The gruesome NBA lockout is finally behind us.
After 149 days and more recently, 15 hours of talks, we finally have a new deal in place that would allow the NBA season to start on Christmas. The NBA players and owners met early friday and continued to meet until three in the morning, when they announced that they had agreed to the framework of a deal. It still needs to be approved and voted on by both sides, but multiple sources say that the deal will pass through, allowing the season to start on December 25th.
The season is scheduled to be 66 games, with the playoffs and finals pushed a week or two back. The new collective bargaining agreement also needs to be ratified by the players and owners side before the season can start. Thirty days is needed for ratification of the new CBA, a truncated free-agency period as well as shortened training camps. Pre-season games are still possible, but very few will be played if any. The opening day games will reportedly be headlined with the Dallas Mavericks receiving their championship rings and facing the Miami Heat right after. Other games to be played on Christmas are Bulls vs. Lakers and Knicks vs. Celtics.
The new deal emerged when owners had decided to reel back on a few of their system issues as well as BRI. The split will be a band of 49-51 in favor of the players, with the possibility of receiving 51 percent of revenue if the league experiences robust growth. Also under the new CBA, teams above the salary cap can offer four-year mid-level contracts to free agents each season. Previously, owners asked for teams to be limited to offering a four-year deal for one year, then three-year deal the next, then four, then three and so on. A new $2.5 million cap exception will be available to teams that go over the salary cap to sign free agents. They will be able to use the new exception instead of being limited to only filling out their rosters with players on minimum contracts. Also, if the situation persists, players will also be eligible to sign four-year extensions with their current teams before being immediately traded elsewhere.
There are still B-list issues to hammer out such as league disciplinary action, drug rule, age limit and etc, but that's expected to take little time. It looks like everything will fall into place and the NBA fans will get what they wanted for Christmas - NBA Basketball.
Sources:
Yahoo! sports NBA
Faizan Qurashi - I've written for many websites including Bleacherreport.com and run my own blog/website - http://www.conqueryourbeing.com
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