Closing Argument: Sport Analytics Students Excel at Basketball Negotiation Competition
Students Jackson Hett and Preston Klaus aren’t studying law, but they proved they can negotiate with some of the best law students from around the country.
Sport analytics major Hett ’23 and sport analytics alumnus Klaus ’22, G’23 recently finished second at the Tulane University Pro Basketball Negotiation Competition (TPBNC) in New Orleans, Louisiana. The competition annually attracts competitors from top law schools across the United States and high-profile judges from the NBA.
“I was thrilled to place second overall in the competition,” says Hett, who’s from North Berwick, Maine. “In a field of over 40 teams, my goal was to make the final round. As the event progressed, I did believe that we could win. We gave it our best effort, but came up just short.”
Department of Sport Management alumnus Chris Robinson ’15 created the event while he was a student at Tulane Law School. The competition randomly assigns students to act as an agent or a team to represent an active NBA player who is eligible for free agency in the summer.
Both sides negotiated, seeking to come to a legal contract under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. The competitors were judged on Negotiation Ability/Strategy, Basketball/NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement Knowledge and Strength of the Deal.
“We were told this year’s negotiations were the most competitive and that we were just a few votes shy of winning it all,” says Klaus, a Palm City, Florida, native who graduated with a degree in sport analytics last year and is now studying finance at Syracuse. “Even in defeat, we knew we made a positive impression and exceeded expectations.”
In the first two rounds, Hett and Klaus faced off against law students from Loyola University Chicago/Chicago-Kent College of Law and University of California (UC), Berkeley. After negotiating against the University of Massachusetts, Syracuse’s Hett and Klaus were one of four teams to reach the final round, where they negotiated against third-year law students from Tulane in front of 32 NBA executives.
In the final negotiation, Hett and Klaus placed second by two votes. It was the highest finish by a non-law school team in the competition’s history, and they were the youngest team in the event this year.
“The department is very proud of Jackson and Preston for not only taking the chance to enter this top-notch competition, knowing it was stacked with law students and graduate students, but to then finish second is unbelievable,” says Sport Analytics Director Rodney Paul. “It truly shows how talented they are and how the Falk College’s sport analytics program is making a name for itself around the country in these types of competitions and conferences. Jackson and Preston are destined for success in the sport industry.”
To learn more about their performance at the TPBNC, we asked Hett and Klaus about their passion for sport analytics, their negotiating strategy and what it was like to reach the finals.
