Report: Court rejects NBPA's appeal in case against Billy Hunter

The ghost of Billy Hunter continues to haunt the NBA Players' Association.

Hunter, who served as executive director of the NBPA for 18 years, is suing his former employer for wrongful termination. He is seeking at least $10.5 million in owed salary and benefits from the time of his dismissal in 2013.

The NBPA moved to dismiss Hunter's lawsuit in 2014. When that motion was rejected, the union appealed, but a California appeals court rejected the appeal on Monday, reports Ken Berger of CBS Sports.

Instead, the two sides will settle the matter in a lower court.

"Hunter's disagreement with the NBPA is not protected activity," the appeals court wrote, in a ruling obtained by CBS Sports. "It is a garden-variety contract dispute."

As Berger explains, the NBPA is trying to get out from under Hunter's contract by claiming it to be invalid:

The NBPA has argued that the 2010 extension of Hunter's employment contract - approved by the union's executive committee and signed by (former union president Derek) Fisher - was not valid or enforceable since the board of 30 player representatives never ratified it. That issue will now go back to LA Superior Court, where Hunter received a favorable ruling on that issue in January 2014.

The NBPA removed Hunter after an internal investigation found that he did not act in the best interests of the NBPA as executive director.

That investigation also spawned a separate federal criminal investigation into Hunter, which in turn led to Joseph Lombardo pleading guilty to trying to defraud the union for $3 million. Lombardo's firm, Prim Capital Corp., managed roughly $250 million on behalf of the NBPA.

The connection between Hunter and Lombardo was Hunter's son, Todd, who served as vice president of Prim Capital. Neither Hunter was charged in connection to the fraud.