Collins v. NBPA & Grantham
United States District Court for the District of Colorado
850 F.Supp. 1468 (1991), affirmed per curiam, 976 F.2d 740 (10th Cir.1992)
The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) required agents to be certified under a code of conduct barring inducements, dishonesty, and fiduciary breaches; Thomas Collins (plaintiff), a certified agent, let his certification lapse amid a lawsuit brought by client Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for fiduciary breaches, and after settling with Abdul-Jabbar, applied for recertification. Following an investigation, the NBPA's Committee, which included executive director Charles Grantham (defendant), declined to recertify Collins; rather than appeal to an arbitrator as the regulations permitted, Collins sued the NBPA and Grantham for antitrust violations, alleging a concerted boycott aimed at monopolizing player representation, and the NBPA moved for summary dismissal.
Whether the NBPA's regulations governing agent certification are within the statutory exemption from antitrust regulation.