NBA, players strike deal on new labor agreement

The NBA and its players struck a deal early Saturday on a new seven-year-long collective bargaining agreement. 

“The NBA and National Basketball Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, pending ratification by players and team governors,” the league said in a release.

Specific details would be made available once a term sheet is finalized.

The deal will begin this summer and will last at least through the 2028-29 season. 

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While either side can opt out at that point, if they don’t the deal will last through 2030. 

An in-season tournament that Commissioner Adam Silver has wanted for years will become a reality, The Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the negotiations.

Players will have to appear in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for the top individual awards such as Most Valuable Player. 

Furthermore, a new second luxury tax level is part of the agreement, keeping teams from using their midlevel exception to sign players. 

Silver had said last week that he was hopeful a deal would be struck by the weekend and said that, on th league’s behalf, there had been no consideration of pushing the opt-out date back for a third time.

The current agreement took effect on July 1, 2017. 

It came with a mutual option for either the NBA or the NBPA to opt out after six seasons. 

While the sides initially had a Dec. 15 deadline to announce the intention to exercise the opt-out, it was pushed back to February and then again to Friday. 

The league and the union reportedly continued talking after the midnight opt-out deadline passed.

However, the agreement does not mark the end of the process.

The owners will have to vote on what the negotiators have hammered out, and the players will have to vote to approve the deal as well. 

Neither the NBA nor the NBPA immediately replied to FOX Business Digital’s request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.