NEW YORK, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Owners and players ratified a 10-year collective bargaining agreement Thursday, officially ending an NBA lockout that lasted more than five months.
The ratification will allow training camps to open around the league Friday and the free-agent signing period will begin Friday at 2 p.m. EST.
The regular season -- which had been scheduled to begin Nov. 1 and will be shortened from 82 to 66 games -- opens Christmas Day.
An agreement reached Nov. 25 allows either side to opt out after the sixth year of the deal.
Five of the NBA's 30 owners voted against the contract, which calls for a 50-50 split of basketball-related income between players and owners. Players received 57 percent in the previous contract.
Among the highlights of the new deal:
-- A soft salary cap will be in place this season at $58.044 million per team. A club will begin paying a penalty tax once its goes over $70.307 million a year in salaries.
-- Maximum contract lengths will be trimmed from six years to five years when a club re-signs one of its own players. When a player from another club is signed, the maximum length has been reduced from five years to four.
