National Basketball Players Association

In 1983, players and owners reach a historic agreement, that introduced the "salary cap" era into professional sports. This was believed to be the first salary cap in any major professional sports league in the United States.

The NBA experienced its first work stoppage, when owners imposed a lockout, that lasted from July 1 through September 12, when players and owners reached an agreement. Because the lockout took place during the off-season, no games were lost.

The second NBA lockout, which ran into the 1998–99 season, lasted almost 200 days, and wiped out 464 regular-season games. After players and owners reached an agreement, the season did not start until February 5, 1999, with each of the 29 NBA teams playing a 50-game schedule.

The current collective bargaining agreement was reached in July 2005, and expired at 12:01 EST on July 1, 2011, following completion of the 2010–11 NBA season, resulting in a lockout, similar to the 2011 NFL lockout. ESPN has reported that the owners and players failed to reach an agreement and broke off negotiations, and that the owners began a lockout immediately after the collective bargaining agreement expired.[3]

On November 14, the NBPA was converted from a union into a trade association, enabling the players as individual employees to be represented by lawyers in a class action antitrust lawsuit against the league, calling the lockout an illegal group boycott.[4][5][6] The NBPA re-formed as a union on December 1, receiving support from over 300 players, exceeding the requirement for at least 260.[7]

In February 2013, Billy Hunter was ousted unanimously as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) amid charges of nepotism and other concerns.[8] 17 months later on July 29, 2014, Michele Roberts, a Washington, D.C. litigator, was elected as the new executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. She became the first female executive director of NBPA and the first woman to head a major professional sports union in North America.[9] She would help avoid an opt-out labor dispute from occurring in 2017 with negotiations taking place early in 2016.

In February 2018 at All-Star Weekend, the NBPA unveiled its new marketing and licensing arm, THINK450, the innovation engine of the NBPA.[10] The union controls the intellectual property rights of the 450 players as a group off the court, giving way for brand partnerships and sponsorship opportunities.

• Larry Fleisher (1970–1988)
• Charles Grantham (1988–1995)
• Simon Gourdine (1995–1996)
• Alex English (1996, interim)
• Billy Hunter (1996–2013)
• Michele Roberts (2014–present)[9]

• Bob Cousy: (1954–1958)
• Tom Heinsohn: (1958–1965)
• Oscar Robertson: (1965–1974)
• Paul Silas: (1974–1980)
• Bob Lanier: (1980–1985)
• Junior Bridgeman: (1985 – February 1988)
• Alex English: (February 1988 – October 5, 1988)
• Isiah Thomas: (October 5, 1988 – February 13, 1994)
• Buck Williams: (February 13, 1994 – September 15, 1997)
• Patrick Ewing: (September 15, 1997 – July 10, 2001)
• Michael Curry: (July 10, 2001 – June 28, 2005)
• Antonio Davis: (June 28, 2005 – November 19, 2006)
• Derek Fisher: (November 19, 2006 – August 21, 2013)[11]
• Chris Paul: (August 21, 2013–present)[12][13]

• Roger Mason Jr.: (August 21, 2013 – June 23, 2017)[12]
• Steve Blake: (August 21, 2013 – June 23, 2017)[12]
• Kyle Korver: (February 12, 2016 – June 23, 2017)[14]
• Carmelo Anthony: (June 23, 2017– February 18, 2019)[13]
• Stephen Curry: (June 23, 2017– February 18, 2019)[13]
• Pau Gasol: (June 23, 2017–February 17, 2020)[13]
• LeBron James: (June 23, 2017 – February 2, 2020)[13]
• Andre Iguodala: (June 23, 2017–present)[13]
• Bismack Biyombo:(February 18, 2019 – present)[15]
• Jaylen Brown:(February 18, 2019 – present)[15]
• Malcolm Brogdon: (February 18, 2019 – present)[16]
• CJ McCollum: (February 18, 2018–present)
• Kyrie Irving: (February 17, 2020-present) [17]

• James Jones: (February 6th, 2017–July 18th, 2017)[13]
• Anthony Tolliver (2019–present)[16]