Players File Lawsuit

Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and five other NBA players today filed a classaction suit against the league today in federal court in Minneapolis.

Lawyers for the players who wish to stop collective bargaining said they had delivered to the NBA petitions from more than 180 players - more than half the league’s players - to decertify the National Basketball Players Association. Leaders of the players’ association had last week reached a tentative agreement on a six-year labor deal, but it hasn’t been ratified. The surprise announcement by the players came hours before the NBA conducted its annual rookie draft in Toronto. The draft would not be affected by the lawsuit.

Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer for the players who want to stop bargaining, said he believes the league will do one of three things on July 1, when the current moratorium on signings end:

Start a lockout.

Impose the tentative agreement the union’s board refused to ratify last week.

Continue the current salary cap system.

“We believe any of those things would be considered an unreasonable restriction under antitrust laws,” Kessler said. “The only reason they could do that is because there was a union.”

Last week, Jordan and Ewing were among 17 players who filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to decertify the union. The NLRB has scheduled a hearing for July 5 to determine whether to call an election.

“They agreed to something without asking us,” Ewing said of the union leadership. “If they had asked us what we wanted, we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in today.”

Kessler claimed that by giving the decertification notices to the NBA, collective bargaining must cease.

“The election is now sort of irrelevant in the sense we already know a majority of the players have voted for decertification,” Kessler said. “Whether we go forward or not depends on how the players’ association reacts. We hope they join us. If the union insists on an election, we’ll have an election. We already know the decision.”

Daniel Silverman, the NLRB’s New York regional director, said his office will make the final determination on whether the union had been decertified. He said his agency hadn’t yet decided on the size of the bargaining unit and was mulling issues such as players on injured reserve, those on the new Canadian teams and those drafted this week.

“The labor board has not yet made that determination,” he said. “We have have received no request to postpone the July 5 hearing.”

While baseball endured a 232-day strike and hockey went through a 103-day lockout, basketball last fall reached a no-strike, no-lockout deal that runs through the end of this month.

Star players and their agents didn’t like the agreement reached by union head Simon Gourdine and players’ association president Buck Williams, so they began the process of stripping the union of its power to negotiate.

“Anything they do after July 1 is subject to the antitrust laws,” Kessler claimed. “This starts the antitrust treble damage clock ticking.”

Kessler was among the lawyers who tried the antitrust case in Minneapolis against the NFL. On Sept 10, 1992, a jury found the NFL’s Plan B free agency violated antitrust laws and awarded $1.6 million to the seven players who sued. The following Jan. 6, the league and players agreed to a seven-year contract through the 1999 season.