Players reject NBA's offer, begin to disband union

NBA players rejected the league's latest proposal for a new collective-bargaining agreement Monday and began the process of disbanding as a union.

Dissolving the union means the players will give up their rights to collectively bargain under labor law and instead will transform from a union to a trade association. The players then would be able to file an antitrust lawsuit against the owners for damages in an effort to force an end to the lockout, which enters its 138th day Tuesday.

"We've arrived at the conclusion that the collective-bargaining process has completely broken down," union executive director Billy Hunter said. Hunter made his comments after the union met with its executive committee and 30 team player representatives -- plus several other players, including the Knicks' Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups -- at a Manhattan hotel to review the NBA's latest proposal.

The decision heightens concerns that the 2011-12 season could be lost. Commissioner David Stern blasted the move by the union's leadership during an interview on ESPN's SportsCenter.

"We're about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA," Stern said.

The league has offered the players a 50-50 split of league revenue with a soft salary cap that includes steeper restrictions on luxury taxpaying teams than in the previous deal. The latest proposal, which had revisions from a previous proposal, was delivered to the players Thursday night.

Stern had told the union that if the deal was not accepted, the owners' negotiating stance would reset to their original platform of a hard cap, a revenue split of 53-47 in favor of the owners and a rollback on current contracts.

"The players feel that they are not prepared to accept any ultimatums and that it is extremely unfair on the part of the NBA ownership to give an ultimatum that they had to accept their proposal or a rollback to 47 percent," Hunter said. "We have negotiated in good faith for two years and have done everything that anybody could expect, particularly when you look at the givebacks and concessions. The players just felt they have given enough."

Hunter said the players now will be represented by the union's outside counsel, Jeffrey Kessler, who spearheaded the NFLPA's antitrust battle with the NFL last spring, and high-profile attorney David Boies, who coincidentally represented the NFL in Tom Brady's antitrust suit against the league.

Neither Boies nor Kessler would say when -- or even if -- an antitrust lawsuit will be filed against the NBA owners.

"We're going to go back and talk about what the right approach is," Boies said. "Maybe it's filing a lawsuit, maybe it's not filing a lawsuit. We have to figure out what the lawsuit would say, if there is going to be a lawsuit. So there's a lot that has to be decided."

The NFLPA's decertification effort failed after an appeals court ruled that the NFL was within its rights to lock out the players. The sides eventually reached a settlement on a CBA in time to save the NFL season without any loss of games. Boies said the NBA players won't seek an injunction, as the NFL players did, but he instead might recommend an antitrust suit seeking treble damages.

The hope of the players is that these lawsuits will never see the courtroom but instead will motivate the owners to consider a settlement with the players to allow the business of pro basketball to resume.

"The collective-bargaining process will not be the way that, as players, this process continues for us," union president Derek Fisher said. "We will allow our legal team to really lead the charge, and hopefully at some point assist us in getting a deal done that is fair to our entire body."

In a statement, Stern accused Kessler, one of his fiercest rivals in the collective-bargaining process, of plotting this move since February 2010, which is why the NBA filed a federal lawsuit in August as a pre-emptive strike. In that lawsuit, the league asserted that the lockout does not violate federal antitrust laws. The lawsuit also asks the court to agree that if a decertification move by the union is found to be lawful, all existing player contracts would become void and unenforceable.

According to a person with knowledge of the situation, this won't be a matter of legal contemplation until the players file an antitrust lawsuit against the owners.