The NBA has announced the members of the new Competition Committee, which is scaled down from its previous incarnation.

Previously, the Committee included the general manager from each of the 30 teams. That Committee has been reconstituted as the new General Managers Committee.

"The Board decided that the inclusion of owners and head coaches on the Competition Committee would add valuable perspectives to discussions about our game and how it might be improved," said Joel Litvin, NBA President, League Operations. "At the same time, we will continue to receive input on competition and rules matters from all 30 teams through the General Managers Committee."

The members of the new Competition Committee are owners Dan Gilbert (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Joe Lacob (Golden State); general managers Bryan Colangelo (Toronto Raptors), Mitch Kupchak (L.A. Lakers), Kevin O'Connor (Utah Jazz), and Sam Presti (Oklahoma City); and coaches Rick Carlisle (Dallas Mavericks), Lionel Hollins (Memphis Grizzlies), and Doc Rivers (Boston Celtics). The NBPA will designate one of its members to serve on the Committee.

Union executive director Billy Hunter believes Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak should be eligible for Bird Rights because both players were claimed on waivers.

“Bird and Early Bird rights are among the most valuable rights that players have under the [collective bargaining agreement]," Hunter said. "These rights simply cannot be extinguished in the absence of an affirmative decision by a player to select a team through free agency. We will ask the arbitrator to resolve this dispute on an expedited basis.’’

The union is set for arbitration and has asked for resolution to “affirm the well-established proposition that whenever a player and his contract move from one team to another as a rule of an agreement between two teams, or through a waiver claim, the Bird rights of those players are preserved.’’

The Knicks hope to re-sign Lin and Novak without using their $5 million mid-level exception.

The NBPA is asking an arbitrator to clarify free agent Bird rights in how it impacts players through waivers.

The NBA contends that a team that claims a player through waivers loses Bird rights.

If the union is successful in their argument, the Knicks could sign both Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak without using their $5 million midlevel exception.

The case also impacts J.J. Hickson with the Blazers and Chauncey Billups of the Clippers.

The Knicks could re-sign J.R. Smith using their mid-level if the arbitrator rules in the favor of the union.

“I think we feel very strongly about the case,” said Novak’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, adding, “I don’t think the players association would go through the exercise if they didn’t feel strongly about the merits.”

Mark Cuban said the constraints of the CBA prevented him from re-signing Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, DeShawn Stevenson and Caron Butler.

"I've heard some of the talking headless (media), and all I can tell you is, within the collective bargaining agreement we did everything possible to put the best possible team on the court," he said. "Period. End of story. If someone wants to read it (the CBA) and tell me otherwise, go ahead. But it's like I said, I think we've got a good team. One bounce, one break and we're talking about we had one bad game like we had in Portland last year and we're still up 2-1."

Cuban has not had any second thoughts about letting key contributors sign elsewhere.

"Hell no," Cuban said. "Nope. Not even a millisecond. Because those who are talking otherwise haven't read the CBA and are just talking out their (expletive) without any foundation. But that's what you guys do.

"Given what happened, I think we put together a damn good team. If we had one break, one call, one bounce, we're having a completely different conversation and you're thinking how smart we are instead of how stupid we are."

The NBPA is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan.

Union Executive Director Billy Hunter was notified of the investigation by subpoena for documents on April 25, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. The people were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation.

“The NBPA will cooperate fully with the government’s investigation,” the union statement said.

NBPA President Derek Fisher had called for an independent review of its finances and business practices earlier in April.

Billy Hunter's daughter Robyn Hunter and daughter-in-law Megan Ibana have senior staff positions in the NBPA's New York office. Robyn Hunter earned $86,198 from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011, as director of benefits and concierge services, according to Department of Labor filings.

Inaba, the wife of Todd Hunter, was paid $180,444 from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011. Her responsibilities are coordinating the union's All-Star weekend gala and summer meetings, as well as running the union's Twitter account and handling other social media responsibilities. In her position as director of special events, Inaba has averaged the sixth-highest salary in the NBPA over the past five years: $148,633 per year, according to the filings.

The NBPA's charter does not contain a nepotism policy, sources said.

"There's nothing illegal," Billy Hunter told The New York Times on Monday, "and you're not going to find anything illegal, you or anybody else, if that's what you're looking for. I'm not afraid of that."

According to labor filings, Billy Hunter, his family and the entities that employed them made approximately $3,430,953 from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011.

"The real issue here is whether these potential conflicts were disclosed and the failure of someone who has a fiduciary duty [to union members] to make that disclosure presents a compelling question," Ronald Shechtman, managing partner and chair of Pryor Cashman's Labor and Employment Group, told Yahoo! Sports. "Not only is there a duty to disclose, there is a duty to explain the rationale for routing the business that way so that the fiduciaries [players] can make a judgment that the decision is based on good reason or good cause other than the fact that someone is a relation."

Former NBPA treasurer Pat Garrity had planned to challenge Billy Hunter on business practices during the weekend of the 2009 All-Star Game in Phoenix.

Garrity had warned several players and also Hunter of his intentions and several players avoided the scene.

Hunter had sought a $7 million to $9 million investment from the union into Interstate Net Bank of Cherry Hill, N.J., a financial institution that federal and state banking regulators had slapped with debilitating "cease-and-desist" orders, sources said.

Garrity had discovered that Hunter's son, Todd Hunter, was on the board of directors of Interstate Net Bank.

Todd Hunter is also a vice president for Prim Capital, a company that has a consulting contract with the NBPA. Prim Capital has been paid in excess of $2.5 million since 2006.

"Why didn't you disclose any of this?" Garrity asked Hunter several times at the 2009 meeting, witnesses told Yahoo! Sports.

Garrity confirmed the description of events.

Hunter declined comment to Yahoo! through a union spokesman.

The potential conflicts of interest go beyond what Garrity discovered.

Prim Capital controlled 200,000 shares of ISN Bank stock, according to a 2010 ISN Bank letter to stockholders. In addition to Todd Hunter, another Prim employee, executive Carolyn Kaufman, joined the bank's board of directors of ISN in 2004 and was paid $97,000 and $90,000 in consecutive years, according to a KPMG audit of ISN Bank in January 2008 that Yahoo! Sports obtained.

Chris Paul has emerged as a potential replacement for NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher.

"We can't, by bylaws, say who is going to be the president. That would have to go to a vote," NBPA vice president Mo Evans said. "Chris Paul's name may circulate as one of the players who could fulfill that role, given that he's a younger player (at 26), on the executive committee and played a huge role during the lockout. He has the respect of a lot of players."

The NBPA executive committee voted 8-0 for Fisher’s resignation, according to a statement the committee released late Friday.

Fisher has called for "an independent review of the business practices and finances" of the Players Association.