The National Basketball Association reached a multi-billion television deal with ESPN and TNT on Monday, which is expected to lead to an NBA salary cap increase.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced on Monday that the league finalized a new nine-year deal with ESPN and TNT, which is reportedly worth around $24 billion or $2.66 billion per season.
The new TV deal is expected to benefit all teams in the league, particularly the players, because reports indicated that that there will be a significant NBA salary cap increase.
According to Ken Berger of CBS Sports, the current $63 million salary could increase to as high as $91.2 million when the new TV deal starts in the 2016-17 NBA season.
The new deal would benefit NBA superstars that are expected to hit free agency in the summer of 2016 like Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James and Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Kevin Durant.
James already put himself in a good position to receive bigger salary after just signing a two-year deal with the Cavaliers to become a free agent again in 2016. According to NBC Sports, James' yearly salary could increase by $8 million once the NBA salary cap increase happens.
However, the huge increase is not yet set in stone as Silver indicated that they will look to "smooth out" the cap increase instead of implementing it immediately in 2016.
"When this deal kicks in in 2016-17, it will lead to a substantial increase that year in the salary cap," Silver said. "There is precedent for smoothing that increase in, something the NFL negotiated with its players association when it then entered into large increases to help teams in the planning process, essentially smoothing that money into the system."
However, the NBA Players Association, led by executive director Michele Roberts, is expected to stand against the plan to smooth out the increase.
In a statement, Roberts said: "Our job will be to ensure that the players receive their fair share of the results of their efforts and that we do everything possible to maintain the growth and popularity of the game."
