LeBron James is no stranger to having the NBA’s collection of team owners have a freak-out due to making his own moves. And while the latest round of concerns coming out of the NBA’s Board of Governors meeting has nothing to do with him, it does have quite a bit to do with the movement he started.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst painted the picture of beleaguered NBA stakeholders at this summer’s Board of Governors meetings, sparked by the reports and accusations of Kawhi Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson, asking teams for benefits that fell outside of the collective bargaining agreement.
One item discussed openly and explicitly: frustration that family members of players were almost acting as agents and asking for benefits outside the scope of the collective bargaining agreement. Vague reports in the local Toronto media that Leonard’s uncle and adviser, Dennis Robertson, asked for such benefits clearly sparked the discussion, but it was pointed out that he would not have been the first family member to do so — and would not be the last.
Silver appeared to reference this in his remarks to the media after the meeting when he mentioned that “frankly, things are being discussed that don’t fall squarely within the collective bargaining agreement.”
The Board of Governors also discussed their concerns about tampering, concerns that have followed LeBron since leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010 to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat. And while teams are discussing letting teams tamper, it appears that this level of player empowerment may be reaching another tipping point.
