Associated Press
The NBA notebook …
SACRAMENTO, Calif. ó The Sacramento Kings have hired former Golden State Warriors head coach Keith Smart and ex-player Bobby Jackson as assistants under Paul Westphal.
Jackson, who played 12 NBA seasons, becomes an assistant after two years as the Kings’ basketball operations special assistant working in scouting, player evaluations and NBA Draft preparation.
Jackson is a 1993 graduate at Salisbury and was Big Ten Player of the Year at Minnesota. He also won the NBAís Sixth Man Award during his career.
Smart was dismissed after going 36-46 in his lone season running the Warriors despite making a 10-game improvement from the previous season. He took over last minute in September 2010 for the NBA’s career wins leader, Don Nelson.
ANTITRUST SUIT
NEW YORK ó NBA players kept offering economic concessions, and it was never enough to satisfy owners.
So with no labor deal and no place else to go, players decided to take their fight to the courtroom.
The locked-out players, including Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant, filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the league on Tuesday in at least two states, saying David Sternís ultimatums left them no other choice.
Attorney David Boies put the blame squarely on the owners, saying players were willing to accept a lower percentage of revenues but owners insisted on more.
ěBy overplaying their hand, by pushing the players beyond any line of reasonableness, I think they caused this. You donít give up hundreds of millions of dollars unless you want to make a deal and thatís what the players were doing,î Boies said. ěI think it was mistake to push it as far as they did.î
And it could potentially cost them billions.
The players are seeking ětreble damagesî ó meaning triple the amount of the more than $2 billion they would have made under a full 2011-12 season ó for what they argue is irreparable harm by preventing them from playing in their ěvery shortî NBA careers.
Boies, who represented the NFL during that sportís work stoppage and now has been brought aboard by basketballís players, said the NBA lockout violates antitrust laws by refusing to allow players to work.
He added that Sternís ultimatum to the now-disbanded union to accept the ownersí last economic model or face a harsher proposal ěturned out to be a mistakeî that strengthens the playersí case because it proves that the collective bargaining process had ended.
MOBLEY LAWSUIT
NEW YORK ó Former NBA guard Cuttino Mobley filed a lawsuit against Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, accusing the New York Knicks of pressuring him to retire as a way to save approximately $19 million.
Mobley retired because of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart disease, shortly after the Knicks acquired him from the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 21, 2008.
KINGS