Certification of Agent by NBPA

Letter to the Editor: Certification of Agent by NBPA

Justified under the Circumstances

June 8, 1999

Mark:

I thought your commentary on the NBPA's decertification [of agent Steve Woods] click here was incomplete and thus possibly misleading. My understanding of the issues involved suggest that this issue is much more complex.

As you know, the NBPA is the EXCLUSIVE bargaining representative for players. Because basketball players prefer the relatively unusual model of collective bargaining of minimum terms with individual bargaining above that level, the question then arises as to whom the players may use to negotiate above the minimum level. In a strict labor law sense, agents are not representing the players, but are really representing the union in the exercise of its exclusive bargaining rights.

Viewed in this context, it seems to me that a union has a strong case to make that it can insist that agents not only be professionally competent, but also that agents adhere to the positions developed democratically by the union's elected player representatives. I certainly think this case is much stronger than the league's need to muzzle public comment about referees.

Stephen F. Ross

Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law

Champaign, IL