Newfound trust key to new labor deal
Money from $24B TV contract helped, too
Multiple times before NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts met at the negotiating table, they sat down at a table for lunch.
They were get-to-know-each-other meetings, a way to establish trust between management and labor.
Those informal lunches were the start of a process that led to Wednesday’s announcement that the NBA and NBPA reached a tentative agreement on a sevenyear collective bargaining agreement that ensures labor peace through the 2023-24 season.
While the league and union have to hash out a collective bargaining agreement every six or seven years and are on opposite ends on some issues, they are partners in the years in between with the shared goal of growing the game, creating more revenue and sharing a large financial pie.
Relationships matter, and going back to the 2011 lockout, the relationship between the NBA and union was broken, and the union also had damaging internal turmoil.
Then, David Stern was still commissioner, Billy Hunter was in charge of the union and the union met with the league with skepticism and suspicion. It made it difficult to get a deal done, especially when the league wanted a higher percentage of basketball-related income from the players.
When Silver, who had a significant role in the 2011 CBA negotiations, took over as commissioner, he understood the importance of forging a relationship with the union’s next executive director. That turned out to be Roberts, who came to the NBPA from a job as a high-powered Washington, D.C., attorney.
If you remember, Roberts came out in full support of players shortly after she took the job. She said a few things that rankled some owners. There was concern she was ready for a major showdown with the league when it came time to negotiate the next CBA.
She knew what she was doing because she also needed the full support of the players, especially the players executive committee led by President Chris Paul.
But Roberts also knew she needed to work with, and not always against, Silver and the league.
She also knew the issues created by the former NBPA regime.
Silver and Roberts tried to meet at least once a month for lunch, and they maintained a regular dialogue.
At the conclusion of the owners meetings in October 2015 — before any real negotiation began — Silver told reporters, “We are in the process of developing, I would say, a personal relationship, which I would say is the predicate for any constructive negotiation. Certainly it’s important to build trust across the table, not just between me and Michele, but we have a labor relations committee, they have an executive committee plus officers at the players association that we’ll be dealing with.
“We’ve begun that process. We’ve sat across from each other. Michele and I have had regular lunches and other discussions about business matters. So that gives me a sense of optimism.”
Silver wanted to share info and be transparent, including the sharing of financial information and offering personnel resources the league could provide. Those subcommittees worked hard, too.
Without question, the influx of money into the league — due in large part to the league’s nine-year, $24 billion TV deal — helped spur a deal.
But getting to a place where the two sides could reach a deal six months before a lockout was made possible because two people were willing to meet, get to know each other and see what was best for the NBA, its players, its fans and its business partners.