Players agents urging the players union to decertify – NBA Update
Many prominent NBA player agents are pushing for the National Basketball Players Association to decertify in light of the slow and somewhat meaningless progress in labour negotiations so far. The agents believe that the NBA owners
and NBAPA have scant chance of ending the lockout and decertification is the best way forward.
Five of the most powerful agents in the league, Arn Tellem, Bill Duffy, Mark Bartelstein, Jeff Schwartz and Dan Fegan, spoke about the matter on Monday. They have long voiced their opinion about a decertification sometimes to the
media and often to the players themselves, but they now seem ready to take it up a notch.
The agents believe that with the current situation of the NBA lockout, the owners are holding out for unreasonable demands because the players do not have a weapon to use against them. Decertification could be that weapon. Although
the union blow-up could theoretically leave the door open for the owners to draft a CBA to their liking, practically the situation would be much different.
An end of the players union will cause mass confusion and uncertainty, whilst many NBA players would sue the league in federal court. As the union, the players and the agents already believe that the NBA Commissioner David Stern
and the owners have been negotiating in bad faith, they are confident of legal proceeding going in their favour.
"The union has been negotiating with the league for a year and a half and the owners haven't changed their stance, so the conversation the agents had was about how to work with the union to enhance its strategy," a source close
to the situation told ESPN.com. "The feeling is that decertification is the weapon that has to be pulled out of the arsenal, that it's the most effective way to change the dynamics of the negotiations."
If the union still doesn’t listen to them, the agents could get the signatures of 30 percent of NBA players to force a vote on the matter. The five agents mentioned do represent roughly that percentage of NBA players; however they
have not yet started collecting signatures.
Not all agents are in favour of a decertification. Rob Pelinka, who represents Los Angeles Lakers super star Kobe Bryant and union president Derek Fisher, Happy Walters and Jeff Austin stand with the union on the matter.
The players themselves are still not clear on the matter. Union executive director Billy Hunter knows that time is short and a decertification could lower the chances of an NBA season being held for 2011-2012. He has so far resisted
the move.
"We've never really had any discussion about decertification," Hunter said after meeting with the owners.
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