With Howard Eskin still not quite getting the big deal with Sam Hinkie’s previous fleecing of the Sacramento Kings (which others have called “amazing,” “a heist,” and what Vlade Divac called “the day I should have stopped drinking”) there’s at least one place where he can sit down and listen – HA! – to try to understand.

In a week and a half, Sam Hinkie is speaking at this year’s edition of the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Not just for nerds anymore (should have been their tagline), Sloan this year features Shane Battier, Sue Bird, Cris Collinsworth, and tons of actual nerds. The sold-out conference at MIT will feature panels on building a team around a superstar (with current NBA GMs), the future of ticketing, eSports (so you know the Sixers will be there), a conversation with Nate Silver and Adam Silver, and Hinkie’s own panel: “Mission Impossible: The Art of Negotiation.” Alongside Hinkie will be the Warriors’ GM, a professor who teaches negotiation at Harvard Business School, and the president of WGL Management. Take it away, Sloan:

Like bad beats in poker, bad contracts are more vividly remembered by sports fans than the good ones that propel teams to playoff contention and championships. Unfortunately, everyday fans have little insight into the negotiation process between agents and the general managers, who represent their favorite team. From the agent’s perspective, maximizing the player’s on court earning potential is just one piece of the puzzle as market and team fit seem to matter more than ever before to today’s athletes. Likewise, general managers are always looking to get players at the right price, ensuring that they don’t limit their financial flexibility going forward by overpaying today. This panel will delve into the details of how deals get done.

Hinkie has spoken at the conference before, where this summation for his time as GM was stated well before it ended:

Even Bryan Colangelo himself has previously spoken at Sloan, where he admitted to trying tanking like a teen admitting that he shotgunned a Milwaukee’s Best behind their friend’s step-dad’s garage.

It’s fitting that the panel on how to negotiate starts a full week after the trade deadline, but maybe Bryan can hit up Sam for some quick notes.

[h/t @SeanSinger84]