George William Hunter (born November 5, 1942) is an American former executive director of the

National Basketball Players Association The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) is a labor union that represents National Basketball Association (NBA) players. It was founded in 1954, making it the oldest trade union of the four major professional sports leagues in the Uni ...

(NBPA), the players' union of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). He is also a former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a wide receiver in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

and

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

. Hunter played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

as a child, and helped lead his team to the

Little League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the Wor ...

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

. He graduated from Delaware Township High School in Delaware Township (now Cherry Hill), New Jersey, and played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East Conference. The school's mascot is ...

. While a student-athlete at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

, "he helped organize the school's boycott of Southern schools whose stadiums were segregated."Wise, Mike
"The Street Fighter Who Galls the N.B.A."
''New York Times'', August 2, 1998. In the NFL, he had one career reception which went for a

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

. He caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from

Dick Shiner Richard Earl Shiner (born July 18, 1942) is a former professional American football quarterback who played in eleven National Football League (NFL) seasons from 1964 to 1974 for the Washington Redskins, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, New ...

in the fourth quarter of a game on October 10, 1965 at

District of Columbia Stadium Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. It is located about due east of the United States Capitol, U.S. Capit ...

. Following his football career, Hunter attended law school at

UC Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...

and became an attorney. One of the youngest

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

s in history, he was appointed to serve the

Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...

, where he prosecuted high-profile federal defendants including members of

Hells Angels The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporatio ...

and the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

. Hunter was named the executive director of the NBPA in 1996. Hunter was criticized for employing many family members within the NBPA. An external audit initiated by

Derek Fisher Derek Lamar Fisher (born August 9, 1974) is an American professional basketball coach and former player. Fisher played professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 18 seasons, spending the majority of his career with the Los ...

uncovered numerous irregularities, and a select committee of NBA players unanimously ousted Hunter from his position on February 16, 2013, during the

NBA All-Star break The National Basketball Association All-Star Weekend is a weekend festival held every February during the middle of the NBA regular season that consists of a variety of basketball events, exhibitions, and performances culminating in the NBA All-Star ...

. In May 2013, Hunter sued the NBPA, Fisher and Jamie Wior—Fisher's publicist and business partner—seeking compensation and punitive damages. The suit claimed that Fisher had a secret deal with NBA owners during the 2011 NBA lockout. In January 2014, a judge dismissed all of Hunter's claims against Wior and Fisher, and Hunter dropped his subsequent appeal in May. However, the judge also ruled that it was the union's prerogative to fire Hunter, but allowed Hunter's claim that he was still owed $10.5 million to continue.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Billy 1942 births Living people African-American sports executives and administrators American sports executives and administrators American football wide receivers Syracuse Orange football players Miami Dolphins players Washington Redskins players Sports labor leaders Sportspeople from Camden, New Jersey Cherry Hill High School West alumni People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey Players of American football from Camden, New Jersey African-American players of American football UC Berkeley School of Law alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople United States Attorneys for the Northern District of California African-American trade unionists