Bill Clinton Offered Derek Fisher Support at NBA Labor Meeting


The former US president was in the same building as Derek Fisher and the rest of the players’ union reps (Clinton was there to promote a new book), and he offered words of encouragement to DFish and the gang. Per the NY Times: “After another tense day of politicking and diplomacy, Derek Fisher pushed through a crowded hotel corridor and found himself staring at a master in the field. Bill Clinton smiled and quickly enveloped him in a hug — two Arkansas-born presidents sharing a fantastic moment of serendipity. Clinton was in New York to promote his new book, ‘Back to Work,’ a title that must have struck Fisher as oddly appropriate. Fisher, the president of the N.B.A. players union, is desperately working to end a devastating lockout and to get his 400-plus constituents back to work. It has been a taxing four months for Fisher, who is taking on N.B.A. owners and Commissioner David Stern, while absorbing hits from bitter fans and second-guessing from some of his own players. So Clinton, who has known Fisher for 20 years, greeted him with a sympathetic embrace. ‘I went up and hugged up him and I said, ‘Now you know what I felt like all those years,’ Clinton, chuckling, said a few minutes later. … Clinton, who unsuccessfully intervened in the 1994 baseball strike, said he had not been following the N.B.A. lockout. ‘I hope it gets worked out,’ he said. ‘We all want to see basketball.’ As he turned to leave, Clinton gave Fisher his full endorsement. ‘I got a lot of confidence in him,’ he said. ‘He’s a good man.'”