With handshakes, sighs and weary smiles, the N.B.A. and its players resolved a crippling labor dispute early Saturday, allowing them to reopen their $4-billion-a-year business. A 66-game season would start on Christmas Day, ending the second-longest lockout in league history.
On nearly every count, the deal favors the owners, who all along had sought an overhaul. The players made significant concessions, including a reduction of up to $300 million year in salaries, $3 billion over the life of the agreement.
Based on tentative agreements reached earlier, the deal is expected to be for 10 years, the longest such contract in the history of the National Basketball Association, with an option for either side to terminate it after six years. It includes a significant pay cut for players, along with shorter contracts, smaller raises and a more punitive tax system to rein in the top-spending teams.
The deal was reached about 3 a.m. Saturday, on the 149th day of the lockout, after a final 15-hour bargaining session at the law offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Midtown Manhattan.
“We’ve reached a tentative understanding that is subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations,†the league’s commissioner, David Stern, said, “but we’re optimistic that that will all come to pass, and that the N.B.A. season will begin on Dec. 25, Christmas Day, with a tripleheader.â€
It is expected that training camps and free agency will open simultaneously on Dec. 9, giving teams two weeks to prepare.
The three Dec. 25 games are likely to be the ones that were on the schedule: the Boston Celtics at the Knicks, followed by the Miami Heat at the Dallas Mavericks and the Chicago Bulls at the Los Angeles Lakers. The rest of the schedule will be reconstructed and released in the coming days.
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But much needs to be done before the basketballs hit the court.
Officials on both sides must still negotiate myriad so-called B-list issues, including drug testing, the minimum age and the use of the Development League, and the entire collective bargaining agreement must be formally constructed.
The deal must be ratified by a simple majority of the 30 teams and a simple majority of the 430-plus players. Before that can happen, the parties must dispose of two pending lawsuits, and the players must reconstitute their union, which was dissolved on Nov. 14.
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The deal will feature a 50-50 split of revenues, but with the possibility of the players making as much as 51 percent or as little as 49, depending on whether the league exceeds or falls short of projections. The players had been earning 57 percent.
It is unclear at this point how the final, thorny issues — primarily regarding limits on teams paying the luxury tax, and other restrictions on free agency — were resolved.
Generally, the agreement will curtail sign-and-trade deals, eliminate extend-and-trade deals and place several new limits on teams that pay the luxury tax. In that respect, the owners will have achieved their two broad goals: to reduce spending leaguewide and to promote competitive balance by shrinking the spending gap between the richest and poorest teams.
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But the dialogue never truly ended, even amid the litigation, according to one person involved in the talks. And it was the lateness of the calendar, more than the lawsuit, that drove the parties back together last week.
The final push came with the involvement of a new figure: Jim Quinn, a former outside counsel to the players union, who was hired by Mr. Hunter last week to help restart the talks.
Mr. Quinn essentially replaced Jeffrey Kessler — the current outside counsel — as the lead negotiator for the players when the parties resumed talks on Tuesday. That meeting set the stage for Friday’s critical session.
N.B.A. officials regarded Mr. Kessler as a contentious negotiator who was an impediment to a deal. Mr. Quinn, a partner at the Weil, Gotshal law firm, is highly regarded by all parties and has a strong rapport with league officials, most notably Mr. Stern.
