News that the NBA canceled games through Dec 15 was received by teams on Tuesday, Nov 15, hours before the locked-out players filed 2 antitrust lawsuits against the league in two states.
This eliminates a total of 324 games or 26 percent of the season as the lockout lingers into its fifth month with no end in sight, according to ESPN.
ESPN.com reports:
Attorney David Boies, who represented the NFL during that sport’s work stoppage and now has been brought aboard by basketball’s players, said the NBA lockout violates antitrust laws by refusing to allow players to work.
Boies added that Stern’s ultimatum to the now-disbanded union to accept the owners’ last economic model or face a harsher proposal “turned out to be a mistake” that strengthens the players’ case because it proves that the collective bargaining process had ended.
“If you’re in a poker game, and you run a bluff, and the bluff works, you’re a hero. If someone calls your bluff, you lose. I think the owners overplayed their hand,” Boies said at the players’ association headquarters. “They did a terrific job of taking a very hard line and pushing the players to make concession after concession after concession, but greed is not only a terrible thing — it’s a dangerous thing.”
Dangerous enough to cost the league billions of dollars in damages if the players win.
The players are seeking “treble damages” — meaning triple the amount of the more than $2 billion they would have made under a full 2011-12 season — for what they argue is irreparable harm by preventing them from playing in their “very short” NBA careers.
“We haven’t seen Mr. Boies’ complaint yet, but 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.”
Boies acknowledged that the case could take months, but hoped there would be a settlement before too long.
PFP Sports and Celebrity Talent Agency is a top booking agent for sports speakers, athlete appearances, NBA speakers, endorsement deals and celebrity bookings.
