In 1954, Celtics star point guardBob Cousy and friend and unofficial agent Joe Sharry[2] canvassed long-tenured players on each of the league's teams by mail, including the fledgling NBA's stars Paul Arizin and Dolph Schayes, and received support from the majority to approach the NBA President Maurice Podoloff. Cousy and the players sought basic improvements of conditions including being paid for promotional activities, a limit of twenty exhibition games per season, impartial dispute arbitration, and moving expenses for traded players. While back pay for players of folded franchises was granted by Podoloff, the NBA refused to acknowledge the players association or make other changes until Cousy approached the AFL-CIO in 1957 and the players threatened a strike.[3]
Recognition, early successes, stalled negotiations (1957–1964)
After formal recognition by the NBA, the NBPA won its players per diem payments and travel expenses and an increase in the playoff pool payment, and the majority of the previously demanded conditions. In 1958, however, dismayed at the lack of dues payments by players, Cousy would resign his position from frustration.[2] He was succeeded by Celtics second-year player Tom Heinsohn, who had studied labor relations at university and worked as a pension planner for an insurance company in his day job, and whose father was a union official in Union City, New Jersey.[4] Heinsohn began negotiating a pension plan for players, asking $100 per month for five years of service and $200 per month for 10 years of service for players aged over 65.[3] Negotiations stalled with new NBA President Walter Kennedy and the NBP and the league entered a stalemate for most of 1964.
1964 All-Star game strike
At the 1964 NBA All-Star Game in Boston, Heinsohn organised a wildcat strike to force the NBA owners to recognise the union's demands. The game was to be the struggling NBA's first live television broadcast, and the league had to this point ignored the NBPA's demands delivered to league offices during the NBA off-season, and repeatedly refusing to meet with or acknowledge executive director Larry Fleisher as the union's authorized bargaining agent. The NBPA presented the assembled team owners with a list of demands to be met before the All Star game would be played: the pension plan, athletic trainers for every team, and the removal of matinee Sunday games after Saturday night games from the schedule. After 22 minutes of the players holding out in a locker room,[5] the door of which was guarded by a Boston police officer and with owners threatening the players with blacklisting and punishment, league commissioner Walter Kennedy agreed to the player's demands, and the live broadcast went to air after a slight delay.
In 1983, players and owners reached a historic agreement, that introduced the "salary cap" era into professional sports. This was believed[by whom?] to be the first salary cap in any major professional sports league in the United States.
1995 NBA labor dispute
The NBA experienced its first work stoppage, when owners imposed a lockout, that lasted from July 1 through September 12, when players and owners reached an agreement. Because the lockout took place during the off-season, no games were lost.
The second NBA lockout, which ran into the 1998–99 season, lasted almost 200 days, and wiped out 464 regular-season games. After players and owners reached an agreement, the season did not start until February 5, 1999, with each of the 29 NBA teams playing a 50-game schedule.
The current collective bargaining agreement was reached in July 2005, and expired at 12:01 EST on July 1, 2011, following completion of the 2010–11 NBA season, resulting in a lockout, similar to the 2011 NFL lockout. ESPN has reported that the owners and players failed to reach an agreement and broke off negotiations, and that the owners began a lockout immediately after the collective bargaining agreement expired.[6]
The primary sticking point within negotiations was the shares of Basketball Related income, player movement and the soft salary cap. Basketball Related Income or BRI is profits from ticket sales, merchandising sales, and other profits related to basketball, this revenue is split between players and the team but in initial negotiations the teams proposed a reduction players' share being from 57% to 50%. As well, with the forming of Big Three (Miami Heat) and increased player movement towards larger market teams. This concerned smaller market teams and encouraged them to establish a hard salary cap.[7]
On November 14, the NBPA was converted from a union into a trade association, enabling the players as individual employees to be represented by lawyers in a class action antitrust lawsuit against the league, calling the lockout an illegal group boycott.[8][9][10] The NBPA re-formed as a union on December 1, receiving support from over 300 players, exceeding the requirement for at least 260.[11] After the players and owners reached a new agreement, the lockout ended on December 8 and the 2011–12 season began on December 25 with a 66-game schedule.
2013–present
In February 2013, Billy Hunter was ousted unanimously as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) amid charges of nepotism and other concerns.[12] 17 months later on July 29, 2014, Michele Roberts, a Washington, D.C. litigator, was elected as the new executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. She became the first female executive director of NBPA and the first woman to head a major professional sports union in North America.[13] She would help avoid an opt-out labor dispute from occurring in 2017 with negotiations taking place early in 2016.
In February 2018 at All-Star Weekend, the NBPA unveiled its new marketing and licensing arm, THINK450, the innovation engine of the NBPA.[14] The union controls the intellectual property rights of the 450 players as a group off the court, giving way for brand partnerships and sponsorship opportunities.
^Hunter, G. William; Fisher, Derek; The NBPA Executive Committee. "NBPA disclaimer"(PDF). ESPN Internet Ventures. Archived(PDF) from the original on November 15, 2011.
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