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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.