NBA Seeks to Block Suit

The NBA has asked a federal court to block the former owner of the Vancouver Grizzlies from suing the league for preventing the team’s sale to the owner of the St. Louis Blues.

The league said in papers filed Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that Orca Bay Basketball Limited Partnership must live up to an agreement it signed promising not to sue the league.

The NBA said it went to court because Orca Bay President Stanley B. McCammon last month told NBA Commissioner David Stern in a letter that the league forced Orca Bay to sign that agreement.

In the letter, McCammon also allegedly threatened imminent legal action against the league because Orca Bay believed it had suffered damages when the league refused to let it sell the Grizzlies to Blues’ owner Bill Laurie for $200 million in 1999.

A year later, the club was sold for $160 million to Michael Heisley, who moved the team to Memphis, Tenn.

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