“When you think about it,” John Thompson used to say, “the question’s insulting. Because it assumes that I was the first one to have the intelligence or the ability to do the job.” Thus Thompson frequently answered the question ‘what does it feel like to be the first African-American Coach to win a Division I national championship in basketball?’

Pioneers know, more than anyone else, the connective tissue of their achievements -- the people that mentored them and looked out for them that no one else knows or remembers, the sheer blind luck that left them in position to capitalize on their abilities -- and, most importantly, the people that could have been first, maybe should have been, but weren’t for one reason or another. So Michele Roberts knows she should probably feel some kind of way about being the first woman, and the first African-American woman at that, to be the head of a men’s major pro sports union in the United States.

But there’s been way too much to do since she got the job as Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association in 2014, replacing Billy Hunter -- who’d spent the last few months on the job in an imbroglio involving the NBPA’s former president, Derek Fisher; the two accused each other in public and in court of various misdeeds before and after the 2011 lockout. Roberts, a former trial lawyer with both public and private practice experience who was considered one of the best in her field, had to get up to speed quickly to determine the various and sometimes contradictory desires of a 450-member union comprised of superstars and D-League callups; one-and-done college sensations and vets looking for one last payday. And she then had to engage the NBA in negotiations on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before either the players or the owners voted to opt out of the existing agreement in the summer of 2017 -- which would have almost certainly resulted in an owner lockout of the players, something that’s happened four times since 1995.

Fortunately, for both Roberts and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the huge national TV rights increases agreed to by ABC/ESPN and Turner Sports (which runs NBA.com) that would go into Basketball Related Income -- $24 billion through 2024 -- made the distribution of wealth go much, much smoother this time. The union and the league agreed to a new seven-year CBA last December that ensures labor peace through 2024.

Collectively, players will get billions more in larger salaries and larger percentages for exceptions, while teams will (at least theoretically) be more able to keep their own superstars, so that reruns of OKC’s loss of Kevin Durant can be avoided by other teams in the future. The schedule will also be eased -- an earlier start to the regular season, that should eliminate all but a handful of stretches of having to play four games in five nights, and many (not all) back-to-back games.

But Roberts has also been overseeing the move of the players’ union offices from tony digs in Harlem to a massive high-rise in midtown Manhattan, complete with a full-length (not quite 94 feet) court, weight training space, cold and hot tubs, whirlpools, meeting rooms for players and teams, quiet space for guys who want to get away from it all for a while, and other amenities.

“When we were in Harlem, we’d see maybe six or seven players a year,” Roberts says. Already, 12 teams have come by to visit and work out since the building opened late last year. There are still many issues that the union is discussing with the league -- most notably, what to do with the proprietary information teams get about players through the use of wearables and other emerging technologies, and the union’s desire to take over its clients’ marketing over from the league. But Roberts has achieved labor peace without losing any money or dates. It’s the resume of a pioneer, whether you like the terminology or not

This interview was part of a feature on Roberts that will run on the next edition of Beyond the Paint on NBATV on Feb. 24. It has been edited for length.

Me: You spent months getting a feel for what the players wanted. What did they say was their priority?

Michele Roberts: It sort of varied. Obviously -- I’m not going to be shy about it -- given how much money was coming into the game, there was clearly an interest in making sure that the players’ share was going to be fair. That was probably paramount. But the guys are interested in the same sort of working conditions issues that other people are -- so, length of season, back to backs, all the wear and tear on the body, even the quality of their training staffs, days off -- the kinds of things that just about anybody would be interested in. So we addressed all of it. We obviously addressed the economic issues, but the CBA, if you have a chance -- and, it’s long -- if you have an opportunity to review it, the variety of topics we addressed is really quite stunning.

Me: You can become paralyzed by reading about the history of anything, I’m sure. Both from the people who had your job previously, and who had Adam’s job previously -- did you want to know as much as possible about the past negotiations, or was less knowledge more valuable in this case?

MR: Sort of both. I mean, I had to do an autopsy of the prior CBAs to understand, historically, what went on. And I did have the benefit of some staff that had been there. Having said that, I did not want to repeat the same wars. We actually approached the CBA in a way that was different from prior negotiations. Based on my conversations with people and a review of the affidavits, it was pretty clear that the negotiations typically began by talking about BRI -- the split. And needless to say, that went on indefinitely and indefinitely, and clearly they did not come to any consensus, and we were locked out. We decided that rather than only walk, we would walk and chew gum. We knew all the issues we wanted to discuss. We invited the league to do the same. And we put everything on the table and we began to talk about everything. So rather than have everybody in the room for every issue, we had subcommittees. And the committees were working simultaneous. So while we were having discussions about BRI, we were also having discussions about work conditions. We were also having discussions about wearables. We were also having discussions about length of season. All that stuff could happen at the same time, and we were finding consensus. And when you start realizing that you really can agree, when you get to the really tough stuff, it’s a lot easier to find that you can probably agree there, too.

Me: Given your background, I figure you’ve negotiated hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of times. I wonder how you take the measure of opposing counsel -- in this case, Adam Silver?

MR: Even when I was a public defender and trying to get a deal for my client charged with burglary, I understood that the prosecutor had an interest, and he had an agenda, and he had a constituency that he had to be mindful of. It’s the same thing with any negotiation -- you need to understand what the person on the other side of the V needs to get done, can’t do, probably will. And as long as that person on the other side of the V is a) relatively intelligent, b) honest, which I think is probably key, and c) is equally willing to appreciate what you have to be mindful of, then you can get things done. I found Adam to be honest, and that was, as I said, the key to me. I suggested, as we got to know each other, I made a promise to him that I would never lie to him, and if I did, he probably would know that I was lying to him. And I asked him to do the same. We were able to operate from a position of respect, and I think our teams did the same. Just don’t hide anything, don’t alter the truth, tell me what you really think, and I’ll tell you what I really think, and let’s see if we can find some common ground. They had a good team. They’re pretty sharp over there. And we’re pretty good, too.