According to Howard Beck of the NY Times, the arbitrator Kenneth Dam issued his ruling today, siding with the Nation Basketball Players Association. The NBPA, who challenged the NBA’s interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement, have been unexpectedly granted victory. 

The ruling allows Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak to to re-sign with the Knicks without respect to the team’s salary cap. They will each receive an estimated $5 million salary, as the Knicks will not have to dip into their midlevel exception to sign either player. 

This is a huge deal for the Knicks who will now have that midlevel exception on another free agent, possibly unrestricted free agents, Steve Nash or Jason Kidd- who have both recently expressed interest in signing with the Knicks. Former Knick, Raymond Felton, was also quoted over the weekend saying he New York is somewhere he could end up next season. He also noted that the ideal system for his would be the one the Knicks used when he was on the team 2 years ago. 

“It’s a franchise I’d love to play for. It’s a city I love, obviously, living here the last 10 summers…I would definitely consider it, if they had interest in me.”- Steve Nash 

“[The Knicks] have a guy over there that I played with and won a championship with, so Tyson is great, so I wouldn’t mind seeing him and helping those guys win.”- Jason Kidd

SO- as you can see this decision has opened the door wide for the Knicks as the offseason just got all that more interesting.