Tamika Tremaglio selected to replace retiring NBPA executive director Michele Roberts

Tamika Tremaglio has been chosen as the new executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, they announced on Wednesday night. She will replace current executive director Michele Roberts, who is retiring. Tremaglio currently works for accounting firm Deloitte as the Managing Principal of the Washington Area. Her experience as President of the WNBA Players Association Foundation as well as consulting the NBPA gave her critical basketball experience that will help ease the transition into this role. 

Roberts has been the NBPA executive director since 2014, and in that time, helped oversee a number of critical labor negotiations. She led the players through negotiations on the 2017 CBA, possible 2016 cap smoothing after a new television deal was signed and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in which both the players and owners had to sacrifice significantly in order to conclude the 2020-21 season. She had previously been a highly successful trial lawyer. 

The executive director position isn’t the only union leadership role in a transitional period. Last month, Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum was voted president of the players association, replacing Chris Paul, who had held the position for eight years. Securing new leadership now was important for the NBPA with two critical points in labor negotiations coming up. The current collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2023-24 season, and the league’s television deal with Disney and Turner expires after the 2024-25 season. Not only will a new CBA need to be negotiated, but there will surely be debate about cap smoothing yet again with a possible 2025 spike looming. 

Tremaglio is retiring from her position at Deloitte to join the NBPA, and her hiring was the first major decision of McCollum’s presidency. Now, the two will attempt to lead the players forward in what could be a precarious set of negotiations over the next several years.