In 1954, Celtics star point guard Bob Cousy and friend and unofficial agent Joe Sharry[2] canvassed long-tenured players on each of the league's teams by mail, including the fledgling NBA's stars Paul Arizin and Dolph Schayes, and received support from the majority to approach the NBA President Maurice Podoloff.

[6] The primary sticking point within negotiations was the shares of Basketball Related income, player movement and the soft salary cap.

[7] 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.

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.

[12] 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.

[14] 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.

[16] The players took multiple actions in the NBA Bubble: writing phrases or names on the back of their jerseys to support the Black Lives Matter movement, boycotting games in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, and taking a knee during the national anthem to protest against racial inequality and police brutality.

† First vice president The NBPA organizes Sportscaster U., an annual broadcasting training camp at Syracuse University in association with the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.