NBA Players Association has new leadership and a renewed emphasis to undo the last CBA

LAS VEGAS — All offseason, NBA teams have waged battles with the league’s apron system, the onerous machine that the league and its players’ union agreed to and instituted as part of the 2023 collective bargaining agreement. It has led to the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and others losing beloved players to avoid the financial and roster-building restrictions that come with high payrolls. It has put franchises in a bind as they worked through a byzantine economic model.

While teams have griped about its impact, the NBA’s players have their issues with it as well. Last weekend in Las Vegas, as the National Basketball Players Association debuted its new executive director, David Kelly, he and NBPA president Fred VanVleet made it clear they are not fans of the second apron or its impact.

“It’s not good for fans. Not good for players. I don’t think the (general managers) love it, although they may not say it on the record. Coaches don’t love it. The only people who really seem to really love it are the owners,” Kelly said in a July 10 interview with The Athletic. “Then, I think it’s gone too far. So whether it’s an unwinding of it, or a softening of the apron, or tweaking it, we can call it whatever we will. But … I do think it’s gone too far.”

As the NBPA charts a path forward under Kelly and VanVleet, who was elected as the NBPA president last July, it has clearly emphasized unwinding the economic system installed just a few years ago.

The current CBA continues to guarantee players between 49 and 51 percent of all basketball-related income, which landed at $11.676 billion for the 2025-26 season. The players earned the maximum this past season; in fact, total player contracts and benefits surpassed that share with a $317 million overage, according to a league memo sent to NBA teams.

Ex-NFL union boss DeMaurice Smith weighs in on the NBA’s Kawhi Leonard saga

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Kelly, however, believes the second apron still causes troubles beyond the cost control it imposes on teams who are now afraid of surpassing the second-apron threshold, set at just under $222 million for next season. Currently, only the Oklahoma City Thunder have a payroll over that figure.

While the league has claimed the apron system has created parity, Kelly believes it forces front offices to take rosters apart when they become too pricey. Players can no longer choose their teams as frequently, with free agency diminished and teams using extensions to keep players and then trade them. That, he believes, is an area of concern for the union even if its constituents get their full share of BRI.

“I think those teams would generate more revenue, would grow the game, would have more fan interest, if they could invest (in their rosters),” he said. “So you’re preventing teams from investing in an investment that would actually generate more revenue for the owners, for the league and for the players. … So 51 percent of what? I think the game would be growing more.”

Kelly said the NBA could still have parity without a second apron, or even one that isn’t as restrictive. He pointed out that five different teams won titles in the five years preceding the 2023 CBA.

“If you look at the points in time when the game really grew, you had some dynasties and then you had some competition,” Kelly said. “New teams that that came up. It was all about competition. You did not have an artificial sort of, like, break or gate on spending. And the game grew.”

The current CBA is set to run through the end of the 2029-30 season but includes an opportunity for either side to opt out a year early. The second apron, and what it has wrought, is “not an unintended consequence,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said this week.

The NBPA, however, has had a makeover since agreeing to this system during the last CBA negotiations. Kelly took over as executive director on July 1 after being appointed in February. The organization has remade itself over the last few years after layoffs and new hires, and opened a training facility in Los Angeles, where the Clippers used to practice. Andre Iguodala, who played in the NBA for 19 years, took over as interim executive director at the start of the 2023-24 season after his predecessor, Tamika Tremaglio, was abruptly removed from the job. Iguodala stayed for more than two and a half years — far longer, Iguodala said last week, than he expected.

Kelly has come in with an assertive posture, and the NBPA seems ready to follow suit. The union has taken a more vocal approach recently, calling out the NBA for its 65-game rule and the Milwaukee Bucks for its handling of Giannis Antetokounmpo.

While Silver has often said the NBA is a partnership with its players, Kelly feels it is the union’s responsibility to push back when appropriate. He said the union will try to engage behind the scenes first but will not hesitate to speak out publicly if it can’t get the fix it is seeking.

“I think you have to be willing to fight,” Kelly said. “Will we look for ways to partner with the league? Yes. Do we need the league? Yes. Does the league need the players? Yes. Does sometimes the league maybe forget that they need the players? Yes. In those instances, we’ll have to fight. But when they’re reminded of the importance of the players to this entire ecosystem, and that as they benefit, we should benefit, and as we benefit, everyone benefits — if we can maintain that sort of relationship, I see no reason why we shouldn’t be able to to be partners.”

“But that’s kind of Kumbaya, and that’s not always going to be the case in those instances. We have to be prepared to fight. You better be prepared to fight.”

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With Victor Wembanyama forgoing a potential $50 million bonus to help the Spurs’ finances, the NBPA is calling for changes to the system.

The fight could come sooner rather than later.

The union has already made numerous suggestions to the NBA over the past year, including a change to the 65-game rule and the apron system ahead of the next CBA. But there are other priorities, too.

Kelly said he wants to see teams and the league make further investments in research and standards to keep players healthy, believing neither the NBA nor the union has done enough so far. He cited the rash of Achilles injuries during the 2024-25 season as an example of something the league should have data on and be able to understand, and eventually prevent. He said the union is even willing to budge on using wearables in game, which is currently prohibited by the CBA, “in the right context.”

“Not wearables for the sake of gambling. Not wearables and data that’s for the sake of exploiting it, monetizing it, necessarily,” he said. “… But wearables for the sake of improving player health so we have better games and better players.”

Although Kelly said it is too early to say if the NBPA will opt out of this CBA and trigger the need for a new one by July 1, 2029, informal talks may begin as soon as next year. The union is already looking forward to it.

“We’re getting ready for the next CBA,” VanVleet said. “Like today.”

NBA Players Association has new leadership and a renewed emphasis to undo the last CBA

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