Like any good point guard, Tamika Tremaglio knows the importance of assists. The Maryland native spent 26 years consulting, including more than a decade at Deloitte, where she rose to managing principal for the Washington, D.C., area. One of her clients at Deloitte was the National Basketball Players Association, and last year she took over as the executive director of the union. She came on at a big moment: The current collective bargaining agreement, which governs issues such as the revenue split between team owners and players, is set to expire at the end of the 2023–24 season, and the two sides can opt out as soon as this month. The stakes of the negotiations are high, as the league’s current media rights deal expires in 2025, and some experts estimate the next contract could be worth $75 billion.
Numbers don’t intimidate Tremaglio, though. Nor do challenges. She was born shortly after her mother graduated high school, and watching her mom continue her education taught Tremaglio the value of learning (she went on to earn a JD and an MBA) and resiliency. “Having a child at the age of 18 for many people could derail their future, and for [my mom] it just meant that she had to pivot and do things differently,” she recalls. “Seeing her lead by example, those sacrifices, made me always want to make her proud.” Now, she’s hoping to help NBA players do something similar for their kids. “It’s important to me that I’m setting them up for success—and their families for generations to come.”
On her goals for the NBA’s players:
I feel that generational wealth is so important. I want to make sure that when the ball stops bouncing, they have created a legacy. We know that the owners, or governors, are investing, in terms of putting in their capital, and at the end of the day they expect to get a significant return—and franchise values have exploded, right? Well, part of the reason franchise values have exploded is how seriously our players take the game, how seriously they try to grow the game, yet they aren’t receiving any equity from the franchise values that are increasing as a result of their hard work. What it really is about is, How are we sharing the pie?”
On the qualities of a good leader:
“The best leaders live in service to other people. Very few people do things alone, and if you go into it thinking about what’s in it for you, you’re likely not to be very successful. I also think it’s important that you’re authentic. During COVID, the leaders who did the best were the ones who exhibited their authenticity, because that’s what you saw when times were difficult. For somebody to see the inside of my home on a Zoom was not that unique. I [had always] talked about my children, about being a working mother, about being an African-American woman in a corporate environment where you were the minority—so it wasn’t as if I had to change what I was doing during that time.”
On how to negotiate:
“It’s about being prepared and making sure that you’re showing up in the right way. Running scenarios, testing things from a sensitivity perspective—all of that makes a huge difference. And I think it’s really critical to look at things from many vantage points, because then you know what to expect, what the other side is going to say. They tell you about not asking a question that you don’t know the answer to, and that is true, because you really should have run that analysis, tested that scenario, before you go into any negotiation.”
On being a prominent woman of color in the business world:
“I do feel a tremendous amount of pressure, because it is a privilege to be in this role. I also recognize how important it is for people of color or women or young girls to see something they can be—that thing, If you can see it, you can be it. People will say sometimes, ‘What gets you up in the morning? What makes you work all night?’ And for me, it’s the fear of failing. Not of failing for myself, but of failing for other people. So every day I think of the example I’m setting for other people.”
