“Couples have marriage counselors. Israel and Egypt had Jimmy Carter. And now, the NBA has George Cohen,” said Larry Coon in ESPN.com. The veteran mediator has been given the unenviable task of getting professional basketball players and owners to the negotiating table amid a full-scale labor dispute that threatens to gut much of the coming season unless it’s resolved soon. After “nearly four months of vitriol,” the two sides are trying to bridge their differences over revenue sharing, salary caps, and a “luxury tax” that penalizes teams for spending more than a set amount for players. That’s where Cohen comes in, girded with vast experience mediating professional sports but with “very little time.”
“If there is any mediator in the country who can help the sides make significant progress or even reach a deal,” it’s Cohen, said Jeff Zillgitt in USA Today. He has the “experience, knowledge, expertise, and temperament” to win concessions from both sides. A labor attorney and mediator with more than four decades of experience, he was named director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in 2009. “He’s the superstar of our profession,” says sports law expert Roger Abrams. But “he’s not a miracle worker.”
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