Michele Roberts Rumors | Hoops Rumors

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.

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.