Even if it means injecting race and thereby insulting his own clients. ... He has been the single most divisive force in our negotiations and it doesn't surprise me he would rant and not talk about specifics. Kessler's conduct is routinely despicable."
The NBA is on the verge of losing a season. I hope something gets accepted.
First, my point on this situation: We have to stop with the plantation worker analogies. That is just completely disrespectful and not right. I don't think any plantation owner would pay it's players millions and millions of dollars. This has happened so many times before, like in the NFL when Adrian Peterson said it when the NFL Lockout was going on. Let's stop with that.
Second: Let's just get a deal done today. If nothing is done and talks come up again next year, do you really think there will be a better deal? Come on now. Let's just have a season and get this goddamn thing done!
Praying the NBA Lockout ends. Hopefully both sides will look at this closely and see what will happen if there is no season.
Let's get a season, folks. Now!
