NBA And NBPA Ink New Collective Bargaining Agreement
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) have announced the signing of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that will include the implementation of an in-season tournament, as well as revisions to the salary cap and other stipulations.
According to ESPN, the new seven-year agreement, which was first reported on Saturday morning (April 1), will begin ahead of the 2023-24 NBA season and is expected to be ratified by league governors and players at a later date. The new CBA was agreed upon after both sides pushed for the midnight deadline to be extended in hopes of opting out of the final year of the previous CBA, which was signed in 2017.
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One of the biggest changes in the new CBA is the new in-season tournament, which had previously been discussed at length among players, league executives, and reporters as a looming possibility. Beginning in November, pool-play games will kick off and be included as part of the regular season, with eight teams moving onto a three-round, single-elimination tournament in December.
The remaining four teams in the tournament will advance to the Final Four, which will take place at a neutral site. The players and coaches on the winning tournament team will receive prize money and the championship game will not count toward the regular season record.
Under the new agreement, players will have to play in at least 65 regular season games to be eligible for regular season honors such as inclusion on an All-NBA team or awards such as Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player, and Defensive Player of the Year. The NBPA scored a big win for players with team and league licensing revenue being added to Basketball Related Income (BRI) pool shared with owners, which is projected to amount to $160 million in the first year the new CBA kicks in.
One aspect of the new CBA that will have widespread ramification is an additional salary cap being added, which will result in the loss of “several key team building mechanisms” if triggered. In addition to the normal luxury tax, once a team is more than $17.5 million over the salary cap, it will lose its rights to the taxpayer mid-level exception, the option of using cash in trades, trading future first-round picks, the ability to acquire players in the buyout market and other limitations.
Find more details on the NBA and NBPA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement here.
