NBA players are certainly paying close attention to the latest labor developments in the NFL.
U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson made a decision Monday to put a temporary end to the NFL lockout, and some think it also was a major victory for the National Basketball Players Association.
According to the CBSSports.com: "In legitimizing the NFL players' move to dissolve their union in the face of the owners' lockout and granting an injunction to end the lockout pending appeal, Nelson dealt a legal blow to both sports leagues in their efforts to use a lockout as a weapon in collective bargaining."
"This is a victory for all professional sports unions," Gabe Feldman, head of the Sports Law Center at Tulane University, told CBSSports.com.
It's a safe bet the NBPA will look at the NFLPA's strategy of decertifying the union before the NBA's current collective bargaining agreement expires July 1.
Several reports suggest the NBA players have already given the OK to decertify, and Pistons players said toward the end of the season that they would be open to that strategy.
"I'm pretty sure there are similarities," Tayshaun Prince said last month. "Obviously I don't know the whole situation as to why what's going on or why they are in the position of decertifying and things like that.
"But I know they are not agreeing on things. It does play a part with all sports -- it's not just an NFL thing. It's all sports, and I'm pretty sure the NBA plays a part as well."
The NBA labor fight is about issues such as the length of contracts and a hard salary cap. Owners also are debating a revenue-sharing plan.
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