Emma Peasley

As the negotiations move forward, Alicia and the other players on the committee had to pay the closest attention to every detail.

This was a game they were only just learning to play.

And with any game, there are lots of techniques.

To us, that sounded a little like a technique the Harvard Law School calls bluffing and puffing.

Their post says these kinds of exaggerated claims and misrepresentations can throw negotiations off track.

Another negotiating strategy it seemed like the players might have encountered, this one is on some other lists of labor negotiating tactics, is what you might call a strategic pause, like a pause in conversation, or in this case, a pause in the whole negotiation.

Next, the league made a move that, to us, sounds kind of like what the Harvard Law School list calls threats and warnings.

For the record, our person on the league side says it was not a threat or warning.

Either way, by now, they were way behind schedule.

And the start of the season was looming.

So in March, both sides agreed to get together in person in New York again.

Alicia packed a bag, thinking it's just for a few days.

This meeting seemed for real because they had blocked off the entire third floor of the Langham Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York.

There was a conference room with a big rectangular table.

And Alicia said the first meeting between the players and the league was very passionate.

That didn't happen.

Instead, for days, they went back and forth with proposals covering not just RevShare, but all the other little details.

Like when the season should start, how many training staff should there be, should the players be provided with cars.

They did make some progress right away with the help of an aptly nicknamed player who was on the negotiation team.

I got real familiar with the charts.