NBA and players’ union agree on CBA

Commissioner David Stern and NBPA executive director Billy Hunter will be on hand for the 5 p.m. (et) announcement at the SBC Center, which comes less than two weeks before the current seven-year agreement was due to expire.

The sides have been attempting to reach compromises on several key issues. The owners want to set a minimum age of 19 for draft-eligible players, shorten the maximum length of long-term contracts from seven years to six and reduce the extent of annual salary increases in those long-term deals.

Meanwhile, the players have asked for a cutback in the so-called escrow tax in which 10 percent of their salaries are withheld if the amount of revenues devoted to players’ salaries exceeds a specified percentage.

In regard to the issue of salary cap, the owners had already offered to increase it from slightly more than 48 percent of revenues to 51 percent. That would raise the amount each team can spend on player salaries.

The agreement will still need to be approved by the league’s Board of Governors and the members of the players’ union at next week’s meeting in Las Vegas.