Tag: Carmelo Anthony

Hey LeBron, could you please stay away from us?

Maybe next time a college football coach hears that LeBron James wants to attend his game, he might want to respectfully decline.

James and his posse continued to bring bad luck after their visit Saturday to Oregon, where the Ducks needed a victory to remain in the hunt for a Bowl Championship Series title game berth.

Instead, USC notched a stunning 38-35 victory to knock the Ducks out of the national championship game hunt. Among those on the sideline to watch the upset were Nike endorsers James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade.

For those of you counting at home, here are some of James’ “black cat” moments in recent months.

  • He predicts the Heat will win multiple NBA championships. In his first attempt, he shrinks miserably in the fourth quarter of several games during a six-game NBA Finals loss to Dallas.
  • He extends a pre-sponsorship deal with Ohio State, a school he likely would have attended if he didn’t jump straight to the NBA. The Buckeyes endure the biggest scandal in the school’s athletic history as Jim Tressel departs.
  • A similar deal is announced with Miami, shortly before the Hurricanes endure an embarrassing scandal involving prostitutes and rampant NCAA violations. The Hurricanes won’t play in a bowl game this season, among other upcoming sanctions.
  • He joins with a group including the Boston Red Sox ownership to buy the Liverpool FC soccer team. Shortly afterwards, the Red Sox endure one of the most noteworthy collapses in baseball history complete with a fried chicken scandal to boot as they fail to make the playoffs. Both the manager and general manager leave the franchise in the wake of the collapse.

Thanks, LeBron. Why don’t you just stay away.

NBA, players hold another marathon meeting

By BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer

NEW YORK — NBA owners and players were engaged in another marathon session Friday, meeting for more than 13 hours in talks aimed at ending the 148-day lockout in time to save the league’s Christmas Day schedule.

That deadline has created a sense of urgency because the Dec. 25 schedule is traditionally a showcase for the league. This season’s three-game slate was to include Miami at Dallas in an NBA finals rematch, plus MVP Derrick Rose leading Chicago into Los Angeles to face Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

After a secret meeting earlier this week, the sides returned to the table to try to hash out a deal. Commissioner David Stern has said the league needs about 30 days from an agreement to when games could be played.

Participating in the talks for the league were Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube. The players were represented by executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher, vice president Maurice Evans, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.

The discussions between representatives of the owners and players are now centered on settling their lawsuits: The players filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league in Minnesota, and the league filed a pre-emptive suit in New York, seeking to prove the lockout was legal.

Because the union disbanded, it cannot negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, but the settlement talks could lead to that. The CBA can only be completed once the union has reformed.

There are still a handful of issues relating to spending rules for teams that must be worked out — issues that have been an obstacle to a new deal since the lockout began July 1. Players fear that owners’ desires to curb spending by the big-market teams would limit their options as free agents.

Talks last broke down Nov. 14 when players rejected the owners’ proposal that included opening a 72-game schedule on Dec. 15, instead announcing instead they were disbanding the union, giving them a chance to win several billion dollars in triple damages in an antitrust lawsuit.

On Monday, a group of named plaintiffs including Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash and Kevin Durant filed an amended federal lawsuit against the league in Minnesota, hoping the courts there will be as favorable to them as they have been to NFL players in the past.

The NFL players enjoyed several victories over the owners in federal court in Minnesota, most recently when U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson issued a temporary injunction this summer that lifted the NFL’s owner-imposed lockout. That decision was stayed and eventually overturned on appeal by the 8th Circuit in St. Louis.

The legal system could take months to resolve, so both sides repeatedly have said the only way to reach a deal that would save the season is through bargaining. The 1998-99 lockout reduced that season to 50 games. It was settled shortly after the new year and play started in February.

This season games have been canceled through Dec. 15, but in reality another week probably already has been lost, given the time needed to write and approve a new collective bargaining agreement, have a free agency period, hold training camps and play exhibition games.

NBA players file antitrust lawsuits

NEW YORK — Locked-out NBA players including Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the league on Tuesday in at least two states, moving pro basketball’s labor dispute from the negotiating table to federal court.

Attorney David Boies, who represented the NFL during that sport’s work stoppage and now has been brought aboard by basketball’s players, said the NBA lockout violates antitrust laws by refusing to allow players to work.

Boies also said NBA commissioner David Stern’s ultimatum to the now-disbanded union to accept the owners’ last economic model or face a harsher proposal “turned out to be a mistake” that strengthens the players’ case because it proves that the collective bargaining process had ended.

“If you’re in a poker game, and you run a bluff, and the bluff works, you’re a hero. If someone calls your bluff, you lose. I think the owners overplayed their hand,” Boies said at the players’ association headquarters. “They did a terrific job of taking a very hard line and pushing the players to make concession after concession after concession, but greed is not only a terrible thing — it’s a dangerous thing.”

Dangerous enough to cost the league billions of dollars in damages if players win.

“We haven’t seen Mr. Boies’ complaint yet, but it’s a shame that the players have chosen to litigate instead of negotiate,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said in a statement. “They warned us from the early days of these negotiations that they would sue us if we didn’t satisfy them at the bargaining table, and they appear to have followed through on their threats.”

Even so, Boies said he hopes it won’t be necessary to go to trial.

Anthony and Chauncey Billups of the Knicks, NBA scoring leader Durant, rookie and first-round Spurs draft pick Kawhi Leonard and Grizzlies forward Leon Powe were listed as plaintiffs in the complaint that was filed in the Northern District of California against the NBA and the owners of its 30 teams. That case has been assigned for now to U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu in Oakland, Calif.

Timberwolves forward Anthony Tolliver, Pistons guard Ben Gordon, free agent forward Caron Butler and Derrick Williams — the second overall draft pick by Minnesota in June — were listed as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the league and owners in Minneapolis, where NFL players had some level of success in a similar court proceeding over the summer.