Just In Time

Whew..it seems as though King James snuck in the NBA at just the right time.  Because of the new terms set by the NBA and National Basketball Players Association, LeBron would not have been eligible for the Cavs thus deferring to Akron U or OSU for a year. 

The new collective bargaining agreement includes a lot of upper management details such as luxury tax and escrow withholdings.  But for the rest of us, the agreement means:

1) minimum age for entering the draft will be 19 (plus one year removed from high school for those 5 year high school seniors who are 19 yrs old)
2) 14-player rosters
3) players in their first two seasons in the league may be placed on teams in the NBA Development League for skills development (a good thing for Neil Yanke)
4) players will be subject to 4 random drug tests per season (sorry Portland) and penalties for use of performance-enhancing drugs will be increased
5) an increase in the salary cap
6) maximum length of player contracts will be reduced to 6 years from 7 (damn)
7) maximum annual increases in salaries will be reduced from 12½ to 10½ percent for teams resigning their own players (from 10% to 8% for teams signing free agents - think Redd long term...)

So thank goodness for not only Cleveland, but the NBA that LeBron made it in on time. 

On another LBJ note, this weekend in Akron LeBron is holding the first ever "King for Kids" Bike-a-thon.  On the site you will notice this event includes other "celebrity" guests, but I was informed these guests will be none other than Iverson, D-Wade, Carmello, Charlie 'Akron' Frye, Braylon 'the healthy receiver' Edwards and other Cavs players.  I can't remember the last time that caliber of talent hit up the AK.