Collective agreement: the NBA and the players have reached an agreement!

NBA – The league and the players’ union have validated a new seven-year collective agreement, which starts with the 2023/24 season, thus avoiding a possible “lockout” this summer.

After several postponements, the NBA and the players’ union had until March 31, at 11:59 p.m., to negotiate their next collective agreement. The deadline, however, passed without an agreement, but ESPN explained that the two camps had decided to extend the deadline by a few hours.

It was obviously the sign that the two camps were really very close to an agreement, and that only a few points were missing to finalize to reach a compromise.

Confirmation this morning since ESPN and The Athletic announce that the NBA and the players’ union have validated a new seven-year collective agreement with, as for the last, an option for each side to leave after the sixth year! This new agreement begins in 2023/24.

Very good news since it means that there will be no short-term “lockout”, the two camps being therefore now linked until 2029, at least. It must be said that the NBA, the owners and the players had no interest in putting things on hold, given the financial health of the league.

Very limited recruitment for teams that are too much above the “luxury tax”

According to ESPN, this agreement provides for the establishment of the mid-season tournament, a minimum of 65 games to be eligible for individual trophies, new limitations for the teams that spend the most money in terms of payroll as well as increased possibilities in terms of exchanges and “free agency” for teams that are not affected by the “luxury tax”. One last point that seems particularly interesting…

Thus, the NBA will limit the possibilities of recruiting teams that exceed the “luxury tax” too much. By exceeding the limit of more than 17.5 million dollars, they will no longer be entitled to the “taxpayer mid-level exception”. It was this exception that notably allowed Donte DiVincenzo, Joe Ingles, Danilo Gallinari and John Wall to sign for the Warriors, Bucks, Celtics and Clippers, respectively, last summer.

For the mid-season tournament, pool matches will be added to the schedule in November, before an eight-team knockout tournament in December, with the Final Four likely to be played in Las Vegas.

As also announced, contract extensions will be inflated and it will be possible to extend a player by increasing his salary by 140%, instead of the current 120%. A third “two-way contract” is also arriving in the workforce, thus further increasing the number of players navigating between the NBA and the G-League.

We also know that the NBA and the players ultimately did not return to the “one-and-done” rule.