NBPA Exec Dir Michele Roberts was profiled on PBS' "NewsHour" last night, with host Judy Woodruff noting Roberts last year was “one of the country's leading trial lawyers” but was an “unknown quantity in the world of basketball” before being chosen out of 300 candidates to lead the union. Roberts said, “When I initially got the job, there were literally mornings I'd get up and I’d remember that I was no longer in DC, I was no longer practicing law, and then I just burst into laughter and say, 'This is so cool!'" Roberts: "I'm proud of the players for being ‘bold’ enough to give a girl a chance.” Woodruff noted Roberts is the "first woman ever to run a professional sports union in North America" and is "undeniably on top of what is still very much a man's world.” Roberts said, "I got over that a long time ago. Now having said that, I had to at least assure them that I was not some wuss.” Knicks F and player rep Lou Amundson said the “fact that she has the background in litigation was big for us. ... She's not going to take any BS from anybody.”
STATE OF THE UNION: Roberts said of the current CBA, which has an opt-out clause for either side following the '16-17 season, “The amount of revenue that's coming in is three times what it was under the last TV deal. These teams are not going to ... try to suggest that they are broke, so that's a different environment.” But Woodruff noted Roberts “is still battling uphill," as there is "not much public sympathy for millionaire players squaring off against billionaire owners.” Roberts: “Everyone knows what the players' compensation is but they don't know what the profit is of these teams. The focus is not going to be on how much Kobe Bryant makes, but we're going to be focusing on how much the Lakers make.” Woodruff said “one of Roberts' biggest coups thus far is getting” Cavaliers F LeBron James to “take on the role" of NBPA VP. Roberts’ hope is to "strengthen the union by getting more players involved.” Cavaliers G and NBPA Treasurer James Jones said of Roberts, “A lockout is something we want to avoid. Either way, we know that she'll be prepared, that she'll have the best game plan in place for us to hold us together.” Woodruff noted Roberts has time to build her relationship with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Roberts: “Right now I have an ‘opponent’ who would like to be a partner and to the extent that we can maintain civility and understand that we have respective clients that we have to represent, I think the future is optimistic for CBA negotiations. I don't want the community to believe that we're going to have another lockout or a strike” (“NewsHour,” PBS, 4/29).
TALKING TOUGH: THE ATLANTIC's Max Chafkin profiles Roberts, who by casting NBA owners as "replaceable cogs who have merely been smart enough to buy into a monopoly ... is challenging the underpinnings of all the major pro sports leagues." Like many labor unions, the NBPA "has seemed moribund in the past decade, a feckless organization that rolls over for team owners whenever a new league-wide contract is due." But Roberts has "put herself in a rare position for a 21st-century union leader: one of strength." Roberts: "What’s shocking to me is that people think my opinions are revolutionary. You’re not supposed to say that it’s unfair that players have their salaries capped?" Chafkin notes Roberts "admits that she knew little about the business of basketball until fairly recently." There also has been "some grumbling by sports agents about her lack of NBA experience." But she has "used that distance to her advantage" while attacking four decades’ worth of NBA CBAs. Roberts is "almost certainly posturing" at this point, but she "still needs players to make a convincing-enough show of solidarity for owners to take the threat seriously." Roberts said of competitive balance in the NBA. Roberts: "I think ‘competitive balance’ is capitalists wanting to become communists. It’s nonsense. The answer to the problem of competitive balance comes from smarter forecasting and planning on the parts of teams" (THE ATLANTIC, 5/'15 issue).
