Peter Vecsey of the NY Post reports that according to memo sent out by Executive Director Billy Hunter, the NBPA is going to crack down on agents who represent both players and coaches.
The NBPA Regulations Governing Player Agents prohibits such conduct in Section 3 B(f), which prohibits agents from:
"Representing the General Manager or coach of any NBA team (or any other management representative who participates in the team's deliberations or decision concerning what compensation is to be offered individual players) in matters pertaining to his employment or any other matters in which he has any financial stake by or association with any NBA team."
A player agent who violates this section is subject to discipline by the NBPA Committee on Agent Regulation.
According to the report, "the union has overlooked the conflict for 20 years." But others have not overlooked these types of conflict.
Professor Rick Karcher discussed the conflict on page 759 of his Willamette Law Review article,`Solving Problems in the Player Representation Business: Unions Should Be the Exclusive Representatives of the Players. Professor Karcher states:
"Adverse interests arise between coaches and players in negotiations when players are seeking the highest possible salary and coaches are naturally aligning themselves with management’s desire to pay a lesser amount. Additionally, there may be adverse interests over playing time, the player’s role on the team and any number of other issues due to the nature of their relationship."
In The Business of Sports Agents, Kenneth Shropshire and Timothy Davis dedicate a chapter of the book to conflict of interest and provide examples of how players associations have used regulations to address such issues. Shropshire and Davis also raise several questions related to the potential for conflict of interest when an agent represents a player and a coach.
2 comments:
Interesting post. I never knew this was going on to this extent. Isn't this probably also a violation of the Model Rules for any lawyers who are agents that are following in this practice? I wonder if sanctions are possibly in order
Thanks for the comment Emmett. The Model Rules definitely come into play and there has been much written on it. Normally, I'd send you over to Sports Law Blog to check it out, but they're facing some technical difficulties. When it is up and running, they've written a bunch on the issue and are a good starting point.
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