This week we have a special edition of Ball Up Top for you all. A day late but certainly not a dollar short. As discussion around a possible work stoppage in the WNBA intensifies, we sought out some guidance on how the dynamics at play and the mechanics of a collective bargaining agreement negotiation.

Tamika Tremaglio is now the Managing Director for the private equity firm Secretariat but was once the Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association. In 2021, she was selected by NBA players to replace Michele Roberts and helped lead the union to a CBA with the league in 2023. Back in 2020, she also served as an advisor to the WNBPA in their 2020 negotiation.

Over the course of this podcast, she discusses the component of trust in negotiations, why the players feel like their leverage is the greatest and, perhaps most interestingly, whether the league should just scrap their existing CBA and start over completely.

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Scroll ahead to hear…

0:00 - Show introduction.

1:15 - Tamika Tremaglio’s background.

3:04 - The art of a labor negotiation.

4:40 - How both sides view their leverage.

6:35 - What happens when trust is broken during a labor negotiation.

10:15 - The uniqueness of the WNBPA’s bargaining position.

13:38 - The idea of risk-reward as it pertains to the WNBA’s business.

17:02 - Where pure business and professional respect intersect in negotiations.

21:30 - The strategy of exercising leverage and why the WNBPA is doing it now.

24:13 - How WNBA revenue share works.

26:35 - How the NBA’s ownership of the W makes labor negotiations unique.

29:14 - Balancing the business with the humanity of a negotiation.

32:13 - How Unrivaled fits into the calculus of the labor fight.

34:54 - Could you rip up the CBA and effectively start over?

39:36 - Is the WNBA’s labor fight a microcosm of a broader labor movement in the United States?

Ball Up Top: A WBB Podcast is brought to you in part by Homefield. Just this past week they revealed the full Can’t Miss Kickoff release schedule with hundreds of new football themed products to get you ready for the fall! Want some women’s hoops merch instead? Check out our No Cap Space WBB collection, a curated page of all of Homefield’s best WBB shirts, jackets, jerseys and more!

Our intro music is made by Denver’s own DLZMKSBTS, the King of Mile Hi-Fi. Check out all his music on Spotify here and on Instagram here.

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