Following up on your comments to Mark Followill and Brian Dameris on our podcast, where you said the Mavericks facility won’t open until testing is widely available: What specifically does widely available mean to you and what’s the importance of it? Mark Cuban: I’ll use the White House protocol. The way the White House protects the president and vice president is the way that I want to protect our players and employees, you know? We’ll just try to just copy what they do as a means of knowing when the time is right. As of now, for all we know, for all we’ve been informed, anyways, they’re testing everybody. And they test their top people on a daily basis. And so they have access to the best science, the best information, and so it just makes sense to me that we just copy them.
Following up on your comments to Mark Followill and Bri…
April 1, 2023 | 3:30 am EDT Update
NBA will implement a second salary cap apron for highest-spending teams
The NBA is curbing the ability of the highest-spending teams, such as the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers, to continue running up salary and luxury tax spending while still maintaining mechanisms to add talent to the roster. The NBA is implementing a second salary cap apron — $17.5 million over the tax line — and those teams will no longer have access to the taxpayer mid-level in free agency. Those changes will be eased into the salary cap over a period of years. Under these changes, Golden State’s Donte DiVincenzo, Milwaukee’s Joe Ingles, Boston’s Danilo Gallinari and former Clippers guard John Wall wouldn’t have been able to sign with those teams last summer.
The NBA and NBPA have agreed to increase the upper limits on extensions from a 120% increase on a current deal to 140%, which could have a significant impact on the futures of stars like Celtics forward Jaylen Brown. Under the current rules, Brown would be allowed to sign a four-year extension worth $165 million. With the extension rules increased to 140%, however, Brown — who is set to earn $31.8 million in the 2023-24 season, the final year of his current contract — would be able to reach his four-year maximum of $189 million, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
There is an increase in two-way contract slots, jumping from two to three per team. Two-way contracts were created in the 2017 collective bargaining agreement as a vehicle for teams to develop younger players. It has been seen as a success, as it’s become a route to players earning long-term homes in the league, and in several cases becoming major contributors.
The in-season tournament will arrive beginning in the 2023-24 season. The event will include pool-play games baked into the regular-season schedule starting in November — with eight teams advancing to a single-elimination tournament in December. The Final Four will be held at a neutral site, with Las Vegas prominent in the discussion, sources said. Each in-season tournament game would count toward regular-season standings; the two finalists would ultimately play 83 regular-season games. Winning players and coaches will earn additional prize money.
Shams Charania: Prize money for the championship team of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament beginning in 2023-24 season: $500,000 per player, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
Marijuana will no longer be prohibited under the new CBA
Shams Charania: Sources: NBA players will no longer be prohibited for marijuana under the new seven-year Collective Bargaining Agreement. It’s been removed from the anti-drug testing program, a process that began during 2019-20 season.
NBA Communications: The following has just been released:
Tamika Tremaglio: Since day one, the goal of the NBPA in this negotiation was to protect our players, enrich their lives on and off the court, and establish a framework that recognizes our players as true partners with the governors in both the NBA and the business world at large!
