"I'm comfortable with the record we've established, with the results we've gotten and the progress we have made," he said, adding in a second conversation that "there is no daylight" between him and the mayor on education policies.
"They indicated to me in a phone conversation that there may be other options than what was written in that rule," Womack said.
Where music had become a pest, or white noise that didn't drown out negative thoughts, I was so tuned in to the conversation that there wasn't much space for a mental wrangle.
It was clear from snatches of conversation that there were a few in the crowd who wanted revenge on the black community, whom they held responsible for the deaths.
"The N.B.A. concluded in our last phone conversation that there was no need to talk further, because we've reached a stalemate as it relates to some of the systemic changes they'd like to make," said Lamell McMorris, the referees' chief negotiator.
"I've had a conversation that there's a possibility he may not play center field for us this year," Cashman said in a telephone interview, referring to Williams.
