Labor Harmony in the NBA (for at least 6 years)

A new CBA for the NBA

Well, I didn't think they would do it, but the National Basketball Association and its players union have come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement...less than two weeks before the old agreement was to expire and a lockout would have been put into place.

The most interesting thing to come out of the new CBA is the raising of the age limit for entering the NBA draft from 18 to 19...which means, starting in '06, the days of high school players hoping to jump to the pros trying to become the next Lebron, Kobe and T-Mac will be history.

The folks who have to actually be upset about this agreement are over at the National Hockey League. The NBA's labor squabbles had taken some of the focus off of hockey's problems. I'm sure Gary Bettman was hoping that pro hoops would go into a nice long lockout so he could say, "See? We're not the only ones with problems here." Sorry, Gary...