Billy Hunter is a shady mother****er.....

[Game3525]

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.c....it&utm_medium

If this is true, he has got to go.

[Marcus13]

Read it.

Didn't understand it.

[Diable]

It's nepotism. It isn't illegal and it's possible that his daughter and daughter-in-law are perfectly qualified to do what he paid them to do. However it certainly does not look good. It looks as though the Executive Committee has sided with Hunter though. They should probably get rid of both he and Fisher. Neither have done a particularly good job. I can't imagine why anyone would even want to be a Union Rep, much less be on the Executive Committee or President.

[Venom110]

While its true that his Wife, Son, Son's Wife, Daughter, etc all are in qualified positions with qualified companies/firms, the question is would these people and their organizations have these opportunities without Hunter being the Executive Director?

And also, what type of application/review process goes into these organizations landing these exclusive opportunities?

Its almost like the NBPA is being run as Hunter's family business, and that is utterly unacceptable. For the executive committee to defend him is deplorable, IMO. I agree that maybe the best course of action would be to purge most if not all of the leadership of the NBPA.

The lockout was a major black eye, and now this infighting and Nepotism just adds further disgrace to the league. We need to get the focus back where it belongs... on the court!

[e-monk]

on my list of 'guys who spend your money who should be audited', a dude who says 'an audit isnt necessary' is the first one in my line-up of 'guys who need to be audited'

[Mrs. Thang]

His daughter-in-law is making $180,000 a year as a freaking event coordinator?!?! That's absurd. Even if his family members are completely qualified for the positions they are in, it looks like they are being extremely over compensated for their work.

I've never been a fan of Billy Hunter. I said all along through the lockout that he doesn't have the players' best interests at heart and cared more about 'winning' a negotiation than he did keeping money in their pockets.

[Dornado]

“It’s not a criminal act, but it’s not something I would do,” said Marvin Miller, who led baseball players through three strikes and two lockouts as their salaries rose 12-fold between 1966 and 1982.

Marvin Miller is right. It looks bad but it certainly isn't unheard of in the business world... you hire John Doe, he gives contracts to "his" guys, whether they're friends or family.

The public fight is bad for the NBPA, which could learn a thing or two from the MLBPA from all accounts... at least in terms of providing quality representation. Fisher didn't show up for the call when Hunter went through the explanation of the contracts to family firms and their costs... from the article it seems like that was the impetus for the Union's exec board asking Fisher to step down. Infighting is never good for a union.

[Kneejoh]

Etan Thomas chimed in on this today too.

Etan Thomas: How could we justify hiring an outside firm to perform an audit when we have annual audits performed every year? The results of those audits are shared with the executive committee and player representatives at its annual meetings, and at that time any player may request an independent review of the union's business practices and finances. Derek, you know this. If any questions arise and we need any further investigation we deal with it at that time. We have thoroughly reviewed the most recent audit and are satisfied with its findings. There have been no red flags raised by anyone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/etan-t...b_1449824.html

[yodurk]

Originally Posted by Dornado

Marvin Miller is right. It looks bad but it certainly isn't unheard of in the business world... you hire John Doe, he gives contracts to "his" guys, whether they're friends or family.

The public fight is bad for the NBPA, which could learn a thing or two from the MLBPA from all accounts... at least in terms of providing quality representation. Fisher didn't show up for the call when Hunter went through the explanation of the contracts to family firms and their costs... from the article it seems like that was the impetus for the Union's exec board asking Fisher to step down. Infighting is never good for a union.

My line of work involves working off of government funded contracts. In the government world, it is consider OCI (conflict of interest) for a government person to hand out contracts to anyone with personal connections, whether friends, family, even former co-workers for a certain period of time.

So while the private sector is different...it can be illegal in some domains. Just more evidence that it's not looked gladly upon.

[27dresses]

Originally Posted by Diable

It's nepotism. It isn't illegal and it's possible that his daughter and daughter-in-law are perfectly qualified to do what he paid them to do. However it certainly does not look good. It looks as though the Executive Committee has sided with Hunter though. They should probably get rid of both he and Fisher. Neither have done a particularly good job. I can't imagine why anyone would even want to be a Union Rep, much less be on the Executive Committee or President.

For the most part, I enjoyed being a union rep for CWA. At the lowest level, you get to help people you know from being screwed over.

There is always a case or two that is insanity, and if you are a dedicated union rep, you can make some enemies in management.

But positions above union rep start to be about politics.

I'm not political, and I don't kiss butt, so I never wanted to attain any loftier position than basic union rep.

[e-monk]

friends and family? ok maybe it's not illegal but you dont think they couldnt get better candidates/firms to fill these kind of high profile positions? wouldnt that be in the best interest of his players?

[King Sancho Fantastic]

What are the chances that out of all the possible candidates for the positions mentioned, Hunters family members are the most qualified??

[Diable]

From what Woj was writing today Fisher knew about this for at least the past three years and apparently did nothing about it until he and Hunter had this falling out. The stuff about these investment banks looks a lot worse too, because he seems to be put the Union money into risky investments to help out his son. Apparently Pat Garrity tried to call out Hunter on this stuff at the 2009 All Star break and Fisher sat quietly and let Hunter throw him out of the room.

[Knicks4life]

Sources: NBA player representatives never approved union leader's $15 million contract