NBA players move other lawsuit to Minnesota

Six days after filing antitrust lawsuits against the NBA in two different states, players moved both cases to the same court.

A suit filed last week in the Northern District of California, which included Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups among its plaintiffs, was discontinued without prejudice on Monday, according to court records.

Those players and several others were added to the lawsuit filed last week in a Minneapolis court, which included Caron Butler, Ben Gordon, Anthony Tolliver and would-be rookie Derrick Williams as plaintiffs.

Players are accusing the NBA and its teams of conducting an unlawful lockout and price-fixing arrangement.

They argue that they made concessions costing themselves more than $1 billion over a six-year period during negotiations with the NBA, while the league "essentially refused" to negotiate demands it threatened four years ago.

Players said the NBA never backed off warnings from 2007 that it would reduce players' share of basketball-related income, impose a more restrictive salary cap and remove or restrict certain system provisions that protect their rights.

"Throughout this time," the suit alleges, "while the NBA continued to make punitive demands upon the players, continued the lockout, and began canceling preseason and regular season games, the NBPA continued to make additional concessions in search of a reasonable way to reach a new CBA that would be fair to all parties."

The union broke up last week, opening the door for litigation against the NBA much like what happened in the earliest days of the NFL lockout.

The NBA's lockout is more than four months old -- the season was supposed to start November 1 -- and the prospects of a new collective bargaining agreement are looking bleaker with every passing day.