NBPA Could Take League To Court Over ’08 All-Star Weekend

Hunter Expresses Concerns About New Orleans’ Ability To Host All-Star Game

NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter has “expressed serious concerns about New Orleans’ ability to police” the ’08 NBA All-Star Weekend and indicated that he will “take the NBA to court in an attempt to send the game somewhere else if New Orleans ... can’t prove that it’s ready to handle it,” according to Ken Berger of NEWSDAY. Some believed that the event “overwhelmed Las Vegas, a city that is not easily overwhelmed.” Hunter wondered, “How will New Orleans accommodate all these people if they elect to come to New Orleans? They’ll shut the city down. ... They don’t have all the resources that we will need to properly police the city. They’ve got a serious crime problem as it is.” Hunter added, “If the union is not convinced that the city can accommodate the All-Star Game, it’s an issue that will be subject to litigation between the union and the league.” Hunter plans to meet with NBA Commissioner David Stern to discuss his concerns. Berger notes Stern “is worried, too,” and has been “critical of the lack of progress in areas hardest hit” by Hurricane Katrina (NEWSDAY, 2/27).

Fisher Feels NBA Being Unfairly Linked To Off-Court Vegas Troubles

CRITICISM UNFAIR? Jazz G and NBPA President Derek Fisher “thinks the league’s players have been unfairly linked to the crime and violence” that occurred in Las Vegas over All-Star Weekend. Fisher noted Titans CB Pacman Jones’ alleged involvement in a shooting at a strip club was “the biggest story of the weekend, and he doesn’t have anything to do with the NBA. ... It’s frustrating that it’s being tossed into our pool when, as far as I’ve heard to this point, our guys handled themselves responsibly.” More Fisher: “It’s hard for me to imagine that everything that happened in Las Vegas was related to the NBA being in town” (L.A. TIMES, 2/27). In N.Y., Harvey Araton adds, “A troubled football player accused of inciting a triple shooting –-how, exactly, is this a reflection of Stern’s league?” The “casting of the weekend as a lawless referendum on the NBA product has become exaggerated to the point of being imbecilic.” In an e-mail, Stern said that he is “inclined to let the Vegas storm pass.” But he added that he is “‘not necessarily a majority among NBA management,’ meaning the strategy is ‘subject to change’” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/27).