James Jones working to help prevent 2011 NBA lockout

WESTON - Even if he doesn't retain the starting job at small forward he claimed at the end of last season, James Jones figures to be plenty busy this coming season.

In addition to preparing for his second season with the Miami Heat, the seventh-year veteran has joined the negotiating committee that will try to work out a new NBA collective-bargaining agreement, serving as secretary-treasurer with the National Basketball Players' Association.

With his wife due with the couple's third child, the Southwest Ranches resident missed this week's first negotiating session in New York but plans an active role in the process.

"They held an election, my name came up, and I was voted by my peers," he said Thursday, before appearing at a water-safety event for special-needs children at the Miami Children's Hospital Dan Marino Center in Weston. "I looked at it as an opportunity to just do something besides playing basketball."

In addition to Jones, also on the players' negotiating committee are union president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul, San Antonio Spurs center Theo Ratliff, Spurs guard Roger Mason Jr., Oklahoma City Thunder forward Etan Thomas, Toronto Raptors forward Maurice Evans, Orlando Magic center Adonal Foyle and New Jersey Nets guard Keyon Dooling, the former Heat reserve.

With ownership holding the right to end the current collective-bargaining agreement as soon as June 30, 2011, negotiations, due to a forecast of a severe drop in league revenues, have begun unusually early.

"Right now is sort of a discovery period, where they give us their information, we give them our information, and we just try to figure some things out," said Jones, who graduated the University of Miami with a degree in finance.

"There is definitely, on both sides, urgency to come together quick and to get something done."

Jones has been involved with the union as a team representative in each of his four NBA stops, with the Indiana Pacers, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and, now, the Heat.

"I've been a player rep basically my entire career," he said, "But on the board, this is my first time."

Already there are concerns about a league shutdown in 2011, similar to the six-month one the league experienced in 1998. Jones said it is too early to be talking about a lockout.

"Right now, we're trying to take the positive side, which is we're going to do everything we can to avoid a 2011 lockout, because no one wants a lockout," he said. "Everyone just wants a deal that's fair."



(sun-sentinel.com)