NBA season in jeopardy as players disband union

The NBA players’ union Monday announced it would abandon negotiation in favor of suing the league’s owners in federal court. Players said they would file an antitrust lawsuit, seeking to declare the league’s four-and-a-half-month lockout to be illegal. The decision to disband was unanimous, after players said the league backed them into a corner with repeated ultimatums. The decision makes it more likely that the NBA will lose an entire season of play.

“Collective bargaining has totally failed the players,” said union counsel Jeffrey Kessler. With the decision now moving to the courts, the National Basketball Players Association will be converted into a trade association, only able to negotiate with the league within limited parameters. The question now is whether either side will settle in some form before January, the point at which the season would be lost.