text: Mark Bartelstein Interview: "They're Looking for Blood" - Welcome to Loud City
  Mark Bartelstein Interview: "They're Looking for Blood"
  By J.A. Sherman Oct 17, 2011, 1:31pm CDT
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  One thing we can always count on when we find an oasis in the CBA desert is a sports agent that is willing to speak honestly and without hyperbole:
  Interview With Sports Agent Mark Bartelstein | Sports Radio Interviews
  Please be sure to follow the link to see the full interview. I've excerpted a few of the tastier nuggets:
  On David Stern's comments after he canceled the first two weeks of the regular season:
  "I heard a lot of them and I'm probably biased on this thing obviously, but I also think I try to be very objective about it. For me it's hard to sit here and listen to David's comments. I know what he is doing. He is a master at spinning this thing. I don't think he gives a real, fair, picture at all in terms of what is going on in negotiations...They're looking for blood and they're pushing a system that would set back, not only the NBA, but professional sports a long, long way is what they're trying to get accomplished in this deal."
  (Try not to get whiplash here)
  "In my opinion the current deal is not a good deal for the players."
  "...In a given year you generally only have a small handful of teams that have cap room and you're a star player, let's say a point guard, and those teams that have cap room don't have a need for a point guard you have nowhere to go. We're in a system right now that believe me is very, very restrictive and yet the players are making concessions in the current system to try to help the owners get what they're asking for."
  On David Stern saying that the agents don't want to keep the union:
  "It's just not true. It's just not true at all. There is no one that I know that doesn't want there to be a union. There has been all this talk about decertification. When it is all said and done what I want and I think other people want is a deal that is fair for the owners, fair for the players, and helps the game grow."