National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Billy Hunter said he plans to call “on the mat” agents who cut deals with teams that give away players’ rights for which the union has fought under the collective-bargaining agreement.
“Too often, as of late, you see agents doing deals or engaged in negotiations that are detrimental in many instances to the betterment of our players,” Hunter said in a speech at the Sports Lawyers Association’s recent annual conference in Baltimore. “We become aware of it when the deal goes south. Then, they want to run to the union and engage us to pull their irons out of the fire. So we have had to rescue not only our players, but several agents in the last year. This is something we intend to address in the future.”
Trace Armstrong, the past president of the NFL Players Association, expressed concerns about agents’ representation of NFL players at the conference. “We have seen more cases of agent negligence in the past couple of years. More cases of agent incompetence. And the effects of this poor representation are far-reaching,” he said.
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Hunter specifically mentioned the case of current New York Knicks and former Boston Celtics player Vin Baker, who signed a deal with the Celtics last year in which he was suspended without pay while he went into rehabilitation for a drinking problem. According to The Boston Globe, Baker waived his rights under the NBA collective-bargaining agreement to challenge the agreement with the team and agreed to be tested for alcohol, though alcohol is not covered by the league labor agreement.
“We are talking about a situation where an agent negotiated a settlement or severance between Vin and Boston that circumvented what was in the [collective-bargaining] agreement, which kind of accelerated the possibility or probability that Vin would not be in the league,” Hunter said.
“We got wind of it, and we had to go back and undo or cause a modification in the deal so that Vin, one, stayed in the league for another year,” Hunter said. “And ultimately we ended up negotiating a settlement with Boston. Had we stood by and let things evolve, in all probability Vin would have been outside the league.”
Agent Aaron Goodwin said last week that he had “stopped representing” Baker at the time he signed the agreement. Goodwin, who said he is currently Baker’s agent, had no further comment.
The Boston Globe reported in March 2003 that Goodwin was Baker’s agent but was not at the meeting at which Baker signed the side deal with the Celtics. About a week after the deal was signed, Goodwin was quoted as saying the union was “in the loop” about the deal. The union has denied knowing about the deal before it was signed.
Hunter said at the conference that another incident involved an agent signing a deal that circumvented the NBA labor agreement, but he did not identify the player or agent involved.
Armstrong, meanwhile, noted that all 32 NFL teams have a “capologist,” who does nothing but study the NFL salary cap and its implications on team contracts.
““We are seeing things like poor signing bonus language, an increase in split contracts — where the player receives one amount if he is healthy and another amount if he is not. We are seeing more five-year deals for rookies,” Armstrong said.
