Photo Credit: The Players’ Tribune
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) are two of the most important organizations in professional basketball. Together, they negotiate the terms of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that governs the relationship between players and teams in the NBA.
The CBA is a critical document that outlines everything from player salaries to rules governing player conduct on and off the court. It is negotiated every few years and can have a significant impact on the league’s overall landscape.
While we’ve previously had lockouts when working on a new CBA, most recently in 2011, things have gone pretty smoothly this year, as the NBA and NBPA have agreed on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement.
Some of the biggest changes in the new CBA includes the NBA curbing the ability of the highest-spending teams, to continue running up salary and luxury tax spending while still maintaining mechanisms to add talent to the roster, per ESPN. The NBA is implementing a second salary cap apron — $17.5 million over the tax line — and those teams will no longer have access to the taxpayer mid-level in free agency.
Another big change is regarding post season awards and All-NBA Teams. With the new CBA in place, players have to play a minimum of 65 games to be eligible for an award or team.
Additionally, the NBA and NBPA agreed on the in-season tournament, that could already premier in the 2023-24 season. The tournament would include games as part of the regular season schedule in pool play and an eight-team, single-elimination tournament in December, with only the tournament championship game adding one game to two teams’ schedules, while the remaining teams would continue to play 82 regular season games.
