Billy Hunter's Questionable Financial Dealings with NBPA Outlined in New Report
The National Basketball Player's Association is in absolute disarray at the moment, and a new report from Adrian Wojnarowski and Rand Getlin of Yahoo! Sports isn't going to help things calm down.
According to the report, NBPA executive director Billy Hunter implored the union to make up to a $9 million investment into Interstate Net Bank of Cherry Hill, New Jersey shortly after the banking crisis in 2008.
Former NBA player Pat Garrity, who at the time was the union's treasurer, discovered that Hunter's son, Todd, had a seat on the board of directors at that particular bank. Just as important, the bank had come under fire from federal and state banking regulators, and one banking executive said it was "in the tomb to stay" at the time.
When Garrity challenged Hunter about the possible investment at the 2009 All-Star Game in Phoenix, Hunter chose to let NBPA chief counsel Gary Hall, who died in 2011, do the talking. Witnesses claim that Hall and Garrity resorted to screaming at one another, yet none of Garrity's questions about Hunter's business practices were answered.
Eventually, Hall told Garrity that he was no longer welcome on the executive committee because he was a retired player. NBPA president Derek Fisher declined to support Garrity, and he ultimately left the union altogether on the spot.
The Yahoo! Sports report dives much, much deeper into Hunter's business dealings, many of which involve family members and large sums of money. These dealings are relevant to the current strife between Hunter and Fisher, who has denied a recent movement for his resignation from the union.
According to the report, Fisher's suspicions of Hunter's business practices are what led to his desire for the NBPA's business and financial practices to be reviewed. Hunter and the executive committee have obviously pushed back.
The report notes that the last player to truly try and challenge Hunter was Garrity. He was forced out of the union, and now the union is trying to do the same to Fisher.
It doesn't look good for Hunter. He looks guilty of blatant nepotism, and the report makes it clear that he doesn't want anybody to know what his motivations truly are.
