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Stalemate over lockout as NBA takes legal action against players
Source: Agencies |
August 4, 2011, Thursday
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WITH locked-out NBA players threatening to file an antitrust lawsuit, the league beat them to court.
The league filed two legal claims on Tuesday against the NBA Players Association, 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 in order to secure more favorable terms in a new CBA.
NFL players decertified their union earlier this year, though they ultimately resolved a 4-month labor dispute with owners of the pro football league.
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," NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Adam Silver said in a statement released by the league.
Downcast
The NBAPA had no immediate comment. After a labor meeting in New York on Monday, the first session since the lockout began on July 1 that included Commissioner David Stern as well as leaders from both the owners and the players, a downcast Stern said the sides were "at the same place" as they were a month ago in the hours before the old deal ran out.
Owners are seeking significant changes to the league's salary structure, claiming US$300 million in losses last season and hundreds of millions more in each year of the previous CBA, which was ratified in 2005. Players have acknowledged the losses but disputed the size, and they've balked at the league's push for a hard salary cap and reduction in salaries and maximum contract lengths.
Meanwhile, NBA players Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul will consider all options if there is no resolution to the lockout.
"As far as coming over here, we've always said this whole trip that our options are open," the 27-year-old Anthony said after playing Chinese teenagers at a promotional event inn Beijing. "Hopefully we won't have to take that route, coming over here, hopefully we have a season, but who knows, we shall see."
The three coached and played alongside under-19 and under-21 teams in front of an audience of about 1,700.
The league filed two legal claims on Tuesday against the NBA Players Association, 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 in order to secure more favorable terms in a new CBA.
NFL players decertified their union earlier this year, though they ultimately resolved a 4-month labor dispute with owners of the pro football league.
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," NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Adam Silver said in a statement released by the league.
Downcast
The NBAPA had no immediate comment. After a labor meeting in New York on Monday, the first session since the lockout began on July 1 that included Commissioner David Stern as well as leaders from both the owners and the players, a downcast Stern said the sides were "at the same place" as they were a month ago in the hours before the old deal ran out.
Owners are seeking significant changes to the league's salary structure, claiming US$300 million in losses last season and hundreds of millions more in each year of the previous CBA, which was ratified in 2005. Players have acknowledged the losses but disputed the size, and they've balked at the league's push for a hard salary cap and reduction in salaries and maximum contract lengths.
Meanwhile, NBA players Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul will consider all options if there is no resolution to the lockout.
"As far as coming over here, we've always said this whole trip that our options are open," the 27-year-old Anthony said after playing Chinese teenagers at a promotional event inn Beijing. "Hopefully we won't have to take that route, coming over here, hopefully we have a season, but who knows, we shall see."
The three coached and played alongside under-19 and under-21 teams in front of an audience of about 1,700.
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