NBA season will be lost due to lack of fundamental negotation skills

Camp Predicts Loss of NBA Season

Negotiation Expert Predicts Loss of NBA Season
“Eventually cooler heads will prevail.”

Dublin, OH – (Oct 24, 2011) Negotiation coach, Jim Camp, predicts that in the wake of the latest breakdown of the talks between National Basketball Association (NBA) owners and players, the 2011-2012 season of games will be cancelled if they don’t change their mindset.

“Thanks to the conventional collective bargaining process, both sides are now mad at each other feeling forced into a bad position and unable to arrive at an agreement because the other side is not doing what the both parties believe they would do. Surely this proposal will solve this,” as they prepared their BATNA. With this mindset conflict has been created and intensified, not solved,” says Camp.

Based on twenty-five years coaching his system in deals that often involve millions of dollars, Camp, the author of “Start With No” and founder of the Camp Negotiation Institute, says the current impasse is predictable with both sides and the public losing out as the negotiators come to the table “thinking they know how the other side will and should respond to their demands. When they don’t, conflict and emotional stalemate are the result,” says Camp. “Once the season is declared lost and frustrations are lowered as both sides go home, all sides will realize that it was stupid, if not crazy, not to arrive at an agreement,” says Camp. “Emotional calm will set in and cooler heads will prevail, the participants will even become “logical” but under the current circumstances that is not possible.”

The talks ended on Friday, Oct 24, when the two parties could not agree on how to split the league’s $4 billion in revenue. The league reportedly moved its proposal from giving the players 47% of the revenue to 50%, while the players lowered their demand from a 53% demand to share 52.5%

“Despite or because of federal mediation,” says Camp, “the two sides are at an impasse because they are now mad at each other because neither reacted as predicted in preparations.” “Based on neuroscience,” says Camp, “all negotiations are driven by emotion and not by the popular belief that logic and facts are the driving force.That is the failure of bargaining.”

Camp noted that the similar impasse in Congress over the reduction of the national debt has resulted in a failed “grand bargain” and the birth of a “super committee” that has been charged with the responsibility of finding ways to meet this requirement. If they fail, automatic cuts will be instituted. “You can put money on the fact they will not find any agreement even though the current national debt exceeds $14 billion dollars, an amount equal to the entire gross domestic product. It will make logical sense to have a deal but emotionally it will never happen. Each side will think the other side is not logical and they will be right and they won’t know how to influence that.”

“The same dynamics apply to the NBA and the players, both of whom have hired lawyers who are paid by the hour to argue,” said Camp. “When the season is cancelled, both sides will eventually return to the negotiations with the players saying we made a mistake here and the owners telling their lawyers to make a deal. All will suddenly think they are acting logically and they won’t be and neither side will get what they really wanted. It will be called a success but never what it could have been for the all the participants.”