For the first time since the lockout began on July 1, NBA players will be welcomed back to their team facilities, league spokesman Tim Frank said Tuesday. The league sent a memo to clubs announcing the move, plus giving teams permission to begin speaking with agents Wednesday morning – although deals cannot yet be offered, and no contracts can be signed before Dec. 9. Meanwhile, US District Judge Patrick Schiltz issued a stay Tuesday on all court proceedings involving an anti-trust lawsuit by a group of NBA players against team owners. The move came at the request of players as they work through the process of trying to approve a tentative deal with owners. Players decertified their union earlier this month in order to file the lawsuit, but must now vote to re-establish the union as a bargaining group in order to take a vote on the deal worked out last Saturday with NBA owners. Teams may host “voluntary player workouts” and physicals. Training camps will not open until Dec. 9, and the regular season is expected to begin Christmas Day with marquee matchups, including a Miami-Dallas rematch of last season's NBA finals. It's not quite business-as-usual yet, but getting facilities open again is a huge boost for both teams and players. The league also said owners, general managers, and coaches are now free to comment publicly about things such as contracts, plans for future free agent signings, the team's prospects for the upcoming season, and other typical public comments that a team would make about players. Since the NBA and its players reached a tentative agreement on how to end the lockout early Saturday morning, neither side has known if workouts would be permitted before camps begin. Such informal workouts are customary, typically beginning 2-3 weeks before camp as players begin getting themselves into the best possible condition. When NFL camps opened after that league's lockout earlier this year, a number of players – it seemed more than usual, anyway – were either injured in the preseason or rehabilitated from offseason surgeries at a slower pace than first anticipated. One of the byproducts of the lockout is that it kept players from meeting with team physicians and trainers, as many had been used to for years, and teams tried to find the right balance between conditioning and protecting players from risking injury by doing too much too soon. By opening at least a week before training camps formally begin, the NBA may be able to minimize those problems somewhat. While most of the league's players have been working out on their own or in small groups for weeks anyway, many have said that little can replicate the experience of being at a true NBA facility, replete with training rooms, whirlpools, ice tubs and things of that nature. Some players, including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, spent time earlier this month at a makeshift training camp in Oregon in an effort to replicate the NBA workout environment. “Anything you can do to get your body ready before training camp will help,” Wade said at the time, before the tentative settlement was reached.
