NEW ORLEANS — It was a busy and buzzy weekend for yours truly.
I have indeed taken the Sunday’s Best baton from our, uh, seasoned publisher to deliver this weekend’s around-the-league notebook. Yet I did so while also attending Tulane Law School’s annual Pro Basketball Negotiation Competition.
Bobby Marks@BobbyMarks42
One of the top events every year.
4:52 PM · Feb 20, 2026 · 29.7K Views
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On Saturday, in particular, that meant brunch with five of the league’s brightest young salary cap minds … group recovery from the late dinners and drinks that are a staple of this event in the heart of Louisiana which has become such a consistent launching pad for NBA team strategists.
The 2026 edition featured dozens of groups from law schools around the country. One good example to illustrate what goes on here: Contestants were asked to cosplay as Mark Williams’ agents at Excel Sports in negotiations with a facsimile of the Suns’ front office. They were replicating what will take place for real in the summer when Phoenix’s new center becomes a restricted free agent.
The negotiation summit’s final challenge, meanwhile, pitted three different schools against two students on the Tulane board that organized the competition. Each finalist was charged with representing the Toronto Raptors … in a theoretical quest to convince the Milwaukee Bucks to trade them Giannis Antetokounmpo.
See? Even here, in this land of hypothetical bartering, Antetokounmpo’s future continues to cast a Greek Freak-sized shadow over so much NBA business. So let’s start there with this compilation of the Sunday Best notes …