NBPA’s Punishment Of Agent For Salary Cap Violations Not Severe Enough According To Stan Kasten

Stan Kasten, president of the Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Thrashers, charged that the National Basketball Players Association did not punish agent Eric Fleisher harshly enough for salary cap violations.

The NBPA in April fined Fleisher $57,000 and suspended him for six months for his role in negotiating an illegal, secret contract for his client Joe Smith with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The NBA last October fined the team $3.5 million and took away five first-round draft picks.

Kasten, speaking during a session on ethics at the sports lawyers convention, called the league’s discipline of the Timberwolves “severe, but not too severe.”

But Kasten said the union’s was not nearly severe enough. “It suggest that the union in charge did not take this violation very seriously, and that troubles me quite a bit,” Kasten said.

Hunter, when told of Kasten’s comments, said that the Atlanta executive “doesn’t dictate what happens in our shop.”

Dick Moss, an agent who was on the panel with Kasten, argued that the penalty was severe. “I think the agent in question will have trouble functioning as an agent in the future,” he said.

- Liz Mullen, Sports Business Journal