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Mark Bartelstein On “Blowing Up The Union”

Instead of just talking about the agents in control of collective bargaining negotiations for NBA players, why don’t we hear directly from one of the main power brokers himself?  Sam Amick of SI.com helps us out by interviewing Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports & Entertainment.  As Amick notes, Bartelstein is well respected (even by his peers) and has many clients.  Here are bits and pieces from Bartelstein:

“There’s an inaccurate perception out there that there’s this group of agents — including myself — that have decided to quote-unquote blow up the union, or destroy the union, and nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Billy [Hunter] is in this position where he’s trying in good faith to get a deal done, but you can’t negotiate by yourself.”

“I have a duty to make sure I’m exploring everything I can in terms of helping bring this thing to a positive resolution. That’s my job. I’m going to do that, but I’ve always been doing it in concert with Billy and the players’ association.”

“The way this thing reads, it’s like there’s all this plotting going on. That’s just not true. The idea has never been to blow up the union.”

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.