Free airtime for Winter and his clients. Ego bump for Francis who will be texting Winter incessantly at the trade deadline, looking for a scoop to be the insider he so desperately wants to be.
It's how the game works and how rumors are started and facts are blurred, maybe not quite so overtly as an agent doing a 10 minute interview in most cases, but they are the sources that insiders then craft a message around, for the agents' betterment of their clients and indirectly, themselves.
Participation in the Olympics has always been a topic early in the last few CBA negotiations. Fehr brought it up years ago as the opening salvo. I think it's because the owners really really don't want their players to go and screw up the season get hurt, pay insurance premiums etc.
Meanwhile, the majority of players like the mid season break, those that go, the chance to play with other stars, the Olympic experience, but mainly, the push to the Olympics is the one big thing the owners don't want, so at a Union level, it's a victory for player freedom and pushing the owners aside if they get that in the CBA.
But, as Winter said, for all the handwringing and supposed player disappointment, they wouldn't go if it's going to cost them pure cash at home, but they'll still complain about them being held back by the owners.
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