NBA Players Union chief Hunter placed on indefinite leave of absence

UPDATED 7:50 pm: Billy Hunter’s attorney responded to the day’s events, speaking with Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.

“I am deeply troubled by the lack of fundamental fairness shown my client by a group whose authority to take such action is highly questionable,” attorney Thomas Ashley said. “The act of placing my client on administrative leave is not supported in either the Constitution or Bylaws of the NBPA.

“Furthermore, Mr. Hunter was not given any opportunity to respond to the Paul, Weiss report prior to the time that a decision was made to place him on administrative leave,” the lawyer said.

The bylaws don’t allow the executive committee to remove the director? Who wrote these bylaws?

Hunter plans a longer response to the charges against him in the report prepared by the law firm of Paul, Weis — a report requested by the executive committee (and discussed below.

This is all coming to a head All-Star weekend? My guess is the main question will end up being how much does the NBPA end up paying Hunter to go away. Because he’s not going away quietly.

11:18 am: For the past couple weeks, NBA players union executive director Billy Hunter has been scrambling to save his job, but it has not worked.

Hunter has been placed on an indefinite leave of absence by the NBPA’s executive committee, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports and the NBC Sports Network. This comes just weeks before a major union meeting All-Star weekend in Houston.

NBPA counsel Ron Klempner has been made interim executive director. NBA players were informed in a memo circulated late this morning.—
Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 01, 2013

Indefinite leave of absence is first step in a process to have Billy Hunter removed on a permanent basis as exec. director, sources tell Y!—
Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 01, 2013

Hunter has been embattled basically since the lockout. A number of agents — people who make their living being aggressive in negotiations — thought Hunter’s strategy was too passive and that the players gave up too much in the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement.

But the recent fuel to the fire was a report by an independent law firm that raised a number of ethical issues around Hunter and his management of the union. Those issues included a finding that his latest, $18 million contract had not been properly approved by the player representatives. There also were questions of nepotism as well as some odd investment choices with union money. All of the questions came back to the basic question of if Hunter was doing what was best for the players or what was best for himself.

Hunter has made moves in recent weeks to save his job, including letting go of his family members that worked for the union. Hunter has maintained that the report found no criminal wrongdoing and he is best to make changes to what was wrong.

But it has not been enough to stem the wave of momentum against him. Super agent Arn Tellem, with a large and influential client base, sent a letter to those he represents urging them to vote Hunter out of office.

This will all come to a head All-Star weekend, but it appears soon the NBA players union will have a new man at the top soon.

What that really means for fans is five years from now, when the next round of Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations takes place, both the union and NBA will have different men in charge. Don’t for a second think that means things will go more smoothly.