Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

People and Pop Culture

Former NBA Deputy Commissioner, NBPA Exec Dir Simon Gourdine Dead At 72

Former NBA Deputy Commissioner and Players Association Exec Dir SIMON GOURDINE has died at the age of 72. Gourdine joined the NBA in '70, and was named NBA Deputy Commissioner in '74, becoming the highest ranking African American exec in sports at the time. Gourdine in '76 was part of the landmark collective bargaining negotiations that created the NBA's first free agency system, an agreement that also saw the NBA absorb four ABA franchises (NBA). In N.Y., Richard Goldstein notes Gourdine resigned from the NBA “at the end of the 1981, when his contract was expiring.” He returned in ’90 as the “NBA players union counsel.” He then became “executive director in April 1995, replacing CHARLES GRANTHAM, who resigned in the midst of stalled contract talks.” Gourdine negotiated “a tentative long-term collective bargaining agreement in the summer of 1995, and he was awarded a two-year contract as executive director by the union’s executive board late that year.” But player representatives “rejected the deal, and he was ousted early in 1996.” An arbitration panel “later awarded him nearly $900,000 in unpaid salary” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/20). NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner noted Gourdine “took over the top job and negotiated the labor deal that ended the 1995 lockout and instituted the NBA’s first rookie wage scale.” But he was “forced out by a group of players and their agents, including PATRICK EWING and MICHAEL JORDAN, who felt the deal favored the owners and had urged the decertification of the union.” Gourdine later joked, “I was fired by Patrick Ewing” (NBA.com, 8/19).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2012/08/20/People-and-Pop-Culture/Gourdine.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2012/08/20/People-and-Pop-Culture/Gourdine.aspx

CLOSE