NBA Lockout: Players' Union To Request Dismissal Of League's Lawsuit, Says Report

The National Basketball Players Association will file a motion to have the NBA's federal lawsuit seeking to block decertification dismissed, reports CBS Sports' Ken Berger. The motion will come within the next 10 days.

The NBA filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, alleging that players, who have been locked out since July 1, have repeatedly threatened a "sham" decertification in order to bolster their negotiating power. The suit seeks to find that the lockout is legal, that decertification would be disallowed because the players' union doesn't actually intend to break up forever, and that if the National Labor Relations Board does allow the "sham" decertification, that the NBA could then consider all existing player contracts void.

Berger explains what will happen once the union files the motion to dismiss:

After a motion to dismiss in federal court, the next step would be hearings on the matter before U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe. If the union had chosen to simply answer the complaint, the case would've proceeded to discovery and then, trial -- though few legal observers or attorneys on either side believe it will ever get to that point.