The NBA’s more than four-month long labor dispute effectively moved from debates in plush hotels to arguments in a courthouse when the players’ union disbanded in an effort to file an antitrust lawsuit against the NBA. And on Tuesday, players hit the league with separate antitrust complaints in Minnesota and the Northern District of California in an effort to prove that the lockout is illegal.
The two lawsuits — featuring all-stars Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony in one, and former Wizard Caron Butler in the other — seek a summary judgment and treble damages of three times the wages lost because of what the first complaint alleges is “an illegal group boycott” of players by the owners. Players missed out on their first paychecks on Tuesday, the 139th day of the work stoppage.
“There’s one reason and one reason only that the season is in jeopardy and that is because the owners have locked out the players and have maintained that lockout for several months,” said David Boies, the lead attorney that the players hired on Monday after the union filed a disclaimer of interest and dissolved after a unanimous decision from nearly 50 players to reject the NBA’s latest collective bargaining proposal and pursue legal action.
Butler, Detroit guard Ben Gordon, Minnesota forward Anthony Tolliver and No. 2 overall pick Derrick Williams are the plaintiffs in the first suit in Minnesota, where NFL players had some initial success in an antitrust case last summer. A few weeks ago, Butler expressed his displeasure about the players’ negotiations with the NBA in a text message that read: “They’re trying to bully a deal. Every time we’ve come to the table, we have come in good faith, giving something to get a deal done.”
Durant, Anthony, New York veteran Chauncey Billups, free agent forward Leon Powe and San Antonio Spurs first-round pick Kawhi Leonard are on the second suit in California, where Boies said cases generally move more swiftly. Boies added that other lawsuits could follow and eventually become combined.
“It’s a shame that the players have chosen to litigate instead of negotiate,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said in a statement. “They warned us from the early days of these negotiations that they would sue us if we didn’t satisfy them at the bargaining table and they appear to have followed through on their threats.”
Billy Hunter, the former executive director of the players’ union, said that NBA Commissioner David Stern’s comment last week that the owners were done negotiating with the players forced them to take dramatic action. Stern also issued an ultimatum for the players to accept a deal that would include a 50-50 split of revenues and establish a 72-game season beginning on Dec. 15 or receive an inferior alternative later. Boies said that strengthened the players’ case against the league.
“Was it a mistake to do it? If you’re in a poker game and you run a bluff and the bluff works, you’re a hero. Somebody calls your bluff, you lose. I think the owners overplayed their hand,” Boies said in a news conference at the headquarters of the former players’ union in New York. “Greed is not only a terrible thing, it’s a dangerous thing.”
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