Nba Season Likely Saved Players Vote 226-134 To Keep Union, Kill Jordan-Led Decertification Try

Turning away from the labor woes that have hobbled Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League, National Basketball Association players voted to retain their union and, in essence, approve a tentative collective-bargaining agreement that could lead to an on-time start for the 1995-96 season.

In a landslide victory in balloting announced Tuesday afternoon by the National Labor Relations Board, 226 of 420 eligible players voted against decertification of the National Basketball Players Association. There were 134 votes for decertification; had decertification won, the union would have been dissolved and a new labor agreement pursued through antitrust litigation in the federal courts.

The voting was done on Aug. 30 and Sept. 7 in NLRB offices around the country. Implied in the victory is a strong show of support for NBPA executive director Simon Gourdine and a six-year deal reached last month between the union and the league that guarantees players a minimum $5 billion in league revenues. The agreement tightens some loopholes in the league’s salary cap, which places a ceiling on team payrolls, but eventually will increase the average player salary to $3 million.

“A majority of voices have been heard loudly and clearly,” said Portland forward Buck Williams, president of the union and its highest-ranking player. “We needed an agreement. This thing had been going on for 16-17 months, and at some point, you have to say enough is enough.”

In supporting Gourdine, the players ignored two of their biggest stars, Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls and Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks, who led the decertification effort, arguing that the proposed agreement would shortchange the players in the long run.

“Michael, Patrick and Alonzo (Mourning) are fine gentlemen,” Williams said. “We just disagreed on how union business should be conducted.”

Now both sides must ratify the agreement. Gourdine will meet Wednesday in Chicago with the player representatives from 27 teams (excluding expansion franchises Toronto and Vancouver), who are expected to approve the proposed contract (21 votes are needed for passage). NBA owners are expected to approve the deal by Monday and commissioner David Stern would lift a 73-day lockout, which prohibited league business, like signing draft choices, from being conducted, on Tuesday.

If there are no further delays (the players seeking decertification may appeal with the NLRB to have Tuesday’s vote set aside), the NBA will compress several months of normal off-season signings and trades into a 2-week sprint between next Tuesday and the Oct. 6 training camp openings.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” said Jeffrey Kessler, the lead attorney for Jordan, Ewing and the other dissident. “I believe this is a terrible vote for the players and they will regret it for a long time. We have seven days to make a decision on a course of action, but my guess is that it won’t take that long. It’ll be the players’ call.”

As impressive as the margin of victory in Tuesday’s NBA vote was the turnout around 85 percent of the 420 eligible voters. A total of 370 votes were cast, but eight ballots were challenged and not counted; one ballot had both the “yes” and “no” boxes checked; and the lone ballot cast in Puerto Rico never arrived.

“The turnout was very impressive,” Stern said. “They educated themselves about the issues and they demonstrated that they cared about our fans and the future of our league.”

Payton affected

The multi-year contract Seattle guard Gary Payton was on the verge of signing before the moratorium on signings and the lockout was wiped out by Tuesday’s vote.

The vote also counted as acceptance of a proposed collective bargaining agreement, expected to be ratified today by player reps and before Monday by NBA owners.

Under the new agreement, Payton will play this season - the last year of the six-year deal he signed out of Oregon State - for $2.7 million. At the end of the season, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent eligible to negotiate with any team.

In the old system, Payton would have resigned before the old deal expired and no other teams could have negotiated with him.

Payton was not available for comment, but his agent, Aaron Goodwin, expressed his displeasure with the new agreement.

“In Gary’s case, it’s really unfair,” Goodwin said. “It’s equally unfair to the Sonics because now he can negotiate with anyone. Whereas under the old rules they could have tied him up, which is what they wanted and what he wanted.

“Gary is very unhappy, although he wants to play basketball and he’s ready to play basketball. He’s one of a handful of proven players who are not being treated fairly. Should Gary Payton be the fifth-highest player on the Seattle SuperSonics?”