Miami Heat free-agent James Jones named as defendant in NBA’s lawsuit against the players: NBA News
The National Basketball Association has certainly outfoxed the National Basketball Players Association when it comes to filing a law suit. On Tuesday, the league took their dispute with the players unions into the court of law.
Free agent James Jones, who had played the previous season from Miami Heat, is among the 13 players who were named as defendants in the declaratory relief case filed by the league in U.S. District Court in New York.
There were two claims registered against the players by the league. One case laid the charge of unfair labour practice with the National Labour Relations Board and second was a lawsuit in federal district court.
James is holding the secretary-treasurer position in the NBPA and because of his role the league had included his name in the case.
In reply to the league’s action, executive director of the union, Billy Hunter issued an statement in which he said, "The litigation tactics of the NBA today are just another example of their bad-faith bargaining and we will seek
the complete dismissal of the actions as they are totally without merit."
As far as Jones is concerned, he has never used decertification tactic as a bargaining chip, infect always talked about it only as a means of last option.
The first meeting after the lockout had put the 2011-12 season in serious danger. The season is scheduled to begin from November 1 and the training camps for the season usually take place a month ahead of next spell.
The league says they were forced to file the case, as the situation got ugly when the players started harassing them with “more than two dozen” threats to disband their union and take a legal action against the NBA in order to
dictate their terms in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the NBA, Adam Silver said in a statement that "For the parties to reach agreement on a new CBA, the union must commit to the collective bargaining process fully and in good faith."
With the filing of these two claims the league had thrashed all their previous claims that were made in good faith in which NBA Commissioner David Stern had said that they wouldn’t end up in court like National Football League.
The league also named the players' attorney Jeffrey Kessler in the lawsuit, who had previously represented the NFL players. According to NBA, players used Kessler as an "impermissible pressure tactic" that has had a "direct, immediate
and harmful" effect on CBA negotiations.
The reason behind this law suit is to look for an affirmation from the court of law that the lockout does not violate antitrust laws before the union decertifies and files a case against the league. In case the union exercise this
practice, court’s verdict will provide legal backing to the lockout.
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