NEW YORK -- Nick Van Exel of the Denver Nuggets plans to file suit against the NBA, USA Basketball and FIBA in an effort to play the rest of the season in Europe, his agent said Sunday.
Van Exel and several other plaintiffs, including Marcus Camby of the New York Knicks, will file their suit later this week, alleging that the NBA and USA Basketball will not give clearance to FIBA, the sport's world governing body."Nick wants to work this year, and other players want to work, but they are unable to accept offers overseas because NBA and USA Basketball are telling FIBA not to clear them," agent James Bryant said.
The hangup, according to Bryant, is that Van Exel would want to finish the season in Europe -- even if the NBA lockout were lifted -- and then return to the United States as a free agent next summer.
Van Exel, who was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Denver Nuggets in June, has one year remaining on his contract.
Camby, who was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the New York Knicks in June, also has one year remaining on his deal.
Bryant said Van Exel had two or three overseas offers and Camby had one, although he would not name the teams for fear of jeopardizing their offers.
Commissioner David Stern has said all NBA players are technically free agents during the lockout, but that all contracts would go back into effect once the lockout ended. More than 220 players have contracts for the 1998-99 season and another 200 are free agents.
NBA chief legal officer Jeffrey Mishkin said he would not comment until he had seen the suit.
In other lockout news, more than 100 players took part in a union conference call to discuss the state of negotiations. A union spokesman said the call lasted about an hour and 15 minutes and several players expressed their willingness to sit out the entire season rather than accept an unfavorable collective bargaining agreement.
"It was calm. There was less raw emotion than on last week's call," said Danny Schayes, a member of the union's negotiating committee.
Also, there was no word as to whether union director Billy Hunter had telephoned Stern or deputy commissioner Russ Granik to inquire about resuming negotiations. No talks have been held since Thursday when the sides met for 10 1/2 hours of face-to-face discussions and made little progress.
If talks don't resume in the next few days, Hunter plans to hold a series of regional meetings in different cities to keep players informed and answer their questions in person.
The first two months of the season have already been lost, and an agreement needs to be reached in the next month or so in order to save a shortened season.
On Monday, agents Arn Tellem and David Falk will announce an exhibition game to be held Dec. 19 in Atlantic City featuring members of all four Dream Teams -- the 1992 and 1996 Olympic teams and the 1994 and 1998 World Championship teams.