With new guy in charge, union takes on aggressive approach

If there is one thing that will surely change now that the NBA players’ association has taken its contract negotiation to the courts, it’s that the union’s cause will be brought into much sharper focus for the public.

That’s because the union has hired lawyer David Boies to be its representative.

On Tuesday in the union’s headquarters in New York, Boies announced the strategy for the players going forward. Players have filed two anti-trust lawsuits, both in districts believed to have labor-friendly courts—Northern California and Minnesota.

In California, the plaintiffs are Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Leon Powe, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard (UPDATE: The California suit is scheduled for Feb. 29, 2012). In Minnesota, it’s Anthony Tolliver, Derrick Williams, Ben Gordon and Caron Butler.

The strategy is clear—represent players of all stripes, from young stars like Durant; to veterans like Billups; to rookies like Leonard and Williams; to solid free agents like Butler; to fringe free agents like Powe.

The message: The entire player population is in this together. And Boies warned that more lawsuits could be coming.

Boies has a history of knowing how to massage public opinion, having handled some of the highest profile cases of the last two decades, including the government’s case against Microsoft, Al Gore’s Supreme Court challenge of the 2000 presidential recount and the music industry’s case against Napster. His clients have been an eclectic mix: filmmaker Michael Moore, late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow and Jamie McCourt, former wife of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

That’s something the union could use. In recent months, union executive director Billy Hunter seemed to grow weary of the negotiations with the league, and rumors of a rift between Hunter and union president Derek Fisher sprung up.

The union’s lead counsel, Jeffrey Kessler, has been combative throughout the negotiations and has drawn the ire of Stern on several occasions, most notably when he compared Stern to a plantation owner—a statement for which he apologized.

It was an embarrassing moment for the union, and many on the players’ side felt that although Kessler is an excellent lawyer, he shouldn’t speak publicly.

Meeting with reporters on Tuesday, Boies had some harsh words for Stern and the owners—in doing so, he articulated the union’s plight in a way its leaders had not done to this point. By pushing the union to accept both a major pay cut (from 57 percent of income to 50 percent) and significant system changes, without much opportunity for negotiation and under threat of an ultimatum, the owners had negotiated in bad faith. The players merely called them on it.

“It turned out to be a mistake. Was it a mistake to do it?” he said. “If you're in a poker game and you bluff, and the bluff works, you’re a hero. If somebody calls your bluff, you lose. The owners overplayed their hand.”

For months, players have been left to react to the aggressive negotiating tactics of the owners. Now, with Boies running the show, the union is on the attack