Why should anyone remotely expect the NBA and its players to get their billion dollar testosterone-fueled act together without the routine dosage of duress, disdain and danger if the National Basketball Retired Players Association, with so relatively little at stake, can’t extinguish enduring internal strife?
In a letter last week, NBRPA counsel Jack Marin threatened former executive director Charles Smith with litigation.
“It has come to our attention that you have been contacting the officers of our various chapters and numerous other association members in a manner that is disruptive, divisive and detrimental to the association. This is in violation of your duty of loyalty as a member of the association,” began the letter from Marin, a former Bullets forward.
“Furthermore, it appears that you are using the association’s confidential information obtained during your employment here to undertake these actions for your own personal gain. As you are aware, you are bound by your employment agreement and NBRPA employee policies to return our information and not to use it for personal reasons. You have the contact information of these members by virtue of your employment here.
“We ask that you honor your agreement with this charitable organization and refrain from contacting members for these purposes. Your actions may be violations of New York law as well. The board has empowered the President and CEO to take whatever legal steps necessary to protect the association’s interests. Please be assured that we are prepared to do so.”
According to those in the know, CEO Arnie D. Fielkow and president George Tinsley have reason to believe the estranged Smith has been contacting members regarding the possible start-up of a rival retired association. On Nov. 18, 2010, after two years on the job, Smith was furtively fired by Tinsley and a five-man board. Scorned women know where the ex-Knicks forward may be coming from.
Board member Dan Schayes replaced Smith, though briefly. Numerous players, led by Earl Monroe, fiercely objected to how the coup was handled. Not only was Smith’s firing proceeding, by a select few, highly disputable, but the membership wasn’t given a voice or a vote.
Consequently, Schayes was relieved of his duties and an election reshuffled the board. In mid-September, a comprehensive search resulted in the hiring of Fielkow, a New Orleans city council VP.
Oh, yeah, in the meantime, Smith threatened to sue the NBBPA for his wrongful discharge. I don’t believe he followed through.
“This has been nothing short of a witch hunt” and “character assassination,” he declared in an email sent to members a year ago. He maintained he’d done nothing “concrete” to validate his dismissal. The board claimed he’d “engaged in repeated acts of willful misconduct.”
I won’t bore you with those details. Smith might have overstepped his bounds in terms of talking business to people (in China) without the board’s authorization, but no deals had been finalized. Seems to me, the two central charges were pretty cheesy.
“Out of deference to several board members we delayed action twice until the board meeting on the evening of Nov. 18,” Tinsley emailed Smith a week or so after the hostile takeover. “You were made aware of this accommodation. It was hoped that the board would find reason in the interim to excuse those past actions and continue your employment. Unfortunately for everyone, it did not. In fact, your insubordination and misconduct have continued unabated.”
Continued Tinsley: “The board gave the ad hoc committee assigned to this task latitude in bringing your tenure to a close and in that latitude, among other possibilities, to offer you the opportunity to resign with the possibility of severance. That was conveyed to you [Nov. 12] Friday afternoon.”
Smith’s email to members refuted the above.
“I was NOT offered an opportunity to resign or severance on that Friday or any other time,” the email stated. “This fact is already proven. The following quotes were taken from that meeting. ‘Charles, you have been terminated effective immediately with two weeks’ pay. We are not at liberty to speak on the cause. You will receive a letter from the Board President explaining the cause and the terms to be negotiated. However, we now have learned you have communicated the terms of your dismissal to many members of the association and to outsiders and may have sought to challenge the board’s decision. Accordingly, there appears little reason to discuss alternatives. Your actions may prove to be divisive and harmful to this association. You may be sure that we will take whatever action necessary to protect the integrity of this association.”
Again, in Smith’s email to members, he readily admitted communicating the terms of his sacking.
“An interim Executive Director replaced me, and after days without any correspondence from the office, a vast majority of the membership was left to believe I did something illegal. I fielded the calls and carefully explained the position I was in.
“There was no gag order placed on ME,” Smith emailed. “I was never instructed not to share this information The office did not send out any directives or explanation to the membership. For this reason, a large number of members called and e-mailed me to find out something. As you may have seen in my email, I carefully explained only the facts of my departure.”
A month or so ago, Smith emailed members, alerting them he had withdrawn his real or imagined threat to take the NBRPA to court. Instead, apparently his new game plan is to take the association to the hoop. There’s something to be said, I suppose, for a man who never seems to tire of getting blocked.
* This just in: Column contributor Sam Lefkowitz reports Billy Hunter notified David Stern, “If we don’t reach a deal by Memorial Day the players will cancel the season.”
Clearly, Stern and Hunter are insensitive to what general managers and agents are going through. How are these guys supposed to devise loopholes to circumvent the salary cap and other new rules when the two architects can’t construct a system?
It occurs to me, had Eddy Curry pitched for a living he would be one of the mound’s more shapely major leaguers.