Williams Believes Agreement Is Near In Nba Labor War

The president of the NBA Players Association said he believes a collective bargaining agreement is just “a couple of meetings away” that could help ward off a move to decertify the union.

“It’s a race against time,” Buck Williams told The Oregonian in Portland on Tuesday.

“I’m very confident we can bring a revised agreement back to the players before the decertification vote takes place,” the Portland forward said. “It’s something that can and will be done.”

But a leading agent said the move to decertify the union, led by Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, cannot be stopped.

“I think decertification is definite,” said Steve Kauffman, a member of the agents’ advisory committee that has monitored the collective bargaining negotiations. “If I had to guess, I’d say it will pass with at least 70 to 75 percent vote, and that’s probably very conservative.”

A majority vote in the decertification election, scheduled for late August or early September, would dissolve the union.

Trying to re-unify NBA players, Jordan, a leader in the movement to decertify their union, reportedly met with Charles Smith, a member of the union’s board of directors, at a secret location in Southern California on Monday night.

Jordan has been in Los Angeles making a movie. Smith flew in Monday, as did the union’s executive director, Simon Gourdine.

It probably will be two weeks before a decision is made on whether to file criminal charges against Portland’s James Robinson, Coos County District Attorney Paul Burgett said in Coquille, Ore.

A woman has accused Robinson of sexually assaulting her July 14 at a motel, but he has not been charged with any crime.