Leaders of N.B.A. Players Union in Power Struggle Seth Wenig/Associated Press Derek Fisher, left, the union's president, and Billy Hunter, the executive director, are at odds. Five months after settling a damaging lockout, the N.B.A. players union is facing a more existential threat: an internal power struggle that has thrown the association into chaos. Derek Fisher, the elected president of the National Basketball Players Association, is demanding a far-ranging audit of its finances, staffing and business practices - a move that is viewed as an assault on Billy Hunter, the union's longtime executive director. The audit was rejected by the eight other players on the union's executive committee, who in turn have asked Fisher to resign. Fisher is standing firm, leaving a vast rift that is consuming the union's attention just as the N.B.A. is wrapping up a surprisingly successful regular season after the 149-day lockout. "I think the relationship has suffered seriously, suffered a severe injury," Hunter, referring to himself and Fisher, said in an interview. And the question is whether or not we've suffered irreparable damage. And it may very well be that that's the case. "I'm sure he doesn't trust me," Hunter continued, adding, "I don't want to be in a situation where I got to look over my back every five minutes." The remarks were Hunter's first since reports of union infighting surfaced last week, starting with a Yahoo Sports article that revealed Fisher's push for a so-called business review. Fisher declined to comment for this article. He has been largely silent, other than issuing a statement in which he rejected the call for his resignation. Fisher, a 16-year veteran and five-time N.B.A. champion with the Los Angeles Lakers who is now with the Oklahoma City Thunder, has been the union president since 2006. Hunter has been the union's executive director since 1996. In an hourlong interview Monday night at the union's Harlem offices, Hunter was by turns relaxed, defiant, feisty and defensive. He alternately welcomed the audit and dismissed the need for it. He denied any role in the board's vote of no-confidence in Fisher ("I had nothing to do with that"). Hunter also defended himself against charges of nepotism, stemming from the union's employment of his daughter and daughter-in-law, and of two outside firms that employ his son and another daughter. All of the hirings were vetted and approved by the executive committee, he said. "Let me say this to you: My children are highly credentialed," Hunter said. In many instances, they're being paid at or below the market. Fisher has never raised the nepotism charge publicly and has generally remained mum on his motives for the audit. But Maurice Evans, a union vice president, provided some insight last week when he referred to nepotism and "misappropriation of funds" as issues that the committee had addressed with Hunter in response to Fisher's concerns. "Billy answered those questions to our satisfaction," Evans told reporters in Washington. Those remarks triggered a flurry of articles detailing the employment of Hunter's children. ¶ Robyn Hunter, his daughter, is the union's director of player benefits. ¶ Megan Inaba, his daughter-in-law, is the union's director of special events and partnerships and a lawyer who was involved in the labor talks. ¶ Todd Hunter, who is married to Inaba, is a principal at Prim Capital, a Cleveland-based firm that provides financial-planning seminars for N.B.A. players. ¶ Alexis Hunter, another daughter, is special counsel at Steptoe & Johnson, a Washington law firm that handled the union's unfair-labor-practice charge against the N.B.A. last year. She was among the lawyers who worked on the case. "There's nothing illegal," Hunter said, "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. Hunter explained in detail the qualifications of each relative and how each one came to be employed by the union. Prim - the firm that employs Todd Hunter - has been working with the union since the early 1990s and was originally retained by Charles Grantham, the union's previous executive director. Todd Hunter has worked for Prim for 10 years, and has worked on the union account for the last four, Billy Hunter said. He said that Inaba joined the union's staff in 2000 - six years before she married his son. Robyn, who holds an M.B.A. from Syracuse, worked for the Dallas Mavericks before joining the union staff in 2008. At Steptoe & Johnson, Alexis works for a partner, James Hibey, who has served as an outside counsel to the union, both with Steptoe and a previous firm, Howrey, where Alexis also worked.