NBA, NBPA Agree on New CBA: Latest Details, Comments, Reaction

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association have been engaged in intense negotiations regarding a new collective bargaining agreement for months, and the two sides put the finishing touches on the new accord on Dec. 14. 

The Undefeated's Marc J. Spears and The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the NBA and NBPA agreed in principle to a new seven-year CBA. According to Wojnarowski, the deal includes a mutual opt-out clause in 2022. 

The NBA announced Friday that the CBA has been officially ratified:

Sports Illustrated's Jeremy Woo provided a snapshot of the joint press release announcing the tentative agreement: 

Wojnarowski wrote that both the owners and players have to go through the process of ratifying the new CBA, but he classified those actions as a formality. On Dec. 14, Jon Krawczynski and Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press reported the NBA owners unanimously ratified the agreement.

NBA TV broke down the news shortly before the announcement was made: 

Citing sources, Wojnarowski reported the NBA will shorten the preseason and start the regular season a week earlier to help space out games and eliminate the number of back-to-backs teams play. 

He also reported that the economic tenets that guided the last CBA, including luxury-tax rules and the Basketball Related Income split that comes in around 50-50, will not change. 

Sources also told Wojnarowski that the league's one-and-done rule regarding draft declarations will remain in place, although it's not certain to stay that way through the life of the new agreement. 

Additionally, NBA.com's David Aldridge reported the value of veteran minimum, rookie-scale, mid-level exception and biannual exception contracts will all increase in value. Wojnarowski cited sources who said the average NBA salary is now estimated to clock in around $8.5 million. 

The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor compared that figure to those in the NFL and MLB: 

There were also two other points of emphasis on the contractual front. 

The first, according to Wojnarowski, will allow teams to offer five-year extensions instead of four-year extensions to players who are already under contract. 

The second financial tweak will see the league's 36-and-over rule amended. Players previously could not sign five-year maximum contracts if their 36th birthday occurred within the lifespan of a contract, but the age limit has now been bumped up to 38 years old, per Wojnarowski. 

The previous CBA was a 10-year agreement struck in 2011 following a lockout that dragged into late November, but it included opt-out clauses for both sides that could be exercised as early as Dec. 15 of this year.

And while talks between the league and NBPA had reportedly been moving at a brisk pace in advance of the 2016-17 season, they appeared to stall a bit over the weekend when Carmelo Anthony told ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne he was skeptical a deal would get done by the opt-out date. 

According to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, the main holdup revolved around "control over licensing and player likenesses." In that regard, Stein noted NBA players sought similar control to the NFL Players Association—which controls player likenesses and licensing agreements. 

Zillgitt also explained that the process was bound to slow down once lawyers for both sides hunkered down and started examining the 400-plus-page agreement on a line-by-line basis.  

But now that the final wrinkles have been ironed out and labor peace has been ensured for the foreseeable future, the league, players association and fans can all breathe a sigh of relief and redirect their attention to the court for what has been an electric regular season thus far.