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NBA,
Players Union ESPN Reports A 52-game, 13-week season starting Feb. 2.
NEW YORK (AQB)--The NBA and its players union hit a last-second agreement Wednesday morning as the clock was running out on the 1998-99 season. The two sides reached an agreement sometime around 6 a.m. EDT, after an all-night bargaining session, The Associated Press, ESPN and others are reporting. According to The Associated Press, the deal was struck between commissioner David Stern and union head Billy Hunter. The agreement, which ends the NBA's 191-day lockout, came hours before players were scheduled to vote on the league's final offer and one day before the NBA's threatened deadline for a settlement. ESPN is reporting that the NBA will have a 52-game season, beginning Tuesday, Feb. 2. Teams will play on average four games a week, meaning the regular season will last 13 weeks and the playoffs will begin around May 1. Jan. 18 will be the day that NBA teams can begin to sign free agents, ESPN's David Aldridge is reporting. Training camps will not start before Jan. 17. The six-year deal, with an NBA option for a seventh year, still must be put on paper and ratified before the lockout will officially be lifted. The union agreed to accept 55 percent of revenues in the fourth, fifth and sixth years of the agreement, a source close to the talks told The Associated Press. The NBA has an option for a seventh year, and the players would get 57 percent if it is exercised. In the first three years, there is no limit on the percentage of revenues players can receive. Click here to read more specifics about the NBA settlement from ESPN. The owners and players' negotiating committees recommended approving the six-year deal, sources told the Associated Press. The NBA players overwhelmingly ratified the tentative agreement between the league and its players Wednesday afternoon, ESPN reported. Jerome Williams of the Detroit Pistons told ESPN that there were about five "no" votes. The players approved it 179-5 in a ratification vote at the union's law office this afternoon, a union spokesman said. The league and union had been fighting over how to divide an estimated $2 billion in annual revenue. On Tuesday night, Stern had said chances of a settlement were better than 50-50. ``On a scale of one to 10, I'd make it a five-plus,'' Stern said on CNN. The league's Board of Governors had scheduled a meeting for Thursday, and Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik had said they would recommend canceling the rest of the season if no agreement had been reached. NBA players had begun arriving in New York for a vote on whether to support the position of their negotiating committee, which had recommended that the owners' final offer be rejected. NBA players have the highest average salary in professional sports, about $2.6 million annually, and the median salary is about $1.3 million. NFL players average about $900,000, and Major League Baseball pays an average of $1.45 million. The owners' last proposal had guaranteed that would continue. The union had wanted higher salaries for the so-called lower- and middle-class players. The league wanted a $12.25 million maximum salary for players with at least 10 years' experience, while the union wanted $15 million. The sides had been tens of millions of dollars apart on the percentage of total revenues to be devoted to salaries. The owners' final offer was presented to the union by Stern in Denver 1½ weeks ago. He had been pushing for a player vote ever since, and the union finally agreed to one after the owners' negotiating committee voted 9-0 Monday to reject the union's final offer. The lockout, in effect since July 1, has caused the NBA to miss games because of a labor dispute for the first time in its history. The first three months of the season had been scrapped and players had lost about $500 million in salaries. The Associated Press, ESPN.com, CNN/SI.com and other wire sources contributed to this report.
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