The NBA Union filed two Anti-Trust lawsuits Tuesday and have begun to disband their union in preparation for an ugly court battle

MINNEAPOLIS — The players of the NBA are taking steps that they feel will end this nasty 138 day lockout and restore basketball to the masses. That step is a nasty one, as it involves filing an anti-trust lawsuit that will end peaceful negotiations between the two sides involved and take it to the Federal Courts.

The players announced today that they have filed suit against the NBA for breach of contract and all the other nasty stuff involved with the lockout.

The first suit has been filed in Minneapolis, the same place the NFL went to during their lockout to fight it out. Another suit is expected to be filed in California.

Plaintiffs in the Minnesota case include Minnesota Timberwolves players Anthony Tolliver and rookie Derrick Williams along with Pistons guard and one-time Bull Ben Gordon. Free agent forward Carson Butler is also named as a plaintiff. The plaintiffs listed in the California suit include the Knicks Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, the Thunder’s Kevin Durant, Spurs rookie Kawhi Leonard and Free agent Leon Powe.

The lawsuit filed claims that the NBA Lockout “constitutes an illegal group boycott, price-fixing agreement, and/or restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Act” and that the owners’ final offer for a new CBA would have “wiped out the competitive market for most NBA players.”

The NBA and it’s owners have already fired back with a lawsuit of their own, claiming the legality of the lockout. The question now becomes where will the court battle take place. The owners filed their lawsuit earlier today to try and gain a home field advantage of (more…)

This comes as no surprise as the player’s openly rejected the latest offer which they deem ‘insulting’ and have decided to lawyer up and file and anti-trust lawsuit against the owners.

But more on that later. The fact of the matter now is that we officially have no basketball through December 15th and that’s not a good thing. It certainly doesn’t bode well for a season at all and even if there is one we all have to get used to the fact it will be very much abbreviated.

The players are not, however, going to file for injunction. The NFLPA tried this and it worked for a short time before being overruled. Players attorney David Boies said today that the players would not have a good case if they went ahead and filed for injunction. Because the lockout, as he puts it, “grew out of prior collective bargaining discussions” it would be difficult to get a preliminary injunction.

David Stern, of course, tried to pin all of this on the union and the player reps.

“If I was a player, I would be wondering what Billy Hunter has just done.” he said yesterday in an interview. ”The union decided in its infinite wisdom that the proposal would not be presented to membership [for a vote]. Obviously [Player's lawyer] Kessler got his way and we are about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA.”

That ‘nuclear winter’ officially extents through December 15th.