NBA, players reach tentative agreement

Across the NBA, preparations are hastily being made for a season that almost was lost.

A tentative 10-year agreement between the NBA and the players was reached at shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday after a 15-hour bargaining session between commissioner David Stern and NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter.

The framework of the deal includes a virtual 50-50 split of an estimated $4 billion in revenue, compared with 57 percent in the previous pact. That translates into $300 million less for the players to share in the first year of the agreement, which covers almost all of what the league said its teams lost last season.

Players could get as much as 51 percent if revenues exceed expectations, but their share also could be cut to 49 percent if revenues fall short of projections.

Once details are ironed out, the season will open on Dec. 25 with the Knicks hosting the Celtics at Madison Square Garden.

"We are very pleased that we have come this far,'' Stern said. "There is a lot of work to be done in a lot of places, with a lot of committees and player groups and the like, but we are optimistic that it will hold and we will have ourselves an NBA season.''

The agreement signaled the end of the NBA lockout, though it will not officially end until a deal is finalized. Neither Stern nor Hunter believes the ancillary issues will be a major stumbling block to finishing the process in time to begin training camps Dec. 9 and start a regular season on Christmas Day.

The salary-cap system will remain a soft cap, meaning teams can go over the cap but will be penalized for doing so with a more punitive luxury tax than before. The owners made several concessions to allow more player movement in free agency. Teams may sign a player to a full mid-level exception contract (five years, $5 million per) as long as the contract keeps the team less than $4 million over the luxury-tax threshold. Beyond $4 million, the mid-level exception is three years for $3 million. Sign-and-trades also are universally permitted.

"I think that there is still a lot of, shall we say, other issues to finish because we have the broadest outline,'' Stern said, "but I think both sides are optimistic that this will yield a full- blown series of agreements.''

In the previous CBA, the players received 57 percent of league revenue, but to acknowledge heavy losses by a majority of the league's teams, the players initially were ready to reduce their share to a 53-47 split. The owners, however, were looking for a more dramatic change, with the owners getting 53 percent of the revenue on top of the implementation of a hard salary cap to promote competitive balance among the 30 NBA teams.

The sides took four months to move on their respective stances, as the players reduced their take to 52.5 percent to 51 percent and finally to a 50-50 concept. The owners moved off the hard cap and agreed to maintain the soft cap from the previous agreement, with added restrictions to curb payroll spending.

The owners also have discussed a revenue-sharing program that is not a part of this agreement but will be more robust than in previous years. High-revenue, big-market teams such as the Knicks and Lakers will kick in as much as $50 million each per season to assist the low-income small-market teams.

Before the deal can be completed, there are some small hurdles. There is a union to re-form, lawsuits to be withdrawn and workouts for players to organize before they are allowed back into team facilities.

After the exhausting negotiation that began Friday and went into Saturday morning, the sides went their separate ways later Saturday to get their respective houses in order.

The NBA held a conference call with the league's labor relations committee in the afternoon to go over the framework of the deal. The committee is expected to unanimously recommend that the deal go before the Board of Governors for a vote.

The league already has begun the process of putting together a regular-season schedule, using most of the dates already in place from the original 2011-12 schedule. The league will extend the regular season into late April and the NBA Finals will start a week later than usual. The NBA All-Star Game, hosted by the Orlando Magic, will take place as scheduled in February.

On the players' side, there is a lot more work to be done. First, the NBPA has to re-form as a union and the deal has to be ratified by the 420-plus members. The players also are expected to request a voluntary dismissal of the class- action antitrust lawsuit filed last week in Minnesota district court against the NBA and its owners. Hunter and the players' legal team, led by David Boies, began that process Saturday.

"We are going to turn it all over to the lawyers here and let them work out the details and we'll then be able to talk further as that process proceeds,'' Hunter said. "It could be a matter of three days to a week.''

History may prove that after the collective-bargaining process broke down, the move to dissolve the union might have helped push the sides together for an agreement.

"For us, the litigation is just something that has to be dealt with,'' Stern said. "It was not the reason for the settlement. The reason for the settlement is we've got fans; we've got players who would like to play; we've got others who are dependent on us. And it's always been our goal to reach a deal that was fair to both sides and would get us playing as soon as possible. But that took a little time.''

And it was resolved just in time.

The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Knicks, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.

THE DETAILS

SEASON: would start Dec. 25 (Celtics at Knicks) 66-game schedule

TRAINING CAMPS: open Dec. 9

TERM: 10 years, with an opt out for either side after Year 6.

SPLIT OF BASKETBALL RELATED INCOME: The players’ share of the revenue split (an estimated $4 billion this season) will be based on a 49-to-51 percent range depending on the revenue performance. If revenues exceed expectations, the players will make 60.5 percent of the surplus, up to a total of 51 percent of the total revenue. If revenues fall below projections, the players’ share drops to 49 percent.

“SOFT" SALARY CAP SYSTEM: Luxury tax rates begin at $1.50 for every $1 over the tax threshold from zero to $5 million, $1.75 for $5 million to $10 million, $2.50 for $10 million to $15 million and $3.25 for $15 million to $20 million. Teams are charged an additional 50 cents for every $5 million increment after that. If a team is a taxpayer for four out of five-year span, a dollar is added to these rates.

ESCROW: The league will hold 10 percent of player salaries in an escrow each season to ensure the revenue split.

CONTRACTS: Players with Bird Rights (exceptions to the cap created to allow teams to re-sign their own players) receive a maximum of 7.5 percent in annual raises. Non-Bird players are maxed at 4.5 percent annual raises. Maximum contracts for veterans are capped at 30 percent of the salary-cap number. A player with five years or less may now also earn a 30 percent maximum contract if he stays with his team and meets one of three criteria: two-time All-NBA selection, two-time All-Star starter as voted by fans or NBA MVP.

TRADES: Teams are permitted to make sign-and-trade deals, but the player no longer retains his Bird Rights in the trade. Same for extend-and-trade deals, plus, a player can not be extended beyond three years.

MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION: Teams may sign a player to a full mid-level exception contract (five years, $5 million per) as long as the contract keeps the team less then $4 million over the luxury tax threshold. Beyond $4 million, the mid-level exception is three years for $3 million.

AMNESTY PROVISION: Teams have a one-time ability to waive one player.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The sides will continue to negotiate ancillary points of the settlement, called "B-list issues," which involve items such as drug testing and the draft eligibility age. Though some will be met with strong debate, none are expected to torpedo a deal at this point.

The league held a conference call on Saturday with its Labor Relations Committee to discuss the new deal. But it will not be put to a formal ratification by the Board of Governors until there is a completed document. Once it is, David Stern said he expected close to a unanimous vote to pass it.

Players have to withdraw the lawsuit in Minnesota, probably tomorrow. And the NBA has to withdraw lawsuit against players in NY district court

The NBA Players Association, which was dissolved as a union last week, needs to declare itself as a union again with the National Labor Relations Board. Once that happens, the settlement turns into a collective-bargaining agreement, which will be presented for a full membership vote. This deal won’t be unanimously accepted and some players may even decline to vote, but Billy Hunter said he expected it will pass by the required simple majority.

Once the agreement is ratified by the owners and the players, the NBA will lift the lockout, which will allow players to use team facilities in preparation for training camp.

The league will release the 66-game schedule, with Christmas as the opening date, and tickets will go on sale. The free-agency signing period also will begin and draft picks can be signed to contracts. The NBA set Dec. 9 as the target date for training camps to open.

TIMELINE OF NEGOTIATIONS

JULY 1 — NBA locks out players after collective-bargaining agreement expires at midnight.

AUG. 1 — NBA files lawsuit in New York district court against NBA Players Association, claiming union is not bargaining in good faith and asking court to rule that lockout is legal.

SEPT. 23 — As talks go nowhere, the NBA announces the postponement of the start of training camp, scheduled for Oct. 4, plus the cancellation of 43 preseason games

OCT. 4 — The remainder of the preseason is canceled.

OCT. 10 — After negotiations hit a stalemate at a Manhattan hotel, NBA commissioner David Stern emerges to announce the cancellation of the first two weeks of the 2011-12 season. It will be the second time that the league has missed regular-season games as a result of a labor battle.

OCT. 18-20 — Federal mediator George Cohen presides over three long days of talks and some progress is made. But talks break down, and Cohen walks away after the third day when owners present a take-it-or-leave-it proposal of a 50-50 split of league revenue.

OCT. 28 — After another round of talks break down, the NBA cancels the regular-season schedule through Nov. 30 and Stern announces an 82-game season is not possible.

NOV. 5 — At the union’s request, Cohen returns and presides over a marathon session of negotiations. It results in a proposal from the NBA that is based on several of Cohen’s suggestions. The players are given three days to accept the deal.

NOV. 9-10 — The sides meet again, as the players ask owners to make a few revisions. The owners then offer a revised proposal that Stern delivers with a promise that if the deal is accepted by the players, a 72-game season would begin Dec. 5.

NOV. 14 — The union holds a meeting with its player representatives to present the proposal, which is rejected. The union then opts to file a disclaimer of interest to dissolve the union and become a trade association, thus ending collective bargaining. Lawyer David Boies is retained to represent the players in antitrust litigation.

NOV. 15 — Two antitrust lawsuits are filed, in Minnesota and Northern California district courts, for the players against the NBA owners. A week later, the complaints are combined into one class-action lawsuit in Minnesota.

NOV. 22-23 — Stern and Billy Hunter, who had represented the players as executive director of the NBA Players Association, engage in private talks to discuss the possibility of a settlement.

NOV. 25 — A formal meeting is scheduled to negotiate a settlement, based on parameters set by the conversations between Stern and Hunter.

NOV. 26 — On the 149th day of the lockout, after meeting for more than 15 hours, the sides reach an agreement in principle to end the lockout just after 3 a.m.