Union Agrees To New Deal Nba Players Will Vote For The Deal Or For Dissolving Union
The NBA and its players union reached agreement on a labor deal Tuesday night, but it must still be ratified by a divided union membership.
In announcing the deal, commissioner David Stern said passage would allow the 1995-96 season to start on time.
The proposal eliminates the luxury tax, a sticking point with players in an earlier agreement, and includes a $1 million exception for teams over the salary cap to sign free agents.
“We’re very happy the NBA met our concerns,” Buck Williams, president of the union, said during a news conference. “We feel very fortunate that we could work out an agreement at five minutes, 10 minutes before midnight.”
A lockout has been in effect since July 1, and the talks were a last effort to get a new deal before the union relinquished its authority as the players’ bargaining agent, a step union leadership said it would take by midnight unless there was an agreement.
Twenty-five players attended the meeting at a midtown hotel, including Utah’s John Stockton, Phoenix’s Danny Manning, Dallas’ Jimmy Jackson and Cleveland’s Mark Price. About a hour and a half after the players went behind closed doors, NBA officials came to the hotel, and Stern arrived a short time later.
The vote on the new deal will be held along with a previously scheduled vote on decertification of the union. Players will either vote for the deal or for dissolving the union, union executive director Simon Gourdine said.
“We know there’s still a lot of work to be done, and there are players who want to know what the deal is,” Gourdine said. “We have to let them know it’s a contract worthy of their support.”
Talks between the sides broke off last week after the league made several counterproposals to the players’ wish to abolish the luxury tax provision.
Before going into the players-only meeting, Gourdine said informal contacts with the league had been “somewhat positive.”
The sides reached an agreement in principle in June, but it was derailed when Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, displeased with
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