MERRY CHRISTMAS, BITCHES!
Why the hell do these things have to break at the wee-hour of the mornings? Like WTF, can’t a dude get some sleep? Oh well, I guess it’s part of the “job.” At the end of the day I don’t mind reporting this because THE NBA LOCKOUT IS FINALLY OVER.
A tentative agreement has been reached after 16 hours of negotiations and 149 days of being locked out, according to negotiators, and both sides will address the media shortly about the agreement. There are still some quirks that need to be ironed out, but it seems like this agreement will get enough backing even though Yahoo Sports! reports that some players think they have conceded too much to the owners.
“We’re optimistic that the [agreement] will hold and we’ll have ourselves an NBA season,” NBA commissioner David Stern said at a brief news conference held in New York.
Details (as we know of thus far):
- Most likely a 49-51 split for players
- Full Mid-Level exception for all non-tax-paying teams [four years starting at $5 million]
- 10% Maximum of escrow withholdings
- Prevent high spending teams from competing in free agency market as much as they had
- A harsher luxury tax
- Terms will allow smaller market teams to be more competitive
- Compromise on “repeater” tax
- 1% BRI that goes to a POOL for retired players
- Match period on restricted free agents reduced from seven days to three
- Union likely to re-form by the end of next week
For the agreement to take shape players will have to drop their antitrust suits from the courts (players will have to petition law suit to be dismissed), players will have to reclaim interest, and reform the union and have a majority vote of its 430+ players. Owners will also have to vote where a majority (at least 15 of 29 owner votes – NBA owns Hornets) in order to fully pass the agreement. SO IT SEEMS LIKE IT WILL END, BUT WE STILL NEED TO VOTE.
Right now they are aiming at a 66-game season, to begin ON Christmas day, with a triple header scheduled.
Boston Celtics at New York Knicks at 12:00 PM, Miami Heat at Dallas Mavericks at 2:30 PM and the nightcap–Chicago Bulls at LA Lakers 5:00 PM.
Commissioner David Stern has said on many times that the league would need approximately 30 days from an agreement to when games could actually be played – in order to play on Dec. 25. Well guess what, Dec 25th is 30 days from RIGHT NOW… You yanked us around the whole time you SOB’s.
Right now the word is there will be a week-10 days of free agency, followed by teams aiming to open training camps on December 9th. So take two weeks to write the agreement, then a week of free agency and finally a week of training camp and we’re off. Given that time period, that would be about 30 days, so everything SHOULD be in place for that Christmas day tip-off.
Many think that the agreement was reached after the players were seeking $6 billion dollars in damages in the courts if it was found that the lockout was illegal. Could David Stern have been shitting his pants and wanted to eat his chocolate cake in peace.
Well I can finally stop this whole NFL/NBA Lockout watch and just WATCH some real sports. I hated all this legal nonsense so lets play some ball.
