Players Reject N.B.A. Offer and Opt to Disband Union

Billy Hunter, the executive director of the now-defunct N.B.P.A., made the announcement just before 2 p.m., after a four-hour meeting of union officials and player representatives from all 30 teams. A letter informing the N.B.A. of the union’s decision was sent before Hunter took the podium.

“The players just felt that they had given enough, that the N.B.A. was not willing or prepared to continue to negotiate,” Hunter said, with more than 40 players packed behind him in a small hotel conference room. “Things were not going to get better.”

The union’s decision comes four days after Commissioner David Stern issued an ultimatum to the union to accept the league’s current proposal, or have it replaced with an inferior deal. Stern reiterated over the weekend that the N.B.A. was done negotiating.

In disbanding, the N.B.P.A. will now become a trade association. It will represent the players’ interests, but for the purposes of bargaining, the players are now considered individuals.

The decision to end the union effectively renders moot a separate effort by agents and players to force decertification of the union. An antitrust lawyer representing that group was set to deliver more than 200 player signatures to the National Labor Relations Board to start the clock on that process. Decertifying – effectively overthrowing union leadership from the outside – would have taken at least six weeks, and would have required a majority vote by the full membership.

By disclaiming interest, the union ceases operations, opening the door to an immediate antitrust lawsuit.

The N.B.A. is expected to challenge the disclaimer as a sham that was perpetuated only to create leverage at the bargaining table. The league made that accusation in August, when it filed a preemptive lawsuit accusing union leaders of threatening to disclaim as a negotiating tactic.

Stern hammered that point again in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

“At a bargaining session in February 2010, Jeffrey Kessler, counsel for the union, threatened that the players would abandon the collective bargaining process and start an antitrust lawsuit against our teams if they did not get a bargaining resolution that was acceptable to them,” Stern said.

In an interview with ESPN, Stern said that the N.B.A. was entering a “nuclear winter.”

In an interview on ESPN, Stern said that the N.B.A. was entering a “nuclear winter.” He also said the league’s latest offer was not an ultimatum but a revised proposal. “When you negotiate for 2 ½ years and finally get to where the parties are ... that’s not an ultimatum. That’s a proposal that’s ready to be voted up or down," Stern said. "They seem hellbent on self-destruction and it’s very sad."

“There will ultimately be a new collective bargaining agreement,” Stern said in his statement, “but the 2011-12 season is now in jeopardy.”

Without a union, the players are now free to sue the N.B.A. under antitrust laws and challenge the legality of the lockout. Hunter said a lawsuit would be filed within the next two days. The players will be represented by Kessler, who had been serving as the union’s outside counsel. He will be joined by David Boies, a renowned lawyer who represented the N.F.L. in its defense against an antitrust suit by N.F.L. players earlier this year.

While the N.F.L. lockout lasted 136 days and did not threaten any regular season games, the N.B.A. lockout has stretched 137 days and cost the first part of the season so far.