The thirdlockout in the history of the NBA lasted from July 1, 1998, to January 20, 1999. NBA owners were seeking changes to theleague's salary cap system and a ceiling on individual player salaries. TheNational Basketball Players Association opposed the owners' plans and wanted raises for players who earned the league's minimum salary.
As the labor dispute continued into September, the preseason was shortened to just two games instead of the normal eight, and training camps were postponed indefinitely.[1] By October, it became the first time in NBA history that games were canceled due to a labor dispute.[2] Further games were canceled by November and December, including the league'sChristmas games (which had been played on an annual basis since 1947)[3] andAll-Star Game, which had been scheduled to be played on February 14, 1999. The preseason consisted of 2 exhibition games.
An agreement between the owners and players was eventually reached on January 18, 1999. When play resumed, the regular season was shortened to 50 games per team, as opposed to the normal 82. To preserve games between teams in the same conference, much of the time missed was made up for by skipping well over half of the games played between teams from the opposite conferences. As a result, some teams did not meet each other at all during the course of the shortened season.
Michael Jordan announced his retirement for the second time on January 13, 1999, while the lockout was still ongoing. He would later return to play two more seasons for the Washington Wizards from 2001 to 2003.
TheNew York Knicks became only the second #8 seed to advance in theplayoffs by defeating a #1 seed.
The San Antonio Spurs became the first formerABA team to win a championship. (They are one of two surviving ABA teams to win an NBA Title, as theNuggets won a title in 2023. TheNets andPacers have not yet won the NBA Championship despite both appearing in two NBA Finals.)
The Clippers tied the 1988–89 Miami Heat for the longest losing streak to start the season (17) from February 5 until March 11 when they defeated theSacramento Kings. In December 2009, this record was broken by theNew Jersey Nets who lost the first eighteen games of the season.
Detroit Pistons guardJoe Dumars retired after fourteen years in the NBA, all of which he spent playing with the Pistons.
For the first time in 15 seasons, theChicago Bulls missed the playoffs. They would also become the second defending champion in NBA history that failed to make the playoffs, joining the 1969–70Boston Celtics.
Karl Malone of theUtah Jazz wins his second MVP award in three years and became the oldestMVP award recipient in NBA history as of today.
Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk.Home court advantage does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record; teams enjoying the home advantage are shown in italics.
