und argument. Usually he will just try to be so aggressive that I will just give up because I don’t want the outcome to result in a fight.I responded with “Well, you do have a point, they have come through at the last minute on all of their games, but were talking about the defending World Champion Lakers here. I love the Lakers, and there is no way they can loose!” I started to support what Matt was saying, and I probably shouldn’t have described my feelings, because it did not help in my argument. But, I was trying to negotiate the problem as best I could, with out tempers getting all flared. I continued, “Allen Iverson is a damn good player, and so is Mutombo, but look at Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neil, there just about equally matched. Not to mention Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, and Tyrone Lue. The Sixers have two great players, but I don’t think the rest of the team can compare to the Lakers.” Matt responded with, “Well, you may be right, but I think the Sixers are going to win, so we’ll just have to wait and see who wins!” Matt had made a compromise. I was going to leave it at that, because if I didn’t, we would be banging heads all night.The conflict overall was one that could not be concluded until the NBA finals were over. It was started by both of us, by saying our beliefs on the outcome of the game. We both used good IPC skills, i.e. keeping good eye contact, and not letting our tempers control the whole conversation. Matt is known to be very aggressive in his arguments, but for the most part he was pretty conservative, by letting me state my feelings and beliefs.One week later, the defending World Champion Lakers won the series. It looks like I won after all!...
