National Basketball Players Association Rumors

And-Ones: Parker, Heat, Roberts. Allen

August 17th, 2014 at 12:13pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Jabari Parker knows the history of second-overall pick busts in the NBA, and is determined not to be the next, writes Brett Pollakoff of NBC Sports.com. The Bucks rookie said, “There’s been a lot of second pick busts. I’m just trying not to be that bust. Everyday that I step on the court, I just remind myself that I have a long ways to go. If I want to be one of those guys in the first tier of the NBA, like a LeBron [James], like a Kobe [Bryant] , like a [Blake Griffin], then I have to have that mentality starting off from the ground, and work my way up.”

Here’s more from around the league:

The Cavs are optimistic about their chances to sign Ray Allen prior to the start of training camp, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
With the NBA reportedly considering a change in the lottery system, Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel explains why such a move would be an overreaction from Adam Silver and company.
The Heat’s win total this season could be affected if any changes are made to the NBA Draft lottery system, writes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. If there is less of a reason for franchises to tank, then Miami couldn’t necessarily count on padding their record against the Sixers, Magic, and Bucks, opines Winderman.
The selection of Michele Roberts as NBPA head was a historic one, with Roberts becoming the first female to lead a professional sports union. In an interview with Andrew Keh of The New York Times, Roberts said she was all too aware that if she was selected, she would represent several hundred male athletes in the NBA; she would deal with league officials and agents who were nearly all men; and she would negotiate with team owners who were almost all men. To this, Roberts said, “My past is littered with the bones of men who were foolish enough to think I was someone they could sleep on.”
Kentucky freshman Karl-Anthony Towns will be a strong possibility to be the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s NBA Draft, writes Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. DraftExpress currently has Towns ranked fourth behind Jahlil Okafor, Cliff Alexander and Emmanuel Mudiay.

Cray Allred contributed to this post.

And-Ones: NBPA, Allen, Sixers

August 3rd, 2014 at 12:24pm CST by Eddie Scarito

History was made last week with the hiring of Michele Roberts as head of the NBPA, writes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. Roberts is the first woman to be named the head of a professional sports union, and she will strive to rectify the apathy and disinterest that plagued the union during the final years of former chief Billy Hunter‘s reign, writes Washburn.

Here’s more from around the league:

The Sixers would rather be good than be liked, writes Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia’s alleged tanking in order to rebuild their roster through the draft hasn’t garnered them many fans around the league, notes Ford. Their strategy has also prompted discussions to revise the draft lottery process, as well as angered teams who received less via revenue sharing thanks to the attendance dropoff the losing has caused.
Free agent Ray Allen would be content with retiring this summer, writes Don Amore of the Hartford Courant. Allen said, “My family is very important in making the decision. Right now, there is nothing that I need to do. If I ultimately decide this will be it for me, I’m content with that.” Allen isn’t hurrying his decision, saying, “I’m not in any rush. I’ve played 18 years, and the way I look at my career, I’m content with everything that I’ve done. I just want to take this summer and see how it goes.”
Selecting players in the NBA Draft is always a gamble. Every year there are players who are steals, and selections that don’t pan out. Jay Yeomans of the Deseret News looks back at the 2010 draft, and where each player should have been taken given their performance in the league thus far.

Eastern Notes: Irving, Lottery, Moore, Bayless

July 31st, 2014 at 2:16pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kyrie Irving is still upset with rumors that he wanted out of Cleveland that persisted until he signed a five-year extension nearly a month ago, and he has no issue with ceding his position as the preeminent star of the Cavs to LeBron James, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding details. Of course, Irving might wind up as the third most important player on the team should Cleveland swing a deal for Kevin Love. There was news on that front earlier, and we’ll pass along a few more items from around the Eastern Conference here:

The league’s proposal for evening out the odds in the draft lottery isn’t generating a ton of enthusiasm from the Sixers or anyone else, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes. Critics most commonly suggest that it wouldn’t effectively deter tanking for the top pick and that it would encourage tanking among teams with a chance to make the playoffs, according to Lowe. Many agree with the Sixers that immediate implementation of the proposal for next year’s draft would be an issue.
The league projects the Sixers to have turned a net profit of about $10.4MM from last season, Lowe also reveals in his piece. Still, the Sixers didn’t make any contributions to revenue sharing last season, Lowe writes, a matter that had reportedly been a bone of contention for other clubs.
Former Magic guard E’Twaun Moore is drawing interest from Olimpia Milano of Italy, Sportando’s Enea Trapani reports. Orlando withdrew its qualifying offer to Moore last month, making him an unrestricted free agent.
The contract that Jerryd Bayless signed today with the Bucks is for two years and a total of $6MM, a source tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Hawks swingman Kyle Korver has been re-elected to a three-year term as vice president of players union, Lowe reports (Twitter link).

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Union, Douglas, Nets, Moreland

July 30th, 2014 at 1:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

The contracts for six NBA players will become fully guaranteed if their teams don’t waive them by the end of Friday, and two more players will earn partial guarantees if they avoid getting cut. Draymond Green and Khris Middleton almost certainly won’t be cast aside between now and that deadline, but for the rest, the summer temperatures won’t be the only reason to sweat out the next few days. Here’s more from the NBA:

Players association VP Roger Mason Jr. insists that union leadership addressed concerns from membership regarding the hiring process for a new executive director and the departure of search committee leader Kevin Johnson, as Mason tells Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling. Discord had marked the union’s Monday meeting in which Michele Roberts handily won a vote to fill the executive director vacancy.
The Bulls had been targeting free agent Toney Douglas, but they’ve abandoned their pursuit after signing Aaron Brooks, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
Former NBA head coach Paul Westphal highlights the assistant coaching hires that the Nets officially announced today. Brooklyn also brought on Joe Wolf, Jay Humphries and Mavs assistant Tony Brown. John Welch and Jim Sann are the only holdovers from last season.
The Warriors and Knicks were interested in undrafted forward/center Eric Moreland, according to Shams Charania of RealGM. Charania reported Tuesday that Moreland had agreed to join the Kings instead.
The Hawks invited summer league guard Stephen Holt to fall training camp, but he instead signed a deal with a German team, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Union Elects Michele Roberts

July 29th, 2014 at 8:50am CST by Chuck Myron

Trial lawyer Michele Roberts became the first woman to lead a major North American pro sports union early Tuesday morning when the National Basketball Players Associated elected her as its new executive director. TNT’s David Aldridge was the first to report the news (Twitter link). Roberts captured 32 of a possible 36 votes among player representatives from each of the league’s 30 teams and the union’s executive committee, easily surpassing the required two-thirds majority in spite of reports detailing dissension before the vote.

“Let’s be clear: I’m sure there were people that noticed I was a girl,” Roberts said to reporters, including Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, following the vote. “Having said that, I frankly wanted to address that question up front whenever I spoke with any of the members of the executive committee and the union. My sense was, the only thing people cared about was my resolve.”

Roberts, a member of the Washington, D.C.-based firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, has won plaudits as a “talented and ruthless” litigator, Berger writes. She beat out Mavs CEO Terdema Ussery and tech industry CEO Dean Garfield, the other two finalists for the job that’s remained vacant since the union ousted longtime executive director Billy Hunter at the All-Star Game in 2013.

“It shows how open-minded our players are,” union president Chris Paul said, as Berger notes. “With any of the candidates, it wasn’t about race or gender. It was about who was going to be the best person in that position. From day one in interviews, she tackled every question head first. … There were tough questions she was faced with. She didn’t back away from them. She didn’t shy away from them. She told us her story, and it really sat well with us.”

Roberts first emerged as one of two finalists for the post in February, but the union decided soon after to renew its search. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson teamed with the NBPA to form a search committee that interviewed more than 70 candidates, but Johnson left the process amid disagreement with the union’s executive committee in the days leading up to the vote. Johnson’s departure seemed to reopen the door to the skepticism and discord that had marked much of the union’s slow movement toward a hire. Agents and players alike called for yet another delay in the process. A player told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link) that he wanted more time to consider the finalists after they each made presentations Monday night to the attendees, who were roughly 120 in number, as Berger writes. That’s in contrast to the 35 who were in attendance when Hunter was deposed, Berger also points out.

Former union executive committee member Jerry Stackhouse was particularly critical. He believed current executive committee members, who identified Roberts as a candidate before Johnson’s involvement, were attempting to “save face” by supporting her candidacy, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick (Twitter links). Stackhouse attended the meeting, but was eventually forced to leave because he’s no longer an NBA player, Amick notes (Twitter link).

Paul and the executive committee were indeed the prime movers behind the choice of Roberts, sources told Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Ultimately, Roberts’ track record as a litigator, unblemished character, and her vision for change won over the rest of the union’s voting members, as Wojnarowski, in a full story, and Berger report. The close ties between league management and Ussery, whom former commissioner David Stern considers a friend, scuttled his chances, Jared Dudley told Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link).

Latest On NBPA Executive Director Vote

July 28th, 2014 at 7:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The three finalists for the vacant NBPA Executive Director position are Mavericks CEO Terdema Ussery, Michele Roberts, a trial attorney, and Dean Garfield, the CEO and president of the Information Technology Industry Council. The players are scheduled to vote at 10pm (CDT) this evening in Las Vegas.

Here’s the latest on the upcoming vote:

Former NBA player Jerry Stackhouse attended the NBPA meeting regarding the Executive Director vote and criticized the process, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). One player told Wojnarowski that Stackhouse was trying to “initiate a divide.”
The NBPA executive committee believes it will get a vote on a new executive director tonight despite talk of potentially delaying the vote, tweets Wojnarowski.
Another player told Wojnarowski (Twitter link) that, “This is a cluster. They’re trying to slam a director down our throats.“

Earlier Updates:

The Kevin Johnson-led search committee interviewed more than 70 candidates for the union’s executive director vacancy, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt reports. The union is set to vote this evening on the three finalists, though Johnson won’t be present after an apparent falling out with the executive committee. Union secretary-treasurer James Jones told Zillgitt that the players would have preferred that he stayed on until the hire was complete, but added that there was little for Johnson and his committee to do once the finalists were identified.
There have been some rumblings from those present for the vote asking if the vote is happening too quickly given the relative anonymity of the three finalists, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
According to the schedule presented by the union, players will get 45-minute sessions to get to know each of the three candidates and then cast their votes, tweets Stein.
Stein also tweets that numerous agents, after a conference call earlier today, have advised players to seek a delayed vote to ensure the finalists are indeed the best finalists for the job.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Union To Vote On Executive Director Finalists

July 26th, 2014 at 9:35am CST by Cray Allred

SATURDAY, 9:35am: Dean Garfield, a tech industry CEO, is the third finalist, tweets Wojnarowski.

9:00pm: Union president Chris Paul had been tight with Johnson, but others on the executive committee weren’t as supportive of the Sacramento mayor, as Wojnarowski details in a full story. Some prominent union members and agents worried that Johnson owed too much to commissioner Adam Silver in the wake of the NBA’s efforts to keep the Kings in Sacramento, according to Wojnarowski. Tension had festered for months between Johnson’s search committee and the executive committee, Wojnarowski hears. The union invited Johnson to take part in Monday’s proceedings, but he has no desire to participate, a source tells Wojnarowski.

Wojnarowski also pegs the number of remaining candidates at three in his latest dispatch.

7:59pm: Union members are set to choose from a field of three finalists Monday, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick, suggesting that a fourth finalist, as Wojnarowski alluded to, either dropped out or was never truly in the running. About 150 players are expected for the meeting in Las Vegas, as the union has made a strong push for its membership to take part.

7:50pm: Attorney Michele Roberts, who appeared to have been a finalist in February, is another candidate among the three making presentations on Monday, sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

7:19pm: Mavs CEO Terdema Ussery is one of the three who’ll make presentations to the union, Wojnarowski reports (on Twitter).

6:52pm: Wojnarowski tweets that three finalists will make presentations to the player’s union on Monday, and that a vote will follow.

FRIDAY, 6:32pm: Kevin Johnson informed NBA players via email that he is no longer a part of the search committee designed to find the next executive director of the player’s union, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports in a series of tweets. Wojnarowski describes the email as a “terse” message that reveals an out-of-process committee. Johnson was hired to head the committee this spring.

The Yahoo! scribe’s sources say that the search committee had run into conflict with the NBPA’s executive committee, with the latter desiring to exert more influence in the lead-up to a hire (Twitter link). Wojnarowski’s sources said that the candidates for the job have been narrowed to four in the last 48 hours, although the list was reportedly at just three names in recent days.

The union has been without an executive director since Billy Hunter was ousted in February of 2013. After working with the NBA in the initial stages of the ongoing Donald Sterling scandal, Johnson was presumed to have a favorable chance at landing the union job, a possibility that was disputed based on Johnson’s broader political aspirations.

And-Ones: Kings, Turner, Mudiay, Union, Bulls

July 22nd, 2014 at 12:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro told Grantland’s Zach Lowe that the two keys to his rebuilding strategy are to surrender nothing of lasting value in exchange for capable veterans like Rudy Gay and to be willing to take quality players on inflated contracts.

“There are players that are being paid more than the league thinks they should be paid,” D’Alessandro said. “We see those contracts as an opportunity. Our first question is, ‘Do we like the player?’ If we do, then can we use a contract the league doesn’t look favorably on as an opportunity to make our team better?”

We passed along more on the Kings from Lowe this morning, and we’ve got plenty from around the rest of the league here:

The Celtics had been in contact with Evan Turner almost every day between the start of free agency and Monday, when they reached agreement on a deal, writes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
Emmanuel Mudiay isn’t the first well-regarded high school player to turn pro overseas rather than play in college, but his $1.2MM pact with Guangdong of China makes him the most highly compensated ever to have done so, notes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Three candidates remain for the players association’s vacant executive director position, tweets Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. The job has been open since the union ousted Billy Hunter at the All-Star break in 2013 and installed Ron Klempner in an interim capacity. It’s unclear whether Klempner is one of the finalists.
Cameron Bairstow‘s deal with the Bulls is for three years, starting at the minimum salary, reports K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. That means the team used all but a sliver of its remaining cap space to sign the rookie out of New Mexico, whom the Bulls picked 49th overall in last month’s draft. The first season of Bairstow’s contract is the only one that’s fully guaranteed, Johnson adds.
Chris Andersen‘s two-year deal with the Heat is for a total of $10.4MM, all of which is fully guaranteed, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.

And-Ones: Love, Wiggins, Sterlings, Durant

July 21st, 2014 at 1:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs aren’t dangling Andrew Wiggins in trade talks with the Wolves about Kevin Love, at least for the time being, a source tells Bob Finnan of The News-Herald, who was the first to report last week that Cleveland was open to the idea of parting with Wiggins. So, while no one involved would guarantee Finnan that Wiggins wouldn’t wind up in a Love deal, it sounds like that idea is on the backburner for now. Here’s more from around the Association:

Testimony has resumed today in the probate trial between Clippers owners Donald and Shelly Sterling after the judge made a pair of decisions Friday that appear to help Shelly Sterling’s case, as USA Today’s David Leon Moore details. The judge has the power to allow Shelly Sterling to go forward with her sale of the Clippers to Steve Ballmer, if he rules in her favor, even if Donald Sterling decides to appeal, according to Moore.
A member of the players association’s executive committee told TNT’s David Aldridge that the union will discuss the idea of taking action should the Sterlings continue to own the Clippers at the start of next season, as Aldridge writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.
Thunder assistant coach Brian Keefe, whom Knicks head coach Derek Fisher has reportedly lured to serve as a Knicks assistant, was the member of the Oklahoma City staff whom Kevin Durant trusted the most, Aldridge notes in the same piece.
A source tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News that Knicks GM Steve Mills recently pulled his name from contention for the union’s executive director vacancy. Mills re-emerged as a candidate this spring after having been the apparent front-runner last summer prior to taking the Knicks job.
The final two seasons of the four-year contract between Devin Harris and the Mavs are a little more lucrative than previously reported. He’ll make nearly $4.728MM in year three and nearly $4.903MM in the final season, which is partially guaranteed for almost $1.34MM, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports details on his Mavs salary page.

And-Ones: NBPA, Anthony, Bower

June 15th, 2014 at 12:42pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kevin Johnson sent out a memo to the players regarding the search for the next head of the National Basketball Players Association, reports Sam Amick of USA Today. In the memo, Johnson informed the players that six candidates were interviewed on May 16th, with more scheduled for late June, and six more in mid-July. The names of the candidates were not made public yet.