Just over five years after requiring a last-ditch deal just to save the season, the NBA and NBPA have agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement with months to spare.
In a joint statement Wednesday night, the NBA’s owners and players union announced that they have reached agreement on a new CBA pending ratification by both sides. According to ESPN.com, the deal would last six years and potentially a seventh if neither side opts out.
While the current CBA does not technically expire until 2021, either side can opt-out this season. The opt-out deadline was originally 11:59 PM ET on Thursday, but the sides have agreed to move that back to January 13. Had a deal not been reached — or should the current agreement fall through — there is little doubt that one of the sides would opt out, turning June 30 into the deadline for the league’s second lockout in a decade.
It should be noted that the NBA has had a tentative CBA fall apart before. As noted in a previous post on this site: “The NBA and the NBPA reached agreement on a labor deal in June 1995, but a group of players — led by Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, agent David Falk and lawyer Jeffrey Kessler — was so dissatisfied with the deal that they began a push to decertify the union. The deal was scrapped, agreed to again in August, and was not officially signed until July 1996. In the year-long interim, there were two lockouts” (SMW 11/26/11).
Because no games were lost, the 1995-96 conflict remains largely forgotten. However, it does serve as a reminder that tentative deals are not official. As another reminder, Warriors F Draymond Green took to Twitter Wednesday night to make thinly veiled criticisms of the new deal, posting at one point: “Stand for something… or fall for anything.”
Should the proposed CBA be ratified by both sides, it would mark just the second time in more than a quarter-century that the NBA has been able to reach a new agreement without locking out its players.
(Wed. news from ESPN.com 12/14)
