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Peter May's Profile Of Billy Hunter
I guess there's nothing else to write about....
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
NBA union has bargain Hunter
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 10/30/98
NEW YORK - The criterion was clear: Get someone who would stare David Stern in
the eye and not come down with conjunctivitis.
The NBA Players Association saw a street fight brewing two years ago, one that
has erupted into open warfare. It wanted someone to lead the union who would
see Stern as a mere antagonist rather than the intimidating, dominating,
bullying, and, in its mind, always victorious foe.
That someone is Billy Hunter. Prior to his hiring as the union's executive
director, he was best known for taking on members of the Hell's Angels and Jim
Jones's People's Temple. Now he's taken on an even more sinister group in the
eyes of some of his flock: the NBA owners.
The NBA lockout has wiped out the month of November and, with no settlement
imminent, could soon take a chunk out of December. It's a first for the NBA,
which always has managed to play a season relatively free of labor strife. In
the minds of Stern and his deputy, Russ Granik, that was possible because
reasonable people made reasonable decisions. In the minds of the players, it
was because Stern always got his way. They wanted that to change.
Hunter investigated the job at the urging of former Syracuse classmate Dave
Bing. He met some of his eventual clientele during All-Star weekend in 1996,
and it was clear to him, and to them, what the job description entailed.
''If we couldn't have David Stern ourselves, we wanted the next best thing. We
needed someone to stand up to him and battle with him,'' said Seattle center
Jim McIlvaine, one of the members of the union's executive committee. ''We
wanted a guy who could get into a room with David Stern and duke it out -
verbally - and for a variety of reasons, we thought Billy could be that guy.''
What also made Hunter attractive to the union was his background. There wasn't
a hoop in it. The two other finalists, agent Bill Strickland and former CBA
commissioner Terdema Ussery, each had some battle scars from years in the
game. Hunter was clean, fresh, ambitious, and knew a little about underdogs.
As an 11-year-old, he pitched in the championship game of the 1955 Little
League World Series, believed to be the first integrated team in the final.
Football was his sport at Syracuse, where he roomed with John Mackey and
captained the 1964 Orangemen. He played briefly in the NFL for Washington and
Miami.
''He was a hard worker on the field and in the classroom,'' Mackey said. ''He
kept saying that he came to Syracuse not just to score touchdowns but also to
score in the classroom. He knew how important it was. But he was a damn good
football player, too. And he won't be intimidated by the owners. If he wasn't
intimidated by all those linemen, he isn't going to be intimidated now.''
Hunter had been the US Attorney in Northern California, appointed by President
Carter in 1977. He had been a defense lawyer and an entertainment industry
litigator. But basketball? He was a fan, an observer, an outsider.
''Coming in from the outside, he had a fresh perspective,'' said union
attorney Ron Klempner, who has worked at the association for five years under
three executive directors. ''He just made it so easy for everyone. He's
straight with you. He cuts right to it. People can warm up to him.''
Well, some people can. Stern has found Hunter and his minions to be implacable
almost to the point of absurdity. ''This union membership has stymied us,''
Stern said recently. ''We've been at this, Russ and I, for somewhere over 50
years combined. We've been able to negotiate with every other combination of
executive directors and presidents in the history of the union.''
So far, Hunter has kept the players and agents on the same page, a far cry
from the fractured union of three years ago. He hired a director of
communications - he needs more help, Billy - to help get the message out and
makes his players available when possible.
''These guys are not dumb jocks,'' Hunter said. ''These are sophisticated and
enlightened people.''
Hunter got huge numbers to show up in a solidarity showcase in Las Vegas while
at the same time telling some agents to stifle the decertification talk for
now. He got another big crowd Wednesday in New York. Such longtime union
ciphers as Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, and David Robinson have been
transformed into Eugene V. Debs clones.
''He has done it through effective and forthright communication,'' Strickland
said. ''After Larry Fleisher [the first union head], this is the first guy who
is looking David Stern right in the eye and not kowtowing. That's what the
players have needed.''
Those who remember Hunter as a talented tailback/defensive back at Syracuse,
as well as a leader off the field, are not surprised. Floyd Little, who took
Hunter's tailback job, got a taste of what motivated Hunter soon after Little
arrived on the Syracuse campus.
The schedule had Syracuse playing Virginia Tech. Hunter organized a petition
drive with Bing, Little, and others to eliminate schools with no
African-American players from the Syracuse schedule. It didn't work
immediately. They played the game and Syracuse won, but barely.
''It was frightening for me,'' said Little. ''There were only a handful of us
[blacks] on campus, but Billy fought the right fight. He's always fought the
right fight.''
The fight is far from over. Even after Wednesday's eight-hour marathon
bargaining session, there has been little movement. More talks soon will be
held while more games and more money will be lost.
The players don't like what the league is offering and say they won't accept
it. Hunter said the union is anxious but not to interpret the anxiety as a
sign of weakness.
He went into this job with his eyes wide open. He hasn't come close to
blinking yet. His constituency is betting, hoping, that he never will.
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston Globe on 10/30/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
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