Executive Director

Taking the helm in 1996, Billy Hunter is the Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), the union for current professional basketball players in the National Basketball Association (NBA). His principal duty is to enhance the financial, educational and emotional well being of the 430 basketball players employed by the NBA. Mr. Hunter continues to align his efforts with the NBPA’s mission of ensuring that the rights of NBA players are protected and that every conceivable measure is taken to assist players in maximizing their opportunities and achieving their goals, both on and off the court.

Under his leadership, NBA players have utilized their collective bargaining power to challenge how the NBA is run and the method in which the money it generates is distributed. Serving as the chief negotiator during the high-profile negotiations that culminated in the 1999 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NBA and its players, the agreement resulted in assuring that NBA players would maintain their status as the best compensated professional athletes in team sports worldwide.

Mr. Hunter also has been widely credited for helping forge the solidarity that carried NBA players through the management-imposed lockout, which delayed the start of the 1998-1999 NBA season by more than three months. The NBA-imposed lockout is one of the most significant challenges that the union has confronted during Mr. Hunter’s tenure, including the highly charged and publicized Latrell Sprewell matter, the closely watched arbitration over the rights of players to be paid under guaranteed contracts during a management-imposed work stoppage, as well as numerous other disputes involving players’ rights, personally and professionally.

In order to maintain the organization’s status as the preeminent representative of professional basketball players, in 1998 Mr. Hunter formed the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), the first major sports union in this country to represent female athletes, which he has headed since its inception. In May 2003, the WNBPA signed a new collective five-year collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA, which increased players’ salaries and established free agency for the first time ever in women’s professional sports.

Mr. Hunter has placed an emphasis on increasing player services delivered by the union to its membership, educating players about the business of professional basketball and preparing players for life after their careers in the NBA. Under his direction, the NBPA introduced the NBPA Top 100 Camp, which was created and continues to exist to assist the top 100 high school student-athletes in the development of their individual and life skills; launched the Annual NBPA/Feed The Children Annual Holiday Food Giveaway; spearheaded the “Feeding One Million” initiative, which included the distribution of 11 million pounds of rice in Kenya; and conducts summer basketball clinics worldwide, among numerous other global community outreach projects.

Arriving at the NBPA well prepared for the high visibility role as head of a renowned sports union, Mr. Hunter’s diverse background includes a stint as a professional football player with the NFL’s Washington Redskins and Miami Dolphins, and as the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California at San Francisco.

Mr. Hunter graduated from Syracuse University, where he was captain of the football team. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Howard University Law School in 1969 and an LLM (Master of Law) from Boalt Hall Law School at the University of California-Berkeley in 1970. Mr. Hunter served several years as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office, and as the Chief-Assistant in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, where he supervised the prosecution of all felony and misdemeanor cases.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Mr. Hunter to the position of U.S. Attorney, on the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Allan Cranston.  During his tenure as US Attorney, he supervised the investigation and prosecution of members of Jim Jones’ People’s Temple, the Hell’s Angels and the Church of Hakeem. He was selected by the U.S. Attorney General to advise President Carter on the pardon of Patricia Hearst. From 1984 until his appointment with the NBPA, he managed his own law firm specializing in municipal finance, entertainment law, white-collar criminal defense, and other high-profile civil litigation. His clients included City of San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, MC Hammer, Deion Sanders, Ricky Henderson, Pebbles, Dick Griffey, Solar Records, De Passe Entertainment, The Luniz, RJ Reynolds-Nabisco, Phillip Morris and others.

A member of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees, Mr. Hunter is also a consultant to the China Sports Industry, Inc., which operates the exclusive China Sports Network and manages the marketing and promotion of professional sports in the People’s Republic of China. He has been active in local and national politics, serving several years as the Past-President of the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners, wherein he represented on trade missions throughout Southeast Asia and Europe over a period of 11 years. In 1990, he was a candidate for the U.S. Congress.

Maintaining residences in New York City and Oakland, he and his wife, Janice, have three children.