National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts expressed optimism last week about talks with the NBA, but the union will be heading into negotiations after replacing two key executives.
The NBPA announced late last month that it had hired attorney Erica McKinley to replace Domonique Foxworth, who resigned as chief operating officer of the NBPA after about a year on the job. Over the summer, the NBPA hired Matteo Zuretti, who replaced Walter Palmer as director of international relations and marketing.
Both the COO and the director of international relations and marketing are newly created positions at the NBPA, since Roberts was elected executive director in July 2014. Roberts announced the hiring of both Foxworth and Palmer in October 2014.
Sean Brandveen, who had been a staff counsel at the NBPA since 2008, also has left the union. Foxworth, Zuretti and Brandveen did not respond to inquiries.
Tara Greco, NBPA director of communications, would not give a reason for the departures or say whether any other executives would be leaving. “We do not discuss personnel matters,” Greco said.
Greco added that the union is optimistic there will be no work stoppage after December 2016, echoing comments NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made at the league’s board of governors meeting last month. Both the players and the owners can opt out of the 2011 NBA collective-bargaining agreement in December 2016.
Silver also said the league’s relationship with the union has never been better.
“I obviously can’t comment on the union’s past relationship with the league, because I wasn’t here,” Roberts said in a statement. “But I would characterize my relationship with the commissioner as positive.”
