NBA takes legal action in lockout

Associated Press

Trying to head off the chance of an antitrust lawsuit from the NBA Players Association, the league went ahead and beat the union to court.

The NBA filed two claims against the NBAPA on Tuesday— an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board and a lawsuit in federal district court in New York.

The NBA accused the players of being uncooperative in negotiations toward a new collective bargaining agreement by making “more than two dozen” threats to dissolve their union and sue the league under antitrust laws to secure more favorable terms in a new CBA.

Commissioner David Stern told The Associated Press in a phone interview that an unproductive meeting Monday with union executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher and others confirmed to the league it needed to take this action.

“There doesn’t seem to be a seriousness of purpose to the players and we keep reading about they’re considering decertification, and the agents are meeting with Billy to talk about decertification, Derek was quoted as saying it’s an option on the table,” Stern said.

Stern added: “And we think that as long as they are preparing to use the same strategy that the NFL, who uses the same lawyer, used, it doesn’t seem that we’re going to be able to get to the deal that we need to get to together.”

NFL players decertified their union this year, though they ultimately resolved a 41/2-month labor dispute with the owners.

“We just don’t have as much time as the NFL did,” Stern said. “If the union sort of continued to drag its feet and then pursued its preferred decertification strategy, and if the same 41/2 months went by, we’d be well into our season. The NFL had more time than we do.”

Players’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who also represented the NFL players, was named in the NBA’s lawsuit for his use of what the league called an “impermissible pressure tactic” that has had a “direct, immediate and harmful” effect on CBA talks.

“For the parties to reach agreement on a new CBA, the union must commit to the collective bargaining process fully and in good faith,” Adam Silver, the NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer, said in a statement released by the league.