The 2011 NBA lockout appears to have reached a conclusion.
NBA Commissioner David Stern and former National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter held a joint press conference early Saturday morning to announce a tentative litigation settlement that would pave the way for the end of the lockout.
The lockout began on July 1 and resulted in the cancellation of the first six weeks of the season.
The abbreviated 2011-12 NBA season would begin on December 25, with each team playing 66 regular season games.
The new collective bargaining agreement would last for ten years, with mutual opt out after the sixth year.
Considering that the league opted out of the 1995 CBA at its earliest opportunity and declined to use its option to extend the 2005 CBA an additional season, it seems likely the NBA will have more labor-management strife within in the next decade.
Before the owners can lift the lockout, the players must dismiss their lawsuit against the league. Then, the players must then vote to reclaim interest in the NBPA, the NBA must vote to recognize the union, and the deal must be ratified (Michael McCann, NBA TV).
In addition, the 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” (New York Times, 11/26). As of Saturday morning’s announcement, “the deal had not been shared with crucial committees on each side” (NYT).
Keep in mind it is not unprecedented for a deal in principle to fall apart. 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.
If the NBA lockout is indeed over, it will rank as the second-longest in league history behind the 1998-99 lockout. The league has had four work stoppages in history, all owner-instituted lockouts.
(NBA/player joint press conference transcript from NBA.com; additional information from AP via NBA.com)
