Oklahoma Law Review Volume 67 Number 1 2014 Lessons from the NBA Lockout: Union Democracy, Public Support, and the Folly of the National Basketball Players Association Matthew Parlow Marquette University Law School,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/olr Part of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, and the Labor and Employment Law Commons Recommended Citation Matthew Parlow, Lessons from the NBA Lockout: Union Democracy, Public Support, and the Folly of the National Basketball Players Association, 67 OKLA. L. REV. 1 (2014), https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/olr/vol67/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oklahoma Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. OKLAHOMA LAW REVIEW VOLUME 67 FALL 2014 NUMBER 1 LESSONS FROM THE NBA LOCKOUT: UNION DEMOCRACY, PUBLIC SUPPORT, AND THE FOLLY OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION MATTHEW J. PARLOW* Abstract By most accounts, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA)—the union representing the players in the NBA—conceded a significant amount of money and other contractual terms in the new ten- year collective bargaining agreement1 (2011 Agreement2) that ended the 2011 NBA lockout. Player concessions were predictable because the NBA’s economic structure desperately needed an overhaul. The magnitude of such concessions, however, was startling. The substantial changes in the division of basketball-related income, contract lengths and amounts, salary cap provisions, and revenue sharing rendered the NBA lockout—and the resulting 2011 Agreement—a near-complete victory for the owners.