Blazers Dodge the Stern Hand of NBA Fine-age

The NBA announced that they are not going to levy a fine against the Portland Trailblazers for sending an e-mail that threatened legal action if Darius Miles was signed solely to impact the Blazers' salary cap and luxury tax situation. This set off a firestorm of activities around the NBA and included Darius Miles being signed by Memphis.

I think that was most people missed in the e-mail was that if a team was interested in what Darius could do on the basketball court then they were fine him being signed. But if a team signed Miles solely to hurt Portland financially then the Blazers were going to take you to court. So I am unsurprised that the NBA felt that no fine was warranted.

I am however surprised at the Players Union President Billy Hunter's reaction to the Darius Miles saga. Unions are supposed to protect the rights of their members. Teams that are looking at Darius solely as a means to receive a free luxury tax payment from the Blazers are using Darius, demeaning him as a player, and are in the long term harming his ability to find gainful employment in the league based on his basketball skills. You might think that a union would support actions that might help their members be gainfully employed, instead of kicked to the curb once they have been used up. But I think that would be asking too much of Billy Hunter to react in a logical way. From the ESPN.com article:

Hunter declined to positively or negatively characterize the lack of punishment for the Blazers and their billionaire owner by commissioner David Stern.

"That's something we have to study, but clearly it's within the jurisdiction of the league what they want to do," Hunter told ESPN.com "I certainly felt conduct of the Trail Blazers was outrageous, and we'll monitor things from here to see if any additional action necessary.

"But the reality of the situation is that we were able to put things back in place, and he signed. Had someone not decided to sign him because of the e-mail, we'd take a different posture. But he hasn't suffered any damage or loss," Hunter said.

Part of the reason that Darius suffered no damage was that a team that apparently thinks he can skill ball signed him. Of course they aren't going to be scared off by an e-mail because they are doing those things that the e-mail itself said won't bring legal action. I sometimes wonder how Billy Hunter became president of a visible union. My most indelible memory of Billy is when he along with David Stern testified before Congress about the NBA's drug testing policies:

Billy Hunter, executive director of the N.B.A. players union, piqued the subcommittee's interest with testimony that since 1999, only 3 of 4,200 tests in the league had been positive for steroids.

Veteran players are tested only during training camp, but rookies are tested four times during the season.

Stearns suggested that one test in the preseason for veterans was not enough to detect subsequent drug use. Hunter said, in effect, that other players had to report a veteran's drug use.

"When the policy was adopted, we didn't have the problem," Hunter said.

Stearns replied, "I'd suggest you don't know if you have a problem if you don't test."

"We don't have a problem," Hunter said.

Later, Stearns asked how reasonable cause could be found to test a veteran during the season. "By performance," Hunter said.

"By performance?" Stearns said, incredulously.

"Yes," Hunter said, noting that "someone will invariably say, 'My man's on something.' "

Obviously Billy Hunter learned nothing from baseball's experience with drugs.