An awkward situation just got even more awkward. Former NBPA president Billy Hunter had what appeared to be a somewhat uneasy relationship with the players. You sort of got that sense during the lockout and that manifested itself we he was removed from his post earlier this season. There seemed to be some sort of a feud between he and Derek Fisher.
Hunter is now suing the National Basketball Players Association and Derek Fisher for defamation and breach of contract. This is truly an ugly situation.
Billy Hunter sued the National Basketball Players Association and president Derek Fisher on Thursday for defamation and breach of contract stemming from his dismissal as the union’s executive director.
The lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court in Oakland, alleges that Fisher and his publicist, Jamie Wior, conspired to negotiate a secret deal to end the 2011 lockout and that their actions amounted to a breach of Hunter’s employment contract with the NBPA.
“Once the lockout ended with an agreement in line with the owners’ demands, Fisher and Wior waged a campaign to terminate his employment without cause and in violation of his contract,” the lawsuit alleges, according to a press release from Hunter’s attorneys, the firm Sidley Austin in San Francisco.
Hunter is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages based on his termination, at the time of which he was owed $10.5 million in salary through 2015. The former executive director is seeking, at minimum, the money he was owed on his contract at the time of his termination.
H/T: CBS
