After 148 days and plenty of excruciatingly long meetings, the NBA lockout seems to be on the verge of ending. The NBA’s players and owners have reached a “tentative understanding” on a new collective bargaining agreement, which will yield a 66-game season that is expected to begin on December 25.

Now, the National Basketball Players Association must reform in order to vote on the agreement and the Labor Relations Committee must approve of the deal as well. The players are expected to vote in the coming days and the committee has scheduled a conference call for tomorrow. Both sides will have their lawyers look over the potential deal and work out the remaining kinks. Following yesterday’s 15-hour meeting, David Stern and Billy Hunter addressed the media in a joint press conference.

“We’re optimistic,” Stern said. “We expect our Labor Relations Committee to endorse this tentative agreement. We expect a CBA will arise out of this deal.”

“We’ve reached a tentative litigation settlement,” Hunter said. “We’ll turn it over to the lawyers and work out all of the details. I’m confident we can get it done.”

via Alex Kennedy of HOOPSWORLD