Now that NBA players are preparing to take the labor fight with the league’s owners to the courtroom, some legal experts expect them to face a daunting challenge if they file an antitrust lawsuit.
The players rejected the latest offer from owners Monday and started a process of disbanding the union, a move that would allow them to sue the league, much as the NFL players did this summer. But rulings in the NFL players’ case against owners could make it tougher for their basketball brethren, antitrust lawyer David Scupp said. NFL players dissolved their union and filed an antitrust lawsuit this summer. A federal judge in Minnesota lifted the lockout in June, but that ruling was overturned on appeal.
Because the NBA case likely would take place in a different court, the ruling of the 8th Circuit in St. Louis to vacate U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s injunction of the NFL lockout will not be binding. But it will be influential, Scupp said.
“Given the rulings that came down in the NFL case, right now the owners are not in a bad spot,” Scupp said.
There are many legal twists and turns this case will take before a judge makes any kind of outcome-affecting ruling.
All of this will take weeks, and likely months, to complete, putting the 2011-12 NBA season in serious jeopardy.
Compiled by The Associated Press
