Whether or not the NBA locks players out when the collective-bargaining agreement expires next June, players have one advantage they didn’t have before the last NBA lockout in 1998: time to prepare.
The National Basketball Players Association held its annual meeting in Las Vegas late last month, and the main focus of the meeting, according to player President Derek Fisher and union vice presidents Adonal Foyle and Theo Ratliff, was to get players ready for what might happen.
“In general, we talked about making sure our guys are prepared in the event there is a lockout,” Fisher said. “Although we plan to negotiate and fight in good faith and make every effort we can to consummate a fair deal, we talked a lot about preparing in the event there is a lockout.”
Fisher (a Los Angeles Lakers guard), Foyle (an Orlando Magic center) and Ratliff (a Charlotte Bobcats center) were all in the league during the 1998-99 NBA lockout. They sat down with SportsBusiness Journal for a brief interview after the union’s meeting concluded last month.
“I would say it is different [this time around] in the fact that we are preparing a year in advance,” Ratliff said.
Back in 1998, the owners voted in late March to opt out of the last three years of the CBA. The labor deal expired on June 30 of that year, and the owners locked players out the next day.
NBPA vice president Theo Ratliff is
helping to prepare players for a possible
lockout by the league next summer.
Fisher said what he remembers about the 1998-99 lockout is “how quickly the process started, the NBA using the opt-out. … And it seemed as though before we could actually be prepared for what that meant, it had already happened.”
“Whereas in the culture we are in now, 12 years later,” Fisher said, “we have much more of an ability to gather information, to prepare information, to disseminate information to our membership and our body. It gives us a much more unified feel of solidarity than we were maybe able to put forth in 1998.”
Solidarity is often key to one side prevailing over the other in labor battles, labor experts say. NBPA player leaders expressed hope that the experience of players who have already been through a lockout can help the union in the event there is another.
The NBA’s current CBA expires on June 30. NBA owners are seeking a 30 percent to 40 percent reduction in player compensation across the board.
Fisher and the other players expressed surprise about the depth of the cuts the league is proposing, but at the same time calmly expressed a willingness to try, if possible, to make a deal.
Asked whether a lockout was likely, Foyle said, “From our perspective, we hope it is not very likely. We endeavor to come to a deal so we don’t have to have a lockout. But at the same time, we wouldn’t accept a deal that is not representative of our players’ desires and needs as well as that of the owners. We want a fair deal and we will continue to discuss it until we no longer can.”
Formerly with IMG,
Edsall is now with
The Agency for on-
and off-field work.
THE AGENCY SIGNS EDSALL: The Agency has signed University of Connecticut football coach Randy Edsall exclusively for coaching contracts as well as off-the-field endeavors. Agency agents Jordan Bazant and Lee Kaplan will represent Edsall.
Edsall was represented by IMG, and his representation was one issue in the continuing litigation between IMG and former IMG coaches agent Matthew Baldwin.
Baldwin, who left IMG and took a job at CAA Sports, is suing IMG in Los Angeles federal court for a declaration that his nonsolicitation agreement with IMG was not valid. IMG is countersuing Baldwin in federal court in Cleveland, alleging claims of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. (Baldwin was fired last month by CAA, but his attorney, Adam Kaiser, said he is considering two job offers.)
IMG alleged in its lawsuit against Baldwin that he solicited the business of Edsall on behalf of himself and/or CAA in early 2010.
But Edsall, in a sworn declaration filed in the case, said that Baldwin did not solicit him and that he left IMG in February because he was dissatisfied with his representation and “concerned with a potential conflict of interest” because IMG’s coaches division represented him and IMG’s college division represented the University of Connecticut.
BORAS SIGNS JENNINGS: Scott Boras has signed outfielder and top prospect Desmond Jennings of the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Jennings is playing for the Class AAA Durham (N.C.) Bulls and was drafted in the 10th round in 2006. He was represented by SFX Baseball, an independent firm in Chicago.
CAA, LOYALTY SIGN WILLIAMS: CAA Sports’ Ben Dogra and Loyalty Sports’ Vincent Taylor have signed Washington Redskins first-round draft pick Trent Williams for representation.
Williams, the fourth overall pick in this year’s draft, had been represented by Taylor and by Eugene Parker of Maximum Sports Management, but he fired both of them last month. Under NFL Players Association rules, a player must fire both agents even if he plans to rehire one of them.
Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.
