Billy Hunter: "The Hunted" Pt. 2 Fisher Pres. Edition

Billy Hunter is being hunted again.  As you may remember, during the NBA Lockout there was a contingency of NBA Agents who formed Team Agent and tried to finagle the ouster of Billy Hunter as the NBPA Executive Director.  At the time, Union President Derek Fisher stood and propped Hunter up.  But it seems the tide changed during the lockout as mistrust between the two leaders grew and boiled over after Bloomberg reported that Hunter's family members and businesses had been paid $4.8 million by the union since 2001.  In response, Fisher called for an independent audit, which initially was signed off by the NBPA Executive Committee.

But the NBPA Committee quickly reversed course.  Hunter explained his family's involvement to the Executive Committee and then pushed the spotlight back onto Fisher and asked for his resignation due to the "numerous instances over the past six months, where Fisher engaged in conduct detrimental to the union, including acting in contravention of the players' best interests during collective bargaining, declining to follow the NBPA Constitution, and failing to uphold the duties of the Union President." 

The Legal Costs for Super Bowl XLVI

Yesterday's Super Bowl definitely was an exciting finish to an NFL Season that was on the brink of never occurring.  Remember that lockout that threatened to wipe out the season?  Well, here's a friendly a reminder I am sure most labor lawyers would be interested in.   The average Super Bowl ticket cost  $1,999.00, which is small beans in comparison to the amount that the NFL Players Association paid in legal fees incurred this past year. 

The Am Law Daily took an in depth look at how much was spent in legal costs leading up to the NFL lockout from March 1, 2010 through February 28, 2011.  The NFLPA, like all other Unions, have to file public LM-2 forms with the National Labors Relations Board.  The NFLPA spent approximately $63.2 million on representational fees including outside legal fees, and an additional $1.7 million on lobbying and political activities.  The top three law firms to rake in legal fees Latham & Watkins ($3.1 million), Dewey & LeBoeuf ($2.9 million), and Patton Boggs ($948,983).   DeMaurice Smith, former Latham and Patton Boggs Partner, and who is the current NFLPA Executive Director, did not do too shabby for himself either.  After agreeing to accept a $1 salary while the lockout was going on, Smith collected $1.5 million in back pay and an additional $1 million bonus for a job well done in resolving the labor quagmire. 

It will be interesting to see how large the legal fees were for next years disclosure that will include fees earned related to the lockout that occurred from March 2011 through July 2011.  I'll also provide a rundown of the NBPA and MLBPA's legal costs related to their CBA expenses once they become available.  However, Am Law Daily did a good job estimating their respective (MLBPA and NBPA) legal costs based on past disclosures. 

A Christmas Miracle: How Mediation's Confidentiality Can Save Christmas Day Basketball

Sick of hearing about the NBA lockout? Well, you likely will not hear much more from both sides as the NBPA and Owners have moved their tense and acrimonious labor negotiations to mediation, where they hope common ground can be found under the guidance of a third party neutral in confidential negotiation sessions.  During this critical time, the owners and NBPA have turned to the Federal Mediation as a way to rebuild trust and thrust the negotiation's momentum forward.

It seems like the Mediation is off to a good start. Yesterday,  both sides met individually with Federal Mediation and Conciliation Director, George Cohen, and then today they joined together for a marathon ten hour negotiation session. If Cohen's name sounds familiar, it is because he was the man who oversaw the NFL Mediation sessions.

Billy Hunter: "The Hunted" LP

The anguish was palpable after the latest NBA labor talks broke down after two long days of talks with little to no progress on a new collective bargaining agreement and a threat that training camps will not open on time.

The players' camp seems to be in disarray. There have been reports that some agents, taking the role as puppet-masters, are attempting to pull their players' strings in forcing the NBPA to decertify their union. Bill Duffy, Arn Tellem, Mark Bartlestein, Jeff Schwartz and Dan Fegan are the starting 5 on Team Agent, who also represent roughly one-third of the Union's players. They believe that the owners have most of the leverage and are ready to take it to the hole and blow up the union as a way to regain some of the power in the CBA negotiations, but union head Billy Hunter has rebuffed their proposal. In order for the Union to vote on the decertification issue, all Team Agent would have to do is convince all the players they represent, which totals roughly 30% of the Union members, to sign a petition to bring the issue to a vote.

NBPA President Derek Fisher rebuked Team Agents' request, and even called their motives into question. One only has to go back to the last NBA Lockout where the NBPA Executive Committee was accused of being run by super agent David Falk trying to protect his elite clients, as 10 out of 19 players on the Executive Committee were Falk clients including Union President Patrick Ewing, and fellow superstars Alonzo Mourning, Juwan Howard, and Dikembe Mutombo. This time around around, and probably much to Team Agent's chagrin, the NBPA executive committee is comprised of mostly role players and veterans (aside from star guard Chris Paul), which is evident by the leadership of veteran role player President Derek Fisher. Fisher and Hunter met with a group of about 40 players to discuss the progress or lack of progress in their negotiations with the owners and special guest presenter NFLPA Head DeMaurice Smith spoke about the decertification process as it was used for the NFLPA's specific needs. Many believe that Fisher is not ready to seriously consider decertification at this juncture as he believes that their NLRB complaint could be sufficient to shift the momentum. The Union appeared to leave the meeting an united front.

Subsequently, Fisher than sent an e-mail out to other members of the Union stating that the dysfunction was not among the players, but an internal divide within the Owners circle. After hearing these statements, Commissioner David Stern denied Fisher's allegations saying that the "vast majority" of the owners favor a hard salary cap and that the owner's negotiating committee has the authority to negotiate on all matters.

At their meeting, the owner's ratified a five year deal with NBA referees. The only question is how many games or if there will be a season to officiate at; Union Head Billy Hunter cautioned that the players should be ready to lose at least half a season at this time. Whether that is a threat or happens will be decided in the upcoming days. Derek Fisher has proven that he not only can lead teams to championship but can also unite all the NBA player's diverse interests. However, Billy Hunter needs to share some of the burden or it may not be too long that he ends up much like Hunter, Jan Levinson-Gould's assistant from NBC's "The Office," and let go to focus on his coffeehouse music tour.

No-no-no: David Stern Channels his Inner "Mutombo" to Preemptively Block NBPA

On Tuesday, Commissioner Stern ran up the "court" where he grabbed the first "Board"; National Labor Relations Board to be exact, to "block" the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) from de-certifying as a Union. But enough for the flagrant foul worthy puns and onto what's going on in NBA Lockout Land. Stern decided to brush off his litigious rust that he fostered early on as the youngest Partner at Proskauer Rose, a white shoe law firm that has a significant sports law practice group, and preemptively strike and prevent the NBPA from decertifying. It seems as Stern learned from NFL Commissioner's Roger Goodell's cautious attitude toward the NFLPA decertification and wanted to stop it before it started. Goodell probably had a good understanding that it would take decertification in order to get the players back to the table. Goodell was rightfully optimistic that a deal would get done before risking any missed regular seasons games. You see, unlike the NBA, all of the NFL Franchises have been profitable. The lockout was just a way to reorganize how profitable the NFL could be and put the owners in a place where they could maximize profits for the longterm (i.e. 10 year deal.) In comparison, the NBA is not in great shape. Many teams have been taking losses the last few year to a point where almost half of the teams requested a credit extension from the League. That is not a good situation to be in when facing possible anti-trust litigation. Where as the NFL tweaked their salary cap structure, it seems that NBA Owners want to completely blow up their soft cap and start over again. This would be no easy fix in anti-trust violation settlement discussions. David Stern knew this and decided to nip it in the bud.

How did the Verbal Handshake almost turn Into a Symbolic F You?

While the NBA and the NBPA were descending into the lockout abyss, it looked as if the NFL and its player were ready to emerge in harmony from their lockout inferno. In fact, it was only Wednesday where Player Head DeMaurice Smith invited NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to jointly address the NFLPA Rookies at the NFL Rookie Symposium in Sarasota, Florida.

However, that optimism soured when Smith and Goodel returned to the bargaining table yesterday,