A “nuclear winter” for the NBA was avoided after players and owners reached a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement, ending the lockout after a 149-day stalemate.
Just 12 days after NBA Commissioner David Stern used the term to describe the NBA’s potential fate, he sat next to Union Executive Director Billy Hunter to announce the deal.
The deal calls for the start of the season on Christmas Day, and to run through April 26, roughly one week later than a typical NBA season.
“We want to play basketball,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said following the announcement.
After a secret meeting earlier this week, the sides met for more than 15 hours Friday, working to try to save the season. This handshake deal, however, still must be ratified by both owners and players.
“All I feel right now is ‘finally,’” Dwyane Wade told The Associated Press.
Details on the agreement began to emerge over the following days, including the agreed split of revenue, one of the key issues of the lockout.
Players will reportedly receive 51.2 percent of all basketball-related income, down from 57 percent a year ago. After losing more than $300 million each of the past three seasons under the previous agreement, the league entered negotiations looking for a fundamental reset of the NBA’s economic system—and got it. In addition, players will lose approximately 20 percent of their 2011–12 salaries as a result of the games missed due to the lockout.
Another interesting topic of the new agreement is the new amnesty clause—one that could affect the Blazers’ roster going forward.
One player can be waived prior to the start of any season (only one player can be amnestied during the agreement, and contracts signed under the new collective bargaining agreement are not eligible). The salary of the waived player will not count toward the salary cap or luxury tax. Teams with cap room can submit competing offers to acquire an amnestied player (at a reduced rate) before he hits free agency and can sign with any team.
Exhibit A for this clause would be Blazers guard Brandon Roy.
Roy is owed about $68 million over the next four years after the max-contract deal he signed last year. But after a series of setbacks following knee surgery, Roy is not the same player he once was, physically. And with the likely scenario of several back-to-back games this season, coupled with the Blazers’ already high payroll, it has been reported that owner Paul Allen is considering using the new amnesty clause on Roy before the start of the season.
Other players around the league who could fall victim to the amnesty clause are Wizards forward Rashard Lewis (owed $43.8 million over the next two seasons) and Cavaliers guard Baron Davis.
With the 66-game schedule announced, the league posted an outline of what the schedule would look like on its Twitter page Sunday. The last possible day of the NBA Finals would be June 26, two weeks later than the championship series ended last season.
Teams would play 48 games within their conference and 18 outside their conference, meaning that teams will not visit every NBA city this season.
Training camps and free agency will begin Dec. 9, in what will likely result in a flurry of moves across the league similar to what we saw this summer in the NFL.