That fiscal reality laid a foundation for bargaining sobriety, according to many who participated in these CBA talks. So too did the styles and priorities of NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts, each overseeing negotiations for the first time in their current positions. They differed from their predecessors, basketball boss David Stern and union chief Billy Hunter, both in personality and in agenda.

Mostly, Silver and Roberts seemed to keep in the forefront the understanding that, with the league’s “pie” grown so extra-extra-large, any squabbling now between the proverbial billionaires and millionaires not only would have been costly, it might have grievously damaged the NBA’s popularity and growth.

Owner provides assist during negotiations

Within that framework for a deal, though, Silver twice went out of his way to commend Jordan for his role as the process chugged on.

“Let me just single out one owner in particular, Michael Jordan,” Silver said after the league’s Board of Governors meetings in October. “[For] the unique perspective he brings to the bargaining table because of his playing career, having been, of course, a superstar player. Now for players to see him in [this] position, it doesn’t mean that if Michael says it, it necessarily means that they accept that as the position they should take. But I think that’s really added a special element unique to this league, to have a superstar player like that owning a team now and being part of these discussions.”

Four nights later in Cleveland, when Silver and Roberts sat in with TNT’s “Inside the NBA” crew on Opening Night, the commissioner again mentioned Jordan as vital to the trust built between what had been natural adversaries.

“He can say, ‘Look, I understand it from your perspective too. In fact, I used to be on the negotiating team for the players,’ ” Silver said. “And the players are looking across the table and saying, ‘I want to be an owner one day myself. Maybe of a team, maybe of a business. And I understand that, as an owner, I want to invest and I want to make a return from that investment.’ ”

Whether the leaders of the union – Paul, executive VP LeBron James, VP Carmelo Anthony or others – still want to “Be Like Mike” on the court or off, they at least saw a face on the other side of the table to whom they could relate. Just as so many of them are playing in his sneakers, they knew he had walked in theirs.

“The imagery of negotiations between players and owners,” Jones said, “is where you envision players on one side, owners on the other, both jockeying for position, both not wanting to flinch, both wanting to put their strongest face forward. Tone and rhetoric is a huge part of that. Mike is able to defuse that. He understands the passion that players have. He understands that language and he’s able to digest it and relay it to the owners. And he’s also able to relay the owners’ sentiments and viewpoints.

“That makes a very trying and taxing situation a lot more manageable and bearable.”

Michael Jordan took many hits from players for his stance during 2011 negotiations.

Lessons learned from 2011 negotiations….

That wasn’t so in 1998, when the owners-player’s relationship was at its most fractious. At an October session in New York that grew increasingly tense, Jordan was one of more than 100 players who listened as venerable Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin talked of his financial woes in keeping that franchise afloat.

In front of Stern, the players, team executives and staff from both sides, Jordan interrupted the league’s senior owner. “If you can’t make a profit, you should sell your team,” the Chicago Bulls’ legend said.

Five years ago, having recently taken over in Charlotte, Jordan aligned himself with businessmen such as Phoenix’s Robert Sarver, Cleveland’s Dan Gilbert and Portland’s Paul Allen in squeezing the players hard. Defending his turf as owner of a smaller-revenue team, Jordan said after a deal was struck, delaying the start of the season until Christmas: “I'm not anti-player. As a businessman, I want everybody to be happy.”

Well, everybody wasn’t, notably players who suddenly considered Jordan to be a turncoat. NBA social media was in its relative infancy back then, but it didn’t stop some from criticizing Jordan via Twitter:

-- Nick Young, then with Washington: “I'm not wearing Jordans no more. Can’t believe what I just seen and heard from MJ. Elvis Done Left The Building.”

-- Paul George, Indiana: “Damn MJ. That’s how you feel?”

-- Klay Thompson, Golden State: “You think the 1996 MJ would pull this? Straight hypocrite bro."

…. applied to this round of bargaining

Compare that to some of the comments coming from both sides of the table this time, from those willing to be quoted as well as some requesting anonymity.

“We each have our own way of communicating in negotiations. But Michael is a little different,” said Glen Taylor, Minnesota Timberwolves owner and chairman of the Board of Governors. “He can talk to the players in particular from both sides of an issue. He’ll say, ‘I know as a player I looked at it this way. Now as an owner, I look at it this way. And this is why …’ I think it’s very helpful.

“I see the players – not that they say so much, but I can read their expressions and their faces – do really tune in and listen to him and what he has to say. He also speaks in a manner, not emotional, not loud, but in a very comforting voice that I think comes across as very honest. It’s important that he doesn’t gloat or anything like that. That as an owner you say, ‘This is the type of investment it is’ and how it would affect your club in the future.”

Atlanta Hawks wing Kyle Korver, a member of the union’s committee, said of Jordan: “He's helped create and generate conversations that in previous [negotiations] were really hard to come by. There was, at times, a lot of frustration, a lot of anger, on both sides, and everybody trying to hold onto what is ours. One of the reasons why this negotiation has gone so much better is because there has been so much more communication. And to be able to do that you've got to have people who know both sides. And Michael's been really involved, he's really added to the process."