Returning to the city where his pro basketball career was launched in 1990, Walter Palmer maintains deep convictions that a players union is a vital element for any league craving for legitimacy.
Furthermore, his staunch support of sports unions brought him to Tokyo in mid-April to meet with the fledgling Japan Basketball Players Association, which represents the National Basketball League (the JBL's successor).
Palmer, the second Dartmouth College alum to play in the NBA (Rudy "Roughhouse Rudy" LaRusso, Lakers and Warriors forward, 1959-69 was the first), speaks with authority and expertise. He was a co-founder and driving force behind the formation of SP.IN (aka the German Basketball Players Association), the first union for German pro basketball, in 2005.