The NBA: where things stand
Deep Sixer: Although there has been little forward movement in the NBA lockout, there have been a number of thoughtful pieces aimed at putting common sense into the mess created by NBA owners and players.
The NBA: where things stand
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Although there has been very little forward movement in the NBA lockout, there have been a number of thoughtful pieces aimed at injecting common sense into the mess created by the league's owners and players.
First, here's the latest from the NBA lockout: the National Basketball Player's Association — now a trade association — has filed antitrust lawsuits in California and Minnesota. The NBA has hired high-powered attorney David Boies, who filed both suits. The lawsuits are filed on behalf of plantiffs (NBA players such as Carmelo Anthony, Caron Butler, Leon Powe, Kevin Durant, etc.) against the defendant, the NBA. An initial hearing for one lawsuit was set for Feb. 29, which goes to show how lengthy this process could be, although it's certain that Boies will get any and all court dates moved up.
In the meantime, the NBA and the "trade association" are busy firing off letters to judges and letters disputing the validity of one another's claims. There is much risk in the move the union/trade association executed. Technically, every NBA player — LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitski — is free to be signed by any NBA team. The union now no longer exists, which means the previous contracts have dissolved along with the union. Obviously, the belief is that once this labor negotiation is settled — however it's settled, and however long that takes — the players will re-form the union. Also interesting is that the end result of these antitrust lawsuits, if they are followed through to the bitter end and won by the trade association, would be something called treble damages. Although tremendously unlikely, if the NBA were forced to pay treble damages, the league would likely be bankrupted.
Yeah, so, this is great.
Of course, there's likely an in-between at this point: negotiating the lawsuit, in essence. Although the union has dissolved, the trade association's lawyers can negotiate with the NBA toward a settlement. Since I never passed the bar, or went to law school, or even spent one minute thinking about lawyerly things, I refer all interested readers to this story: Settlement talks.
The question becomes: can the players spin this move to gain leverage? It's a tricky situation, because if it's viewed that dissolving the union was done to gain leverage, as the NBA claims, the move will be rejected by the courts. If the trade association can prove, or convince, that dissolving the union was the last resort, executed only when it became clear the NBA was no longer willing to negotiate, the players will be on more solid ground.
The NBA and its 30 owners have set up a conference call for Thursday, Nov. 17, to discuss their next moves in response to the union's decision to dissolve and file two lawsuits. The owners will be discussing, as NBA.com wrote, "responses and strategy." Here's the link to NBA.com's full update: Owners set call.
OK, enough of difficult legal discussion that I'm only barely grasping.
If you missed Tuesday's post on the state of the NBA, you can find that here: Un-understandable. Writer Ian Thomsen at SI.com has posted two wonderful stories this week: one about the frustration of NBA fans and the other an idea of how David Stern could save the NBA.
Still looking forward to posting about basketball and not litigation.
— Kate Fagan
Each week, Kate will check in from the road and answer fan questions about the Sixers. Click here to ask Kate a question or e-mail her at kfagan@phillynews.com.
the owners are playing the role of congress— combocancer1975- Im always on the side of workers unions and rights. Even though in this case the workers are millionaires who play a game for a living. NBA owners now want over 50% of profits and then turn around and take taxpayer money to build and make improvements to facilities from local governments. Players have relatively short careers so they should try to capitalize and get what they can while they can. SI had a piece saying how Kobe's value alone is worth $75 million dollars to the NBA annually, yet his contract pays $14 million this year. That's $61 million to the owners every year. Yet they're the ones who felt the players had an unfair CBA. Not that i feel bad for Kobe or any of the other players, but its the owners greed causing the lockout, not the other way around.— Ray Nathan
Comment removed.- go sixers— brucemines
- does anybody care really? At some point both owners and players need to come to realization that this isn't the NFL.— Tripod691
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- Glad to see things are bottoming out in the NBA. Now if Stern will resign, the gangsta' gameplan can be put back in the trunk and they can focus on promoting fundamental basketball again.— Sackbutt
- The NHL players quotes about the NBA lockout are very interesting. The players have 0% chance of winning in court so they are just making things worse. If they don't believe that then they should just read up on what the NHL players are saying.— eaglessuperfan
- The regular season is pretty much meaningless anyway. Just skip it altogether and draw ping pong balls to determine seedings for the playoffs.— Dragon76
- I care because the Eagles season is over and really like basketball. This move by the players union could be different from what the NFL players did because Stern said this was the last best offer and negotiations were over. I just hate the idea of missing games. Yes I realize the players do have to give up some to the owners and they did. The owners now are just trying to crush the union.— rolan01us
- Well said iceman.— JBP
- You people saying no one cares- stop talking for me and other fans who do. If you're bored to death at work, go post on the eagles site. i care and i'm pissed that the players are too stupid to take what was the best deal they could possibly get. The owners warned them for weeks take the deal or it gets worse. Shocker- it got worse.— 76ers in 2076
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- NBA: No Basketball Anyway. Its' all diluted one on one talent...watch college basketball. Its' the better way to go and its' cheaper than watching some of these overpaid stiffs.
- NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE NBA— frank105
- Again to repeat....NO ONE CARES. I'm only reading this cause I'm bored to death at work. Greedy owners, greedy, whiny players. great success story...hahahahaha— Trot
- zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz— michael57
- MEMO to NBA go away— msaccosr
- The NBA is another example (kinda like journalism) of how the profit motive ruins things. As a fan, I don't care about who's making more of the profits, the negotiations, and certainly not players as "brands". I want to see amazing athletes playing the game I love. The business motives undermine the game.— FKD215
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- I love the NBA and hope to be without it until a CBA is reached in which all teams -- even small-market teams -- have a chance to compete for a title within a reasonable amount of time. The NFL, with a hard cap, is the best set-up for fans. I don't expect a hard cap in the NBA, but I want a system in which a team doesn't have to rely on the bounce of ping-pong balls to have a shot to win it all.— iceman
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John Mitchell is in his second year covering the 76ers for the Inquirer after joining the paper in November 2011. He covered the Washington Wizards for the Washington Times from 1998 to 2008. He's also worked at the Philadelphia Tribune, the Wilmington News Journal, Courier-Post, Trenton Times and Elmira Star-Gazette.Born and raised in West Philadelphia - not too far from Will Smith - he graduated from Overbrook High School the same year the 76ers won their last championship. He's a proud graduate of Howard University and the proud father of two sons, Jared and Jordan.
ABOUT MARC NARDUCCI
Marc Narducci has served in a variety of roles with the Inquirer since beginning in 1983. He has covered the 76ers as a backup and a beat writer. In addition, Narducci has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and a lot in between. Narducci also has a true passion for South Jersey scholastic sports, which he has covered for many years.
