NEW YORK -- The weekend passed with hardly anyone noticing that David Stern managed to keep Latrell Sprewell out of the NBA for one year, after all.
Now, Nick Van Exel is suing to get out.Van Exel, who wants to play in Europe and stay there even if the lockout ends, plans to file suit against the NBA, USA Basketball and FIBA later this week, his agent said.
Van Exel and several other plaintiffs, including Marcus Camby of the New York Knicks, allege that the NBA and USA Basketball will not give clearance to FIBA, the sport's world governing body, for a player to continue playing under a European League contract if his NBA team wants him back after the lockout.
Van Exel, traded in June from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Denver Nuggets, has one year left on his NBA contract for about $2.1 million, which means he has lost about $700,000 in salary. Agent James Bryant has received offers from two or three teams overseas and said Van Exel would make about $2 million and then return as a free agent for the 1999-2000 NBA season.
"Nick wants to work this year," said Bryant, who has not yet decided where the lawsuit will be filed. He said Cincinnati, where the contract was signed, was a possibility.
Today will be the fourth day since the last collective bargaining session was held, and neither side has shown an urgency to schedule another one.
The season, if there ever is one, cannot begin until mid-January at the earliest.
More than 100 players took part in a conference call Sunday 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 labor agreement.
Today, a news conference will be held in Manhattan to announce an exhibition game to be held Dec. 19 in Atlantic City, televised on cable by Showtime, featuring members of all four Dream Teams -- the 1992 and 1996 Olympic teams and the 1994 and 1998 World Championship teams.
Van Exel's lawsuit comes after FIBA voted Dec. 2 to repeal the rule limiting European League teams to two foreigners per roster. The change will take effect next season.
Stern testified last summer at the guaranteed contracts arbitration hearing before arbitrator John Feerick that all NBA players are technically free agents during the lockout, but all contracts would go back into effect once the lockout ended.
NBA chief legal officer Jeffrey Mishkin declined comment on Van Exel's suit but said the league had no objection to players going overseas as long as they return if the lockout ends.