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Coaches union likes NBPA’s decision to enforce agent rule

The executive director of the National Basketball Coaches Association applauded the National Basketball Players Association for its recent decision to enforce a rule prohibiting agents from representing both players and coaches.

“In many businesses, including the NBA, there is a potential for conflict of interest because it’s such a tight-knit family — players becoming coaches, and coaches becoming GMs,” said Michael Goldberg, executive director of the coaches union. “But it seems to make common sense if each person is going to do their job in the best way possible that they don’t have a tie which on its face could be a potential conflict of interest. … The rule was put in place for good reason.”
The NBPA last week informed agents that it would enforce the rule, which has been on the union’s books since 1986, as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the union’s agent regulations.

“The rule was put in place for good reason,” the NBCA’s Goldberg says.
The coaches association has never formally voted on the issue of whether agents who represented coaches should be able to represent players as well because, Goldberg noted, the NBPA had a regulation prohibiting it on its books. But, over the years, some player agents have represented coaches, including players who became coaches after retiring from the court.

In its memo to player agents, the NBPA said that agents who represented coaches had six months, until Aug. 22, to relinquish their coaching clients. The NBPA also said that different agents at the same agency could represent coaches and players as long as notice is provided to the player.

Goldberg said the coaches association may discuss at its annual meeting in September a requirement that coaching agents provide similar notice to their coaching clients. The coaches association does not now certify coaching agents, but the union leaders may discuss that as well, he said.

Real or perceived conflicts of interest are important issues for coaches, Goldberg said.

“If a coach’s agent has a relationship with a player on the team, they don’t want any appearance of any kind of uneven treatment of that player because of the common representation,” he said.

> FALK SAYS RULE A FIRST STEP: Veteran NBA agent David Falk called the decision to enforce the rule a step in the right direction but said it did not go far enough.

Allowing agents at the same agency to represent players and coaches won’t solve the problem of an actual or a perceived conflict of interest, Falk said.

“I don’t think there is a Chinese wall strong enough to prevent slippage,” Falk said. “When you are a lawyer, the rules state you have to avoid even the appearance of impropriety — the appearance. When a company represents management, it creates the appearance of impropriety.”

Falk has been among the most vocal proponents for the regulation and called for NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts to enforce it in August 2014, about a week after she was elected to the top job at the players union.

“There are situations that have existed where an agent represents a coach and a certain player on the team,” Falk said. “And the other players on the team think that player gets too many plays called for him and the reason he gets too many plays called for him is because the coach is trying to help the agent for the player by giving him more touches and more numbers.”

> A YEAR OF REVIEW: The NBPA spent a year reviewing other players unions’ rules on agents, as well as speaking with many NBA agents and players, before passing the new agent regulations, said Gary Kohlman, NBPA general counsel.

In addition to enforcing the coaches rule, the NBPA passed several new regulations, including requirements that agents disclose relationships with recruiters and financial advisers, an increase in agent dues, and a requirement that new prospective agents take a test on the NBA collective-bargaining agreement before they become certified. The NBPA’s board of player representatives approved the rules unanimously, Kohlman said.

The decision to enforce the regulation prohibiting agents from representing players and coaches was not formally voted on, as it was not a change to the regulations, but was passed after player leaders indicated they were in favor of it, Kohlman said.

“All of the changes to the regulations, the testing and the raising of the dues and everything, is designed towards the single purpose of making sure that the players are best served by the highest-quality agents,” Kohlman said.

Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.

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