Almost two weeks ago there was was the announcement of a tentative agreement between NBA owners and players for a new collective bargaining agreement. The news was greeted with joy by the two sides and all those who looked forward to seeing NBA games but that agreement was reached by representatives of both sides and it needed to be approved.
This last step was considered by many a formality, so much that a few days ago the NBA already issued the calendar for the season reduced to 66 games starting at Christmas. Now the approval arrived, voted by 25 owners of 30 and 86% of the over 200 players who have voted so at last we can officially say that NBA basketball is back.
Owners and players have approved a ten years agreement with an opt-out clause of after six years. The key change is that players have accepted a reduction in salaries to allow teams to avoid financial problems, especially those operating in smaller markets.
There have been several changes in the rules about contracts and the exact consequences will be evaluated only in the long term because those rules, old and new, are really complicated. Especially the “luxury tax”, which the teams who spend the most pay to the others, is so complex that the exact amount to be paid is determined only after months.
The agreement is inevitably a compromise so behind the satisfaction for saving the season there are voices of dissatisfaction with its terms. Again, the exact impact will be evaluated in the long term.
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Thus at Christmas at last NBA season 2011/2012 is starting. Because almost two months were lost due to the lockout, the season will be a bit compressed. The notorious back-to-backs, when the teams play two games in two consecutive days and sometimes in two different cities, were already a normal part of past seasons. They weren’t liked because the team playing the second game in two days tended to have a lesser performance but it would be impossible to play 82 games between November and April without back-to-backs. With a compressed season, despite cutting the number of games to 66 there are in schedule some back-to-back-to-backs: the teams will occasionally play three games in three days, with predictable consequences on their performance.
It’s clear that the NBA wants to try to have a season as close to normal as possible but was it really necessary to introduce back-to-back-to-backs to play a few more games? We hope at least to avoid injuries resulting from excessive stress accumulated by players.
The last but not least issue that the NBA will face is fans reaction. Given the economic situation, many have remained cool seeing a fight between millionaires and billionaires and some have already declared that they will not watch the games. We just have to wait for Christmas to see if people still like NBA basketball.
