The Lockout & the Raptors: Players approve CBA, Owners too! (1944)

[Bendit]

The only question I have is how much an hour is Quinn charging?

And where is Kessler ? Seems to be curiously missing in the conversations.

[mcHAPPY]

Maybe Sheridan can't save the season. What about Quinn?

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/1...albroker-quinn

The NBA and the players need someone to break the ice, someone who can speak plainly and calmly to both sides and move them out of the bunkers they've built and toward a possible deal.

Thankfully for those who want a basketball season, the ideally qualified person with the right relationships and experience and an impeccable reputation as a deal-maker has come forward to solve that problem.


That person is Jim Quinn, who for nearly 20 years served as lead outside counsel for the National Basketball Players Association and who helped broker the deal that ended the 1998-99 lockout. Quinn's unique perspective as a longtime, formidable and respected adversary of commissioner David Stern covers multiple collective bargaining agreements as well as the landmark antitrust lawsuit spearheaded by Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson in 1976.

Reached by CBSSports.com Tuesday at the offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he is a partner and chairman of the global litigation team, Quinn confirmed he has spoken with both Stern and NBPA director Billy Hunter since the collective bargaining process broke down and the union disclaimed -- leading to multiple antitrust lawsuits.

Quinn characterized the conversations as "touchy-feely" and "off-the-record," and said they have occurred "in the past number of days."

"The reality is," he said, "sometimes off-the-record conversations can be useful."

Never more so than right now.

"I've always said that I'll be helpful in any way I can be," Quinn said. "Everyone would like to see that there is a season, so sure, I'd be helpful."

In addition to brokering an end to the '98-99 lockout, Quinn also teamed with current NBPA outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler on the successful antitrust lawsuit brought against the NFL by Freeman McNeil and on the recent NFL lockout settlement. Kessler left Weil in 2003 and brought the NBPA account with him, but the two have continued to work together on NFL litigation. NBPA general counsel Ron Klempner worked for Quinn at Weil, and Quinn also has longstanding relationships with several of the key NBA attorneys involved, including Jeffrey Mishkin and David Boies.

Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver declined interview requests Tuesday and also declined to answer questions sent to them through a spokesman regarding the status of settlement talks and whether they would agree to such talks if they were organized or overseen by Quinn. Other than a live televised interview with broadcast partner ESPN on Nov. 14, Stern has made no public comments since the union dissolved and launched antitrust actions against the league.

But the most important words are those being spoken privately, with Quinn in the role of back-channel facilitator that was described in a CBSSports.com story Friday by two people briefed on ownership matters. Asked what his best asset would be in brokering a possible NBA settlement in time to have a substantial season, Quinn said simply, "I know everybody."

For that reason and many others, Quinn is the ideal middle man to bring the two sides together, as the NBA's own website pointed out last month. One attorney who has crossed paths with Quinn many times over the years called him "a voice of reason if there ever was one."

The nearly five-month NBA lockout, which now represents the biggest threat to losing an entire NBA season to a labor dispute in the league's history, needs one of those badly. And it's finally got one.

"The most favorable outcome is that they somehow get together quickly and reach an agreement so that they can have a reasonable season," Quinn said. "I hesitate to guess what most likely outcome is.

"I think both sides want a settlement," he said. "I just don't know whether they can get one quickly."

According to people involved in the process on both sides, there is a common realization that this is the week a deal must come together to fulfill the league's desire to start the season by Christmas. And despite the lack of official communication between the parties and some obstacles that grew out of the players' antitrust actions, sources maintain that the framework of a settlement could be reached quickly once the dialogue progressed from the back channels to the formal stages.

"Everyone on both sides realizes it's settlement time," said a person who has been in frequent contact with negotiators.

After years of posturing, months of bargaining, billions of concessions from the players and nearly two months of the season lost, those days are here. The one thing people on both sides agree on is that if significant progress isn't made by Friday -- with final details to be wrapped up over the weekend -- then the chances of a season starting by Christmas will be gone. With little appetite on either side for a 50-game season starting after New Year's, and with hard-liners becoming more emboldened by the minute, these next few days aren't just about saving a Christmas opener for the NBA.

They could be about saving the whole thing.

Someone who's done that already is talking to both sides, and stands ready to do whatever he's asked to broker a settlement.

"I think there's still a chance," Quinn said. "I'm happy to be helpful, if asked."

[Apollo]

DeShawn Stevenson:

“For me, personally, I don’t think there will be a season,” Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson(notes) said recently at Drew Gooden’s(notes) Make-A-Wish charity game. “Right now there is just a lot of bad blood and [the owners] keep putting offers out that we’re rejecting. So we’re not going anywhere.”

“I felt like we should have decertified in July,” Stevenson said. “I feel like Billy Hunter is doing a horrible job because basically now [the owners] know our hand. The media knows our hand. The owners know our hand.”

“A lot of players were misinformed from watching [television],” Terry said. “But once we gave them the information and what it was about, they knew that wasn’t a fair deal for us.”

“I’ve seen a lot of ring designs,” Terry said. “Whenever that day comes, whenever that day might be, it will be another great day. [Opening day] is the day you finally get your rings, and it’s the fans’ day. I was sick for them. You had [Nov. 1] circled on your calendar when the schedule came out. We were playing Chicago, opening night and [Derrick Rose(notes)] was coming to town.

“But it’s here and gone. We sorely regret it and wish we can get that day back.”

Source: Yahoo Sports

[mcHAPPY]

For the Americans among us approaching Thanksgiving: Giving thanks NBA lockout style.

So who will the key players be thanking on Thursday? Some possibilities.

David Stern: Thank you for the new owners, who have brought hundreds of millions of dollars to the league and, as you know, I’m a guy who’s all about money. I really can’t say thanks for tying my hands and not letting me make a deal because with just a little less asshattery (thanks to my buddy Ken Berger of CBSSports.com for that word), I could have gotten the deal done. And although it’s true you new guys have been the largest force in damaging a reputation that I worked so hard to build for the last 28 years as commissioner, you’re still rich and we should all give thanks for that.

Billy Hunter: Thank you David Stern for being so pugnacious. I know you were under pressure from owners, but if you had acted with a little humility, I would have convinced the players to offer a few tweaks and we could have gotten the job done. But now your demeanor has galvanized the players and made me look – at least to them – like the greatest statesman this side of Churchill. You’re a good man. And by the way, unlike you, I’m still getting paid.

Minimum wage players: OK, we make nearly $500,000 a year when we get to play and we owe thanks for that. But most of all, we want to thank the veteran players who have made more than $100 million in their careers and have enough saved up to not work the rest of their lives. Guys like Kevin Garnett and LeBron James have been big loudmouths about not giving in to the owners. Some of us may never play in the NBA again because we are the guys who are the 13th or 14th man on the roster and we are replaced nearly every year. But, hey, thanks vets for teaching us the value of principles. Unfortunately, principles don’t buy Christmas presents, but despite having less money, we are better men because of you guys. We have principles! Yeah!

Lawyers: Thank you David, Billy, owners, players, everybody. We are now officially the controlling party in Occupy NBA and unlike other demonstrators, we are in the top one percent and we owe it all to you guys. Love you. Let’s keep disagreeing.

Fans: Thank you to the commissioner and the owners. You won the negotiations handily over the players. They gave you almost everything you wanted, but you had to have more. The only greed comparable would be if Bill Gates got caught for shoplifting. Thank you owners for teaching us the evil – and the depths – of excess.

Agents: Thank you Paul Pierce for buying into the fracture in the NBPA leadership and helping us organize our conference call with players and our disclaimer of interest movement. We couldn’t have done it without you. Now don’t forget to send us four percent of whatever it is you get paid once this thing gets settled.

NBA Humor: Thank you for @FakeCoachPop: There are a number of people who use Twitter anonymously and use the name of someone famous. The NBA has its share but none of them are as clever as FakeCoachPop, obviously using the nickname of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. FakeCoachPop writes concisely and has effectively captured the tone of the real Pop. Whoever it is literally uses one-liners that make you laugh out loud, especially if you have ever talked or listened to Popovich. During the lockout, FakeCoachPop has been on his, or her, game. Legitimate humor rather than tragicomedy.

NHL Dreamers: Thank you for all those columnists and commentators who suggested an NBA lockout would lead to greater NHL attendance. Hardly. Various reports in late October and mid November indicate NHL attendance is down. In Dallas, where the fans have not been able to celebrate the Mavericks as defending champions, attendance for the Dallas Stars has dropped from 15,073 to 10,432 a game. They are different sports. Fans of both support both; fans of one support only that one. But the silliness of that suggestion provided a humorous moment and we are thankful for every little one.

NBA Cares: Thank you to both parties for caring only when it’s convenient and to your benefit. Right now, you simply do not care enough. Therefore, we’re announcing a name change. Going forward, this program will be known as NBA Doesn’t Give A Damn.

Source

[mcHAPPY]

This is getting weird/hilarious. Speaking of "peacocking", I wonder what Pierce & Garnett think of their lawyer leading the charge. So he is going to make the phone call....doesn't that equate to:



I dont know if it's my bias thinking but it just looks to me like Boies is practically begging the league to give them another sitdown session.

Yup. I really don't think this has played out like the players either thought or were led to believe. Unless the case the league has filed in NY comes back with a player-friendly verdict (i.e. the players have a case) then the players truly are screwed in terms of lost pay and the new CBA.

[Bendit]

This is getting weird/hilarious. Speaking of "peacocking", I wonder what Pierce & Garnett think of their lawyer leading the charge. So he is going to make the phone call....doesn't that equate to:

.....since it is bad form for an attorney to sue someone and then call them up to ask if they’d like to settle.

I dont know if it's my bias thinking but it just looks to me like Boies is practically begging the league to give them another sitdown session.

[Nilanka]

It's so frustrating that we've had ~ 150 days of lockout, and this is the FIRST ounce of common sense we've seen from either side.

[Joey]

Great read Matt. Thanks for posting.

[mcHAPPY]

Is Chris Sheridan the saviour to the NBA season?

NEW YORK — The next logical step in the illogical NBA lockout is for David Boies to call Jeffrey Mishkin, or for Jeffrey Mishkin to call David Boies.

The latter attorney, Boies, who represented Al Gore against George W. Bush in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, now represents NBA players, and Mishkin is the outside counsel for NBA commissioner David Stern and the owners.

It would take approximately 2 minutes for their secretaries to put that call together.

And after obfuscating and posturing for the better part of an hour in a meeting with reporters Monday night, Boies finally yielded to the relentless logical questioning of yours truly, put his hands to his temples for 13 seconds and then said he may just go ahead and make that phone call sometime in the next day or two.

“Some lawyers say to pick up the phone is a sign of weakness,” Boies said. “But if you’re weak, you’re weak, and if you’re strong, you’re strong. It doesn’t make you weak or strong by your calling or not calling. On the other hand, until they’re prepared to say something other than what they just put out in this statement, the question is, why are you calling?”

This particular episode of peacocking … oops, I mean news briefing … was designed to be a show of strength from the players’ new lead attorney, an epic billable hour ($1,225 is Boies’ going rate) of rhetorical posturing about how the NBA owners are now in really, really big trouble because they are leaving themselves open for triple damages — about $6 billion if the entire 2011-12 season is missed.

“I suspect that we will hear from them, either in settlement discussions or litigation. They are going to have to answer the complaint, and were looking forward to engaging them,” Boies said. ”If this is a matter that can be settled, we’re prepared to do that. If the league’s approach is to ignore this litigation and try to go into a state of denial and hope it goes away, I think that will be not in anyone’s interest.”

With former union director Billy Hunter sitting alongside him, the players’ new lead advocate said combining the complaints was the best way to expedite the case, to which I strenuously objected. Yes, I understand that it is probably incumbent upon the owners to pick up the phone first, since it is bad form for an attorney to sue someone and then call them up to ask if they’d like to settle.

But the NBA owners have gone mum, and at a certain point it can do no harm to make an exploratory call to the people you just filed suit against. It might not be the traditional thing to do, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing, either.

Sheridan: “What kind of settlement discussions, if any, have taken place so far?”

Boies: “None.”

Sheridan: “Has there been any contact between the two sides?”

Boise: “Not yet. Nope.”

Sheridan: “Why is that?”

Boise: “I think they made it pretty clear, especially with the statement they just made, that they have no interest in talking to us. It takes two people to negotiate. You heard me say six days ago that I thought this is the kind of case that people ought to try to resolve. And the response from the owners is to say this is a baseless litigation that they’re going to ignore. It takes two people to make a deal.”

Sheridan: “Why not call them?”

Boise: “Billy tried, Billy could tell you how long he tried to get them to negotiate. Frankly, if instead of getting a response that said ‘This is baseless litigation and it ought to go away,’ if they recognized the interest in the game and the interest of the fans, I’d give them a call right now if I had someone to call. If they had the same attitude that we told you six days ago, that this is a lawsuit that ought to be resolved, if that was their attitude, too, I’d be happy to give them a call. If we’re standing on ceremony, if this is a question of who calls whom, I don’t have any problem with being the person that makes the first call. But to call in the face of the kind of treatment that Billy and his people got, and the kind of treatment that is evidenced by the statement they just put out, there isn’t any case in making a call.”

I was not satisfied.

And frankly, I am so dissatisfied with his 4 1/2-month exercise in idiocy that I re-engaged him. (Boies had just finished explaining why he could not, under legal ethical rules, contact Stern directly. But he did concede that he could contact Mishkin as long as Mishkin will be the lead outside counsel for the NBA in this case).

Sheridan: “So if there’s a call to be made, you could make it, or Jeff Mishkin could make it. Can we agree on that?”

Boies: “I think either one of us could make it. I think before I made it, I would probably call him and say I assume you are representing the owners in this lawsuit. If he said no, then I would say ‘Do you know who is representing them?’ And I would call that person.”

Sheridan: “If I may play devil’s advocate, wouldn’t that speed up the process more than filing a new lawsuit?”

Boise: “Only if they want to talk. I could make all the calls in the world … “

Sheridan: “But you haven’t.”

Boise: “And the reason I haven’t is because of that statement (the public statement made by the NBA) and the statements they made to Billy. And in the face of someone saying ‘I don’t want to talk to you, we’ve got an offer, take it or leave it, this is the ultimatum, we’re going to make no more proposals, and somebody saying this is baseless, it ought to go away,’ that’s a waste of time for someone to make a telephone call.”

Everyone around the NBA, including Stern, Hunter, Boies, Mishkin, Jeffrey Kessler (conspicuously absent for the second straight Boies news conference) and the fans who have been following the lockout closely, realizes that the sides are close enough (or at least they were less than two weeks ago) that the remaining differences can be settled in a matter of a few hours, if not minutes.

Nobody wants to hear anything resembling revelry over the fact that the owners must now file a court brief by Dec. 5, which is what Boies was selling.

People want to know when this thing will be settled, and they are growing impatient. Boise again made the point about the league’s public statement, and I countered by saying that was merely posturing for public consumption.
Sheridan: “That was spin. If you call Mishkin, you can talk turkey.

Boies: “I don’t have that sense, but … (13 second pause) … I suppose it couldn’t hurt for me to call him. You know, I suppose it couldn’t hurt for me to call him. Ask me that Wednesday.

Wednesday? Why Wednesday? Is there something happening Tuesday that would necessitate me speaking to Boies on Wednesday?

I asked him that very question later, in the lobby, and he acknowledged he was strongly considering seeing if this process can’t be fast-tracked with a phone call. And if that phone call is made, it’ll be made before the close of business Wednesday, he said.
It might end up costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential billable hours, but it might help this dispute get back on track — if not toward a resolution, at least toward a renewed dialogue.

That’s the least they could do, correct?

That was my point, and hopefully Boies bought it.

Source: SheridanHoops.com

[Tim W.]

I dont understand the part where he says that the league can move their suit from Minn to NY (I think that was supposed to be reversed). And why would the league do that?

Maybe they hope they'll get some Timberwolves fans on the bench. You've gotta know that the better deal the owners get, the better it is for teams like the Timberwolves.

**Edit**

I just discovered the PLAYERS are moving their suit from California to Minnesota, so my comment doesn't work. I guess they better hope there are no Timberwolves fans on the bench, though.

[Bendit]

Complicating this legal clash is the NBA's lawsuit against the players filed in August in New York that argues the lockout is legal and exempt from antitrust lawsuits.

Boies did not seem worried about that complaint, only suggesting the league could move to have the lawsuit just filed in Minnesota transferred to New York. But he maintained plaintiffs have a right to choose their forum.

There seems to be some confusion with/in the above.

Firstly, the NBA purposefully filed that lawsuit in NY because a) NY's appellate court is historically friendly to the league viewpoints b) it was done in anticipation of the current eventuality of future suits being brought by the PA elsewhere. The logic as I understand it: secondary suits are moved to where the primary one was filed in order to combine hearings in the same dispute in the same location.

Boies has to know this and seems to come across like he wants settlement to occur.

I dont understand the part where he says that the league can move their suit from Minn to NY (I think that was supposed to be reversed). And why would the league do that?

[Hugmenot]

Is it just me or is Boise more flippant than Flipper?

[mcHAPPY]

Chris Sheridan: Speaking afterward, Boise conceded that picking up the phone first wouldn't necessarily be the worst idea. Perhaps by Wednesday, he said. Twitter

I'll certainly have a little more respect for the guy if he does. Although, I'd be calling all day at $1225 per hour. Even a one minute phone call with Stern's secretary - or administrative assistant - would be $20.41.

[mcHAPPY]

Players are willing go back to the Negotiating table now that they've reloaded on 'leverage'. haha

Whether its real or imagined, I really hope it works. I want some Raptors!

I do not think the lawsuit has done anything for the players. If anything the lawsuit has harmed them as they will miss another pay cheque on Dec. 1st and again on Dec. 15th. That is three lost cheques. Also, I believe the players thought the owners would come calling soon after and obviously that has not happened. I think the owners have gone all in and are waiting for the players to fold. Even if an early judgement goes the players way, what are they going to get really? Full MLE to teams under the tax before its use but over after and sign and trades permitted for luxury tax teams when the league has taken Birds Rights away from players (5th year and 6.5% raises) in sign and trades anyways - regardless of tax status.


I definitely agree with the bolded section though.

[Joey]

Boies repeated that the players' side would prefer to reach a settlement instead of taking the litigation to its conclusion.

Players are willing go back to the Negotiating table now that they've reloaded on 'leverage'. haha

Whether its real or imagined, I really hope it works. I want some Raptors!