On March 29, 2013, Attorney Larry McGuinness voluntarily withdrew a putative class action lawsuit against the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. The suit had accused the team of wrongfully benching several star players (Tim Duncan, Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker) in a November 29, 2012 game against the defending NBA champion Miami heat. Plaintiffs argued that the move caused the plaintiffs (i.e. the ticket holders to the event) economic damage because they had paid premium prices to attend the proposed star-studded event but were forced to watch the Spurs’ benchwarmers drop a close contest to the Heat. At the very least, McGuinness felt that the league should have warned ticket-holders of the move as soon as the decision was made. NBA Commissioner David Stern ended up slapping the Spurs with a $250,000 fine for the incident.
McGuinness’ suit originally alleged violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act on behalf of the 16,000 fans that attended the game. Both parties had been awaiting a decision on the Spurs’ motion to dismiss, which read: “[A] ticket to a game entitles the purchaser/ticket holder only to a specific seat at a specific event . . . In offering tickets for sale, the seller of a ticket . . . is not guaranteeing either a certain level of performance or that specific players will perform.”
The Heat recently returned the favor to Spurs fans as Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Mario Chalmers all sat out Sunday night’s game in San Antonio. No new lawsuits have been filed in Texas, yet.
Lawyer drops lawsuit against Spurs for resting players against Heat