With the clocking ticking down toward a potentially disastrous work stoppage, the NBA and its players yesterday reached a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement that will govern player-owner relations though 2011.

The agreement, which will set a minimum age limit of 19 and reduce the maximum contract length by one year, was announced by Commissioner David Stern and union director Billy Hunter at a press conference in San Antonio before Game 6 of the NBA Finals. The CBA still has to be ratified both by the players and the league’s board of governors, but those are minor hurdles in light of the heated rhetoric of recent weeks, during which Stern had spoken openly of a lockout. The current CBA was set to expire at midnight on July 1.

“We decided it was time to back away from the abyss and see if we could get a deal,” Hunter said.

Prior to the four days of talks that led to the deal, there had been no negotiations between the sides since May 17. When talks broke down, the owners and players had already agreed in principle on procedural points like the formation of a minor league to be known as the National Basketball Development League. But they remained far apart on monetary issues like contract length and the percentage of annual raises.

Under the current agreement, the maximum contract is for six years (seven if the player re-signed with their original team) and annual raises can reach 10%, 12.5% if a player is re-signing.

In each case, the union wanted to maintain the status quo. The owners, meanwhile, wanted to reduce the maximum length of new deals to three years,(four if re-signing),and to abolish double-digit pay increases, or at least peg them to increases in total basketball revenue. In addition, the owners wanted to abolish the mid-level exception, which allowed teams over the salary cap to sign new talent to six-year deals that began around $5 million a year and escalated thereafter. The two sides also differed sharply on an age limit, which would set a minimum age for players entering the league. Stern proposed a limit of 20, but the union opposed any increase to the existing limit of 18.

The owners talked tough – Stern warned that the players were making an epic mistake by failing to compromise their positions – but the new deal in fact seems to favor the players.

“We’re gratified that we were able to avoid a work stoppage,” Stern said. “This agreement creates a strong partnership with our players, which is essential for us.”

The biggest change will be the age limit, which will rise to 19; players with less than two years NBA experience will be eligible for assignment to the NBDL, where the minimum age will be reduced to 18 from 20. The maximum contract length will be reduced by one year to five (six if re-signing).Annual raises will fall to 8%, 10.5% if re-signing.

Players will also submit to four random drug tests for performance-enhancing and recreational drugs during the course of the season.

In exchange for these concessions, the owners agreed to guarantee player contracts for their full value (some contracts were guaranteed for only a fraction of their duration). The salary cap will increase from roughly 48% of basketball related income – around $43 million this year – to 51%, which will work out to between $47-50 million next season.

The number of players on active rosters will increase to 14 from 12,and in yet another union-friendly clause, players will have to right to an arbitrator’s review of any suspension of more than 12 games for on-court behavior.

The use of the players’ escrow fund has also changed. Previously, the players paid 10% of their wages into a fund, and if player salaries exceeded 57% of basketball related income, the fund was distributed to teams with the smallest payrolls. If it stayed below that threshold, then the money was returned to the players. During the life of the new CBA, the players’ contribution will be phased down to 8% and the money will now be split evenly among the 30 clubs rather than rewarding teams for failing to aggressively pursue top talent.

Until this week, many observers expected the owners to present a solid front. With their hockey-playing counterparts in mind, the reasoning went, the NBA players would cave to the league’s contract demands at the 11th hour. This seemed especially likely in light of what transpired in 1998, when the NBA suffered a seven-month lockout that wiped out 40% of the season. The deal that ended that work stoppage was reached days before the league was set to cancel the entire season, and it set maximum dollar values on individual player contracts, a first for major North American team sports.

This time around, the owners’ willingness to maintain the present system more or less in tact suggests that, poor playoff TV ratings notwithstanding, the league is in good financial health. No teams have cried poverty, and the mere fact that the Finals feature the seventh lowest payroll (San Antonio) versus the 12th-lowest payroll (Detroit) suggests that the NBA enjoys a healthy does of competitive balance.

Most importantly, with the NHL still idled by a yearlong lockout, the NBA owners no doubt understood the silliness of risking the further ire of sports fans. After all, both the league and its players have faced much scorn in the past year for selfish play in the Olympics, violent behavior toward fans, and greedy statements by players (Latrell Sprewell famously rejected a $10 million contract extension on the grounds that he had “a family to feed”).

The owners would likely have won a better deal by holding out until the 11th hour, or even by instigating a brief lockout. But by ceding this battle, they seemed to have judged that the NBA would be in a better position to improve the league’s popularity worldwide with long-term labor peace insured.