Agreement would have season start on Dec. 25 Christmas Day for NBA players arrived on Nov. 26. For NBA fans, it appears set to arrive on time Dec. 25.
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, NBA owners and players came to a tentative labor agreement after a 149-day lockout that would bring the gift of a 2011-12 NBA season starting with its currently scheduled Christmas Day tripleheader.
After a 15-hour session that started Friday and lasted until 3 a.m. on Saturday, NBA commissioner David Stern and National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter took a seat together at the conference table inside a Manhattan law firm instead of trudging out for separate news conferences full of rhetoric and excuses.
“We expect our labor relations committee to endorse this deal, this tentative agreement, and we expect our Board of Governors, at a meeting we will call after that, to endorse the deal,” Stern told reporters. “And we expect that a collective bargaining agreement will arise out of this deal as well.”
Last week, Stern had predicted a “nuclear winter” without basketball, but both sides were motivated to complete a deal by the need to salvage crucial Christmas Day games and a 66-game season. The schedule has the Wizards slated for a home game on Dec. 26 against New Jersey, but both the date and the opponent could be subject to change.
“I think it was the ability of the parties to decide that it was necessary to compromise and put this thing back together,” Hunter said, “put an end to litigation and everything that entails.”
The nuts and bolts of the deal must still be hammered out by attorneys before the deal itself is approved by both the players and the owners. But details began to emerge Saturday as players tweeted their relief and began to make plans for a season that will begin when training camps and free agency both open on Dec. 9.
The Wizards will be immediately affected by the new deal, which includes an amnesty clause, according to reports, that could mean the end of forward Rashard Lewis’ tenure in Washington. In free agency, the team is expected to pursue a new deal for guard Nick Young, one of four restricted free agents along with Hamady Ndiaye, Larry Owens and Othyus Jeffers. Unrestricted free agent Maurice Evans, who as vice president of the players union was seated at the table in New York on Saturday morning, also remains a target to return to the Wizards.
Wizards rookie Jan Vesely, who was prompted by the labor talks stalemate to return to his native Czech Republic from Los Angeles, was set to meet with his agent, Alexander Raskovic, and have his next moves planned by the end of the weekend, including a return to the U.S.
“See you in DC,” Raskovic said via email.
