In my Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up from February 11, 2011, I wrote that agents should make sure to get Basketball Arbitral Tribunal (BAT) clauses it in their international players’ contracts. If inserted in a player’s contract, the clause allows either the team or player to have the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal oversee a legal proceeding and resolve a dispute.
There is no denying that many teams are late on their payments or refuse to pay their American players indefinitely. BAT proceedings are highly effective, because if the team does not honor an award, FIBA will prohibit it from signing new players. As Daniel Edward Rosen of the New York Times wrote on February 5, 2011, 
“Before F.A.T., if a player was injured while playing overseas, he would often be cut and not paid.” F.A.T. is what BAT used to be called, but it is the same tribunal. Now, injured players who are cut have a legitimate outlet to claim their withheld payments.
One of those injured players who was denied payment is former Tennessee Volunteer, Wayne Chism. Just yesterday, BAT decided that Chism’s former team, Antalya Buyuksehir Belediye of the Turkish Basketball League must pay the player $73,044.42, plus interest, costs, and attorney fees for breaching its contract with Chism. The team released Chism in December 2010 after he sustained an injury.
Chism is represented by Jared Karnes of Allegiant Athletic Agency. BAT found that the contract Karnes drafted sufficiently guaranteed payments to Chism in the event of an injury. Further, Karnes won a judgment in a separate claim to recover agent fees that were never paid out by the team.
