John Kontonis sues Collingwood Basketball Association over year-long ban from son’s games for ‘verbal abuse’ and ‘intimidating conduct’

John Kontonis took the extraordinary step of suing the Collingwood Basketball Association after it banned him from his son’s games for a year.

A suburban basketball dad took his son’s basketball association to the Supreme Court after it imposed a year-long ban on him for “intimidating behaviour” and “verbal abuse” of club officials.

John Kontonis was earlier this year banned from attending his son’s Collingwood Basketball Association games and training sessions.

In a statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court, Mr Kontonis alleged the association’s investigation into him was conducted unfairly and was biased.

The case settled out-of-court and confidentially this week, just weeks before it was listed for hearing.

The extraordinary escalation of a junior sporting league disciplinary dispute to the state’s top court involved Mr Kontonis’s legal team arguing that the association’s treatment of him resulted in “harm to his reputation”, “emotional distress” and led to him being unfairly “excluded from community and family activities, namely supporting his son’s team”.

Mr Kontonis’s statement of claim alleged the ban was “excessive”, and that the association only provided him with vague details of the allegation against him.

John Kontonis took the Collingwood Basketball Association to the Supreme Court, challenging a year-long ban on him attending his son's games. Picture: Supplied/Linkedin

He also claimed the association refused to tell him who unnamed “witnesses” to his alleged misbehaviour were.

Mr Kontonis further claimed the dispute with his son’s coach began to escalate after he and other parents wrote to the association to complain about their kids not getting enough game time.

Mr Kontonis believes his son was benched for even longer during the team’s following game, in retaliation for the complaint.

Mr Kontonis’s case was that he “spoke with” the coach and assistant coach after that game, before leaving the stadium.

Outside, he had a “brief interaction” with the coach and the assistant coach’s husband.

A complaint to the league alleged Mr Kontonis had engaged in “physical confrontation”, “intimidating behaviour” and “verbal abuse” of club officials.

A club committee found the complaint against Mr Kontonis to be substantiated, but in court documents filed as part of his case seeking to overturn the ban, Mr Kontonis alleged the committee failed to investigate the complaint fairly.

Mr Kontonis claims the association “failed to give sufficient details of the grounds upon which disciplinary action was proposed to be taken”, “did not give John any or sufficient opportunity to be heard” and took no action against the assistant coach’s husband, whose conduct Mr Kontonis formally complained about.

Mr Kontonis claimed the ban will compromise his son’s ability to play top-grade junior basketball, and that it is not feasible for him to play for another association.

Both Mr Kontonis and the association were contacted for comment.

It was unclear whether the confidential settlement included overturning the ban on Mr Kontonis attending his son’s games.