The NBA owners and players reached a tentative agreement early Saturday morning to essentially end the 149 day lockout. Although many people proclaimed that the players offered the most concessions, the men in the front office also sacrificed lot to reach a new CBA, writes ESPN’s Ric Bucher
The owners and players were quite often bickering over the Basketball Related Income split in the new CBA, but at the end of the day, the players got the better end. In a memo written by Billy Hunter, he stated that the players would be receiving 51.2% of the BRI for the 2011-12 season. On top of that, the players have also won several key system issues.
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The sign-and-trade dilemma was a major sticking point, and small market teams wanted to prevent players from heading to other teams with large paychecks. Nevertheless, the players still have a chance to execute sign in trades for the first two years of the CBA. That means, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard can pull the same move as LeBron James did in 2010.
In the remaining eight years of the CBA, teams can still conduct sign-and-trades but they will come with restrictions.
The owners also gave concessions when it comes to how much money they receive from tax-paying owners. Those franchises that did not spend over the salary cap will split 50% of the money with the league office. In the previous CBA, the non-tax-paying teams split 100% of the money.
