So Saturday morning at 3 AM after 15 hours of negotiations the players and owners agreed that the NBA was a mess and they shook hands on the 149th day of the lockout and the second longest in NBA history to what maybe a 10 year deal but will be at least a 6 year deal. The deal includes a 300 million dollar cut in players salaries a season along with shorter contracts and lesser percentage of growth from contract to contract for the players as the players say goodbye to the 7 year/ 100 million dollar contracts and maybe even those 60 - 70 million dollar contracts over a 5 or 6 season length. On the owners side the wealthier owners will be hit with bigger penalties for going over the NBA fixable cap while the players and owners will split the 4 billion in revenue 50/50 and if the league turns around and the teams as a whole start making money the players will be able to make 51% but if the league continue in their downward spiral they could receive as little as 49%.
So the players need to reform their union for the 66 game NBA season start on Christmas Day with their traditional triple header which will be the Celtics @ Knicks followed by a rematch of last season's NBA final as reigning NBA champs the Mavericks will host the runners up the Heat and cap off the night Bulls will head to Los Angles to face the Lakers while the rest of the season schedule is TBA at this point.
So it will be a very interesting season as there are so many possibilities in a shortened season like which players will be out of shape going into the season will any team overhaul their roster and if so how will mash together i.e. simply look at the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL or how will new head coaches be able to fit their schemes into the systems the players are used to and how well will it work. Also how many players will be able to focus simply taken care of business instead of being down and frustrated that they have been schooled by the owners and have lost a ton of money in the case of superstars or the opportunity of making a boat load of money if U R a future prime time player. On the other hand will the owners be able to make smart business decisions or will they try and find loop holes in the deal that will make the contracts balloon again like what has happened in the NHL in what was supposed to be a owner friendly deal that is no longer looking like it.
So 10 million dollars off the top of every teams salary cap that is a real win for the owners so now they have to work together to strengthen the league so it is a win-win situation
Tom Mehegan
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