The NBPA has elected Michele Roberts, a Washington D.C. attorney, to be its next Executive Director, reports David Aldridge of NBA.com. Roberts will replace Billy Hunter, who was voted out as head of NBA players’ union last year.
300 potential candidates were contacted for this position, and 70 were interviewed. The three finalists were Terdema Ussery, a longtime Dallas Mavericks executive, and Michele Roberts and Dean Garfield, who are both lawyers.
Led by NBPA’s spokesman, Kevin Johnson, a meeting was held in Las Vegas to vote a new Executive Director. Many players showed up to the meeting, including retired players such as Jerry Stackhouse. However, only team representatives were allowed to make votes, leaving the players who weren’t representatives extremely frustrated with the process and the inability to voice their thoughts.
The entire process prolonged for a couple of hours to ensure that players have indeed selected the best person for the job. Further, there were even talks about another lockout that may occur summer of 2017.
By the end of the night, the meeting finally concluded, and Michele Roberts came out overwhelmingly victorious, receiving 32 out of 34 votes, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.