Will we be entitled to a lockout on July 1, 2023? The question deserves to be asked since we know that the owners and the players’ union are not at all on the same wavelength.
Even if the NBA has never been in better financial shape, it is rumored that the majority of owners are pushing to put in place a “hard cap”. That is to say a “salary cap” strict to prevent franchises like the Clippers or the Warriors from spending lavishly to play for the title, to the detriment of much less wealthy franchises, which do not have the means to exceed the “salary cap” and pay tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars “luxury tax”.
The collective agreement in force runs until the 2023/24 season, but the two parties have the possibility of leaving it, jointly on December 15, to initial a new agreement over several seasons. But they can also decide, to get out of it, unilaterally, and that would mean that the agreement would end on July 1, 2023. In which case, we would end up with an NBA at a standstill, like in 1995, 1998 or 2011 again.
It is to avoid reaching this point that the two parties have decided to postpone this deadline of December 15. Which clearly means that there is a risk of rupture between the two parties. According to ESPN, the two camps will meet to set a new date, which could be in February. Probably around the All-Star Game since it is during the break that discussions can intensify and that agreements can be found.
– salary cap : this is the payroll defined by the NBA. For the next season, it is announced at 125 million dollars, but could be even higher. NBA franchises have the ability to override it when extending their own players or through “exceptions.”
– luxury tax : in the NBA, the salary cap is not strict, and the NBA authorizes the richest franchises to exceed the threshold set with a tolerance margin of approximately 20%. In this case, next year, the franchises would normally have been able to spend up to $139 million. Then, for every dollar spent above this cap, franchises must pay the “luxury tax” to the NBA. A kind of tax that can be very expensive, and candidates for the title usually pay tens of millions of dollars each year. A sum then paid back to the franchises, good students, who did not pay the “luxury tax”.
