There is one hard and fast rule to keep in mind about the relationship between management and labor in professional sports. It has been the rule ever since the reserve clause fell in baseball, and since free agency came in there and everywhere else. The previous rule was pretty much that you took what management offered or you took the job with your father-in-law’s beer distributorship in Barstow. Everybody—players, owners, most sportswriters, and almost every fan—took this as iron law. Then the rule changed utterly into the one that exists now, and the one that should be consulted during any discussion of free agency, trades, or other forms of personnel moves.
No Exit: Carmelo Anthony, the New York Knicks and the unhappy sports marriage
