(IMAGE SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons)
BY CHRISTIAN BRYANT
Finally, NBA fans can get exactly what they want for Christmas -- regular season games. The NBA and its players have agreed on a tentative deal that puts the season’s first tip-off on Christmas day. Here’s NBA TV with the report:
“The NBA owners and players have apparently reached the framework for a deal that would end the NBA lockout. That announcement was made shortly after 3 a.m. after about 15 hours of discussions on a settlement to the lawsuit filed by the players against the league. Technically not a labor negotiation but a lawsuit settlement...”
But NBA Comissioner David Sterns’ predicted “nuclear winter” without basketball hasn’t thawed just yet. A few more steps must be taken to solidify the deal. CNN gives the details:
“...A lot has to happen between now and Christmas day. First of all, the players have to re-certify as a union. Secondly, they’ve got to get this tentative deal official, which means they actually have to write the deal. Then, a fast frenzy of free agency will begin... Then they’re going to open training camp around December 9, and then the tip-off to the season...”
NBA owners will draft a new collective bargaining agreement hoping to make the NBA a more competitive league. Forbes.com writes,
“Aside from a pay cut for players, the new agreement allows for shorter contracts, smaller raises and a more punitive tax system to reign in the top-spending teams... Low-revenue teams that have been struggling... will be able to more easily compete...”
Still, a Salt Lake Tribune writer is unsatisfied with how long it took for the two parties to come to an agreement.
“The only sad aspect... is that reaching an agreement never should have taken this long. There’s no reason the season could not have started in late October as scheduled, no need for the talks to have become so exhausting and allowed fans to become disinterested or even bitter toward pro basketball.”
A blogger for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that nobody won and agrees that the league now has to fight to regain attention.
“Players lost paychecks. Owners, at least those who make money, lost revenue. The NBA … suffered an unnecessary shot to its image. All of the ushers, peanut vendors, parking attendants and business owners near NBA arenas who lost a month’s worth of revenue are out of luck... It’s nonsensical to declare winners and losers. Everybody lost.”
But not everybody is miffed about the tentative deal. L.A. Clipper Blake Griffin.
“This must be how the guys in Space Jam felt when MJ gave them their powers back through that old basketball.”
And Kevin Durant from the Oklahoma City Thunder adds,
“If this is true I am Bouta go wake my mom and grandma up and put on a suit and thunder hat and cry! Please be true #nbaback”
While negotiations have been tense, a writer for CBSSports.com predicts the relationship between owners and players will only get better from here.
“...Fan support will come back around. And bad blood between owners and players will subside... When money is the thing in the middle, things tend to get nasty. Both sides understand that and will move on.”
 |  |  |  |
