Because of the time needed to put the agreement in writing, the upcoming start of the free agency signing period has been moved from July 14 to July 22.

“David Stern and Billy Hunter did a great job bringing this to a head quickly, getting past any personal issues,” Dallas mavericks owner Mark Cuban said. “It takes a lot of guts to be called out on both sides and then go right past that and get a solution, so they deserve a lot of credit.”

Over the final days of negotiations, the sides reached agreement on several key issues that had held up a settlement since serious talks began in late February.

Among them were the age limitation, a reduction in the maximum length of long-term contracts from seven years to six, and reductions in the size of annual salary increases in those long-term contracts from a maximum of 12½ percent to 10½ percent.

Veterans will now be subject to four annual random drug tests for performance-enhancing and recreational drugs, an increase from current rules calling for one test at the start of training camp. Penalties for steroid violators were raised from five to 10 games for a first offense, 25 games for a second offense, one year for a third offense and a lifetime ban for a fourth.

Players with less than two years in the league will be eligible to be assigned to the minor league NBDL, where the minimum age will be reduced from 20 to 18.

Minimum salaries and benefits will increase, but Stern said it was uncertain how the new deal will affect the pensions for the small number of recipients who played in the NBA prior to 1965.

Players agreed to reduce the number of guaranteed contract years for rookie first-round draft picks from three to two.

The NBA has a system known as a “soft” salary cap, allowing teams to exceed the cap threshold to retain their own free agents, and to sign free agents under the so-called midlevel exception that was added to the labor agreement in 1999 after the sides went through a 7½-month lockout.

All salary cap exceptions from the prior deal will remain, and several rules that made trades difficult have been relaxed. Previously, the salaries of players being traded for one another had to be within 115 percent of one another, plus $100,000. That first number has been increased to 125 percent.

A variety of regulations have been eased regarding restricted free agents, players falling under so-called base-year compensation rules, and the amount of time players with career-ending injuries will continue to count against a team’s salary cap.

Owners also withdrew their idea for an extra penalty — a so-called supertax — against the highest-spending teams. They also agreed to the union’s request to have luxury tax revenues divided in a more equitable way.

Also, there will be a gradual reduction from 10 percent to 8 percent in the so-called escrow tax under which a portion of each player’s salary is withheld if the amount of league-wide revenues devoted to salaries exceeds specified percentages.

Most important was the big picture — that the NBA won’t have a second straight work stoppage.

“I’m sure no one would admit it, but I think everybody saw what was going on with the NHL and how difficult a battle it was once it came to a standstill, not only from a negotiation perspective, but also from a fan’s perspective and a marketing perspective,” Cuban said. “I think we kind of wanted to avoid some of the pain that they went through.”

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