* Mark Cuban wonders why more superstar U.S. teenage basketball players don’t go play professionally in Europe, where players can be as young as 14 and earn lucrative contracts. The NBA, as we know, requires that U.S. players be 19-years-old and one-year removed from high school before they are eligible to play.
Our friend and colleague Peter Carfagna, who teaches sports law at Harvard Law School and has a long and storied career in the industry, has written his third sports law book: Negotiating and Drafting Sports Venue Agreements (West, 2011).
The San Diego Padres are currently looking to hire an Associate General Counsel with 3-5 years of general corporate and transactional legal experience. For more information about the position, check out this post at AboveTheLaw, or view Position # 7921 at the recruiting website Lateral Link.
As several media outlets are reporting, the Boston Red Sox included an unusual provision in their recent contract with left handed pitcher Andrew Miller (pictured), in an apparent, creative attempt to circumvent Major League Baseball’s complex waiver rules. Specifically, the Red Sox signed Miller to a minor league deal for 2011, with a $3 million club option for the 2012 season. However, the contract stipulates that the $3 million option will immediately vest should Miller be claimed on waivers by another team.
The Astros have won their past four arbitration hearings prior to Fridays hearing with Hunter Pence. The Astros defeated Wandy Rodriguez last year and Mark Loretta and Jose Valverde in 2008. In 1997 they won against Darryl Kile. They last lost a hearing against Rick Wilkins in 1996. Both the Wilkins and Kile hearings were decided by arbitrator Morton Mitchnick back before all of the hearings were handled by three arbitrators.
The premier sports business and sports industry event each year is the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which is held in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Recently, Henry Abbott of True Hoop had a terrific piece looking at the on-court challenges a soon-to-be 48-year old Michael Jordan — who is now practicing with the Charlotte Bobcats, which he owns — would have if he sought to return to the NBA, as has some have speculated he might want to do.
