A tentative agreement to end the NBA Lockout. Nothing more, nothing less. After 15 hours of negotiations this Friday and on again, off again talks for months since the 2011 NBA lockout went into effect, it seems that the end of this hell for basketball fans, the light at the end of the no NBA tunnel is finally here.

The agreement has yet to be announced, but according to anonymous sources, the league will begin on Christmas and the season will have a 66 game schedule.

Both owners and players will have to ratify the deal, but it seems that if you’ve got any champagne bottles saved for the occasion, you should put them on standby. I don’t know about the level of basketball we’ll see, with the 1998-1999 bad basketball in mind, and I wonder what will be the fate of those who chose to play in Europe these past couple of months.

I just know there’s a smile on my face while writing this.

A few things are standing in the way – The Union needs a majority of its 430 members, but that isn’t that simple. The players dissolved the union on November 14. They must drop the anti-trust deal and reform the union before voting on the agreement.

On the owners side, 15 of 29 votes are needed for the agreement to be approved. David Stern said the labor committee will discuss the agreement before approving it and moving it on to the full board.