Few sports figures have been disliked so intensely as NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
Fans and players have despised Bettman as a result of his role in the lockout. Players were locked out by the league for nearly four full months, and the 2012-13 season was under significant threat to be canceled in its entirety.
When the two sides finally came to an agreement in the wee hours of Jan. 6, it came at nearly the last possible moment. If the two sides had gone another week without an agreement, it seemed certain that Bettman would cancel the season.
After all, he had done just that before. During the 2004-05 labor dispute, Bettman and the NHL owners locked the players out for an entire season. He also presided over a lockout in 1994-95 that limited each team to playing 48 games, just like this year.
Bettman is the lockout commissioner. He is supposed to be the commissioner of the National Hockey League, but he is clearly the representative of the NHL owners.
In particular, he seems to represent the interests of the hard-line owners who pushed him to get maximum concessions from the NHL players in the last two lockouts.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Steve Silverman
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