Agents pushing for clear union strategy
After listening to Players Association executive director Billy Hunter and the executive committee players at an informational meeting in Los Angeles in August, witnesses described agent Bill Duffy probing union officials on labor talks with the NBA. Duffy was rational and reasoned, asking tough, fair questions, witnesses said. Only, the answers weren’t clear to Duffy, nor many of the agents in the conference room at the Beverly Hilton.
Finally, Duffy lamented that the meeting was ending and the union’s strategy to combat ownership in the collective bargaining talks was still hazy to him. What are we doing here?
This was when NBPA tempers flared, witnesses said, and union vice president Maurice Evans let loose on the agent – and indirectly – the dozens more in the room. Tension had been building between agents and union officials, and Evans offered a window into the union’s frustration with the challenges and second-guessing from agents.
“Evans went on and on about how the agents always want to tell [the union] what to do but don’t have any suggestions on how to make things better. Then Duffy would start to explain in a calm manner what he meant, and Evans kept interrupting him, cursing…