Report: NBA, NBPA Reportedly Agree to 7-Year CBA, Includes In-Season Tournament, More

Ahead of Friday's opt-out deadline, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association reportedly agreed to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the agreement is for seven years and includes a mutual opt-out after the sixth year.

Additional terms include an in-season tournament and a 65-game minimum to be considered for postseason awards.

Per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, financial changes in the new CBA include a second tax apron that will eliminate a team's mid-level exception when they hit the threshold, a 20 percent increase in veteran extension limits and a third two-way contract via cap exception.

Prize money for the team that wins the in-season tournament will average as $500,000 per player on the roster, per Charania.

Another notable change is players will no longer be prohibited from using marijuana.

The league stopped conducting random tests for marijuana in March 2020 when the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and extended the policy for the 2021-22 campaign.

Marijuana did remain on the banned substance list under the previous collective bargaining agreement, but testing was only done with probable cause.

One key point discussed between the NBA and NBPA that isn't part of the new agreement was lowering the minimum age to enter the league. Wojnarowski reported on Friday those talks were dropped, "clearing the way for the 'one-and-done' era to continue" into the future.

According to Wojnarowski, neither side felt strongly enough about lowering the age minimum from 19 to 18 to make it a "significant bargaining chip" in negotiations.

Details about the in-season tournament will likely be made available when the CBA is ratified. Charania previously reported a planned format that included cup games through November, with the top eight teams in the standings advancing to a single-elimination final in December.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has previously expressed optimism about the possibility of adding an in-season tournament to the schedule.

"I think we were moving closer to it," Silver told reporters in February 2022. "I feel we've had productive conversations with the Players Association, whose approval, of course, would be required to change the format. And my sense is there's a fair amount of interest."

Per Wojnarowski, Tim Bontemps and Bobby Marks, the Final Four of the in-season tournament will be held at a neutral site, with Las Vegas considered a "prominent" possibility.

The new CBA, which will start with the 2023-24 season, ensures labor peace in the NBA through at least 2028-29, when either side can use the opt-out after the sixth year.

The most recent work stoppage in the NBA was the 2011 lockout following the expiration of the previous collective bargaining agreement. The lockout lasted five months and resulted in the regular-season schedule being reduced from 82 games to 66 games.