Is Fisher in Stern’s back pocket?

 At this point I don’t care i’ll side with whoever is trying to have a season.

 Fisher may be on board with Stern, but I have no belief at all that Kobe Bryant is doing the same. In 05 he was the ONLY player standing firm with original convictions. Not to mention he has always been about cash. Either he stands up against and messes up the first supposed deal along with KG and Pierce, then turns around and supposedly has an underhanded deal going on with stern and Fish. Damn if you do damn if yah don’t. The media is just dead set on making Kobe out to be a bad guy. WTF!

even if fisher believes 50-50 is fair and is pushing for it, it doesnt mean he is on sterns side. There are numerous issues to address and i gaurantee you 400+ nba players dont agree on everything nor do all 30 nba owners agree on everthing.

and i read this article as well as whitlocks linked article about fisher getting played. None of it makes sense to me. He doesnt provide one single example of fisher not doing his job or being unprepaired or "getting played" as he puts it.

"Billy Hunter, executive director of the NBA Players Association, should consider opening his emergency players’ meeting in Los Angeles on Friday by reminding himself and sidekick Derek Fisher of who is actually paid $2.6 million to run the union.

It’s not Derek Fisher, or the role-playing point guard’s mini-Maverick Carter, personal assistant Jamie Wior."

yes, hunter is the director and makes the money to make the big deciosns. Everyone knows that. Your point whitlock?

"It’s Billy Hunter, the 68-year-old lawyer with the diverse (repped MC Hammer), impressive (freed Patty Hearst as U.S. Attorney) and long resume (executive director since 1996). He is the man with the necessary intellect, expertise and experience to take on NBA commissioner David Stern. Hunter has done it before. He helped create a salary system the owners now say heavily favors the players.

If Hunter is too old, too tired, too disinterested, too beaten down by the immaturity of the players he represents to stand up to Stern, then Billy should give the so-called “power agents” what they want and step aside.

I like and respect Billy. I like and respect Fish"

yes billy hunter is very qualified for the job he gets paid 2.6 million dollars to do. Next

"But Stern and his control-the-debate mouthpiece (TV partner ESPN) and the NBA power agents and their bully-Billy Hunter mouthpiece (Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski) are putting clown suits on Billy and Fish on a daily basis. Billy has given Fish way too much freedom. Nearly every time I watch an ESPN update about the NBA lockout, I see footage of Stern offering a comment followed by player president Derek Fisher putting his spin on the negotiations."

whitlock ripping espn (shocker). Honest question, has whitlock ever written any article in his time at fox sports after espn fired him that didnt blast espn and reke of resentment towards his former employer? Oh yeah, and fisher puts his spin on things and responds to stern because as the voted in president of players that his job. Whats your point whitlock?

"Fish is suited and booted, looking like he just removed sunglasses, stepped off a New York runway and is cooling off from a long negotiating session with John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi and President Obama.

Oh, Fish looks the part. Too bad he’s playing a role he is clearly not ready for. He’s a No. 2, a role player, a Capo paid to take the temperature of street soldiers and deliver intel to the Don.

You remember in Godfather I when Don Corleone scolded Sonny for speaking too freely in front of Sollozzo and Sonny’s loose lips wound up getting Don Corleone capped?

Fish = Sonny Corleone. And Hunter is getting capped."

Blah, blah blah. Comapring fisher to some tv show i have never seen and expecting readers to understand while providing zero examples, reasons, proof or anything to validate these comparisons. And its funny that these comparisons make no sense, yet he references this article in future articles as prior reasoning why fisher fails at his job. Uhmm…you actually arent supplying readers with anything other then maybe amusing pop culture references with nothing substantial to actually add merit to the coulum whitlock.

"Fish and his female mini-Maverick are out of control. They formulated and launched the childish “Let us play” Twitter campaign that Kenyon Martin turned ugly – he allegedly wished a “full-blown AIDs” death on his Twitter “haters” – in a matter of hours. It took even less time for the power agents’ mouthpiece to pounce. Wojnarowski filed a column shredding Hunter, Fisher and a wrongly accused, unnamed public-relations firm for the ploy. Maybe out of fear that the super-powerful Wasserman Group – the firm that backs agent Arn Tellem – wouldn’t want its name in the streets, Woj tossed rose petals at the feet of one union employee, Dan Wasserman, a PR flack with no ties to the Wasserman Group."

what the hell does kenyon martin throwing out insults to "haters" on twitter have to do with fisher and his abilities as president of the players union? I mean I must be completely missing the point of this paragraph other then maybe being space filler. What does this have to do with anything relevant to the current labor negotiations?

"This is grown-folks business. Someone needs to tell Fish to stand back and let grown folks handle this. Do you see David Stern letting his No. 2, Adam Silver, play the front man on these negotiations? Like him or not, Stern is a grown man doing what grown men do when millions of dollars are stake. He’s out in the streets running his corners. Meanwhile, Fish is getting “rainmade.” He’s playing away games. He’s finding out he’s not as smart as he thinks he is and maybe he’s not hard enough for Stern’s streets.

If you can’t understand the last three or four sentences, watch my favorite TV show “The Wire” and it will all make sense. If you want a quick, Whitlock family/Masterpiece Lounge translation: Fish got brand new.

He’s full of himself. I suspected it a couple of weeks ago when a letter Fisher personally wrote to the players somehow got leaked to Sports Illustrated. The pro-union letter put Fish in a wonderful light. He preached solidarity and anti-decertification. It was a good look … for Fish.

Billy Hunter’s name was nowhere on the letter. The letter wasn’t written on Players Association letterhead. Just like the Twitter campaign, Hunter knew nothing about the letter."

Okay now he is referencing "The Wire" as another pop culture reference way to try and be interesting without actually addressing any issues or at least supporting evidence towards his comparions once again. I mean at least Bill simons who is the king of pop culture creative writing comparisons actually makes it clear to the reader why the comparioson exists instead of just saying "if you dont understand my last 3 or 4 sentences, just watch the wire. Its a good show and does my reasoning for me. DOnt expect me to do it."(paraphrased)

As for the letter he wrote, maybe fish is full of himself. He wouldnt be the first peron invloved with these negotiations to be so. Also, dont think both the players and owners sides want to very intentionally send the memo to the media and thus the fans that they are solidified. Yeah, screw that cocky fisher for writing a letter that claims union solidarity.

You are reaching here mr whitlock to create a story.

"It’s time to reel Fisher back in. He’s not Isiah Thomas, an NBA legend with connections from the streets to the highest level of government. Like him or not, as player president in the 1980s and 1990s, Isiah was a worthy adversary for Stern. Isiah was a formidable No. 2 for then-executive director Charles Grantham.

Fisher is not that guy. He’s had a tremendous NBA career for a role player. But he doesn’t command the kind of respect and fear on the court or off that makes him fit for the role he’s playing now. He’s Stringer Bell, slick and polished. Stern is Marlo Stanfield."

yeah, fish aint isaih thomas. He isnt known as one of the worst gm’s in nba history with a side of sexual harrasment that cost his employer millions. He also hasnt taken an entire basketball organization that had been around for decades and ran it into nakruptcy in 12 months like isaiah did to the CBA. Yeah, Fish aint Thomas, thats a negative Whitlock? And as for the star power intimidation thing, dont think the owners are that weak that they would be any more likely to fold to a star player representing the union. I mean dont you remember how well the 1998 lockout went with guys like michael jordan and patrick ewing taking leading roles? Yeah the owners really bent over for them (sarcasm). Oh, and im gonna just say lol at the continued random refernces to some tv show or movie or something that you like watching whitlock.

Fact is i read these columns not looking to attack whitlock and defend fisher, but honestly to hear some insite about how fish might "be in sterns pocket" as whitlock suggests. I was honestly open to this conspiricy theory. Those attacking/defensive instincts came into play after i realized that  in neither article did i find ANYTHING to support that theory other then random proofless claims and meandering babbling.

it’s just unreliable to follow someone’s "sources".  Who knows what’s going.  Really don’t care, just put some players on the court and let’s go.