NBA

The NBA Lockout Is Finally (Tentatively) Over

That was a pretty short nuclear winter: at about 3 a.m. this morning, NBA players and owners finally agreed to a (tentative) deal to end the ongoing NBA lockout. The NBA has set a (tentative) 66-game season to begin with a triple-header on Christmas, with training camps and free agency set to begin on December 9th. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com broke the news of a tentative agreement of a settlement to litigation.

Unfortunately, neither side is offering much in the way of details on just what the agreement contains, since it involves a litigation settlement, but one thing we do know from the NYT report above is that the deal features a 50-50 revenue split, with the possibility of players taking home either 49 or 51 percent, depending on league revenues. We also know that, according to the NYT, “No one on the players’ side praised the agreement.” Considering that under the previous deal, players got 57 percent of revenue, that’s understandable.

And while the tentative deal is undeniably good news, there’s still work to be done. From the NYT:

Officials on both sides must still negotiate myriad so-called B-list issues, including drug testing, the age limit and use of the Development League, and the entire collective bargaining agreement must be formally constructed.

Sounds daunting, but it’s a hell of a lot less daunting than not having a deal in place. Plus: you think players and owners really would have held this press conference to announce they had a deal and a plan to start the season if they didn’t think the remaining issues would get worked out? Pulling the rug out from under everyone now, it seems to us, would risk a fan exodus the likes of which the league’s never seen.

And so it looks like the NBA is back. The owners are sure happy. The players are at least happy to get back to playing basketball, if not exactly with the terms of the deal. Workers who depend on NBA basketball being played to help make a living are happy. And fans are happy. Maybe they’re not through the roof – some residual anger from the lockout remains – but they’re happy.

As for when we’ll next go through this whole dog and pony show, the best guess of SB Nation’s Tom Ziller* is 2018. Not terribly far from now, but hey, it’s a ways off – easy to ignore with NBA basketball finally on the horizon. After months of contentious talks leading seemingly nowhere, months of hearing about lawyers and negotiations and Manhattan hotels and terms of labor agreements (all of which was important, mind you) instead of basketball, the focus is finally ready to be…back on basketball. It was a long time coming, but for NBA fans everywhere, November 26, 2011 is a good day.

And hey, 66 games is better than 50.

*Ziller deserves a shoutout here – his consistent, righteous anger was one of the few things making the lockout tolerable. A whole lot of others who would have rather been talking about actual basketball this whole time also deserve a mention.

Getty photo, by Patrick McDermott, via