In a letter released yesterday, NBPA Exec Dir Simon Gourdine
accepted the resignation of financial consultant Charles Bennett.
Gourdine said he and NBPA President Buck Williams consider
Bennett's actions "to be a very serious breach of trust and
ethics" and take his "breach of duty very seriously." Gourdine
to Bennett: "Perhaps the most disturbing statements in your
letter [of resignation] are those involving the NBA owners'
profits. As I am at a complete loss to otherwise account for
your making these statements, I must attribute them to improper
motives. It is an indisputable fact that salaries of NBA players
have increased at a greater and greater rate each year reaching
20% last season. At the same time the owners' Defined Gross
Revenues, as you well know, have increased at an annual rate of
about 8%. ... In sum, the teams' profits are declining, and to
the extent that your letter disputes this reality, we are at a
complete loss to understand where you are coming from and where
you have been for the past 16 months." Gourdine accuses Bennett
of being influnced by Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney seeking to
decertify the union. Gourdine: "I believe you have been hurt
about both your friend Charlie Grantham's resignation and your
diminished role in the bargaining process, and you are aware of
the economic opportunities you enjoy through Mr. Kessler and the
NFLPA. ... If you really had in mind the best interests of all
NBA Players, you would not be urging them down the path of
decertification, the same path Mr. Kessler took in litigating
with the NFL for six years and ultimately agreeing to a hard
salary cap. Instead, you would be supporting the union and our
efforts to negotiate an agreement that meets with everyone's
satisfaction" (NBPA).
