NBA Commissioner Daniel Stern, discussing the on-going negotiation between the NBA owners and players’ association, recently pointed out that, “The NFL, which is usually profitable as opposed to the NBA, which isn’t, got [a] double-digit [revenue] reduction from their players.”
Stern is using the recently concluded NFL labor negotiation as a precedent to support the NBA owners’ position. Precedent – what has happened in the past in similar negotiations – is a powerful independent standard for determining what is “fair and reasonable.”
The players can – and I expect will – challenge the validity of this precedent by suggesting the NBA circumstances are sufficiently different from the NFL to warrant a valid comparison.
How can you put precedent power to work? Research all applicable precedents and evaluate whether and how to use each in your negotiation.