Harrison Barnes switched agents and he reportedly pushed back against the standard four percent commission agents get on new contracts.

Barnes switched from Jeffrey Wechsler to Jeff Schwartz.

Barnes and the Golden State Warriors are in talks on a contract extension.

The Los Angeles Lakers are in support of keeping the current revenue sharing system despite their league-leading outlay.

A significant portion of their revenue is shared amongst the other teams.

The Lakers aren't seeking substantial changes in the current system "because it's working," according to a league source. 

The NBA earned approximately $100 million more in ticket sales during the 14-15 season than they did during the 13-14 season.

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks led the increases in gate receipts from the previous season.

The Hawks had their best season in years, leading to sellout crowds, while LeBron James returned to the Cavaliers.

Michele Roberts hopes the NBA and the union can agree upon a new collective bargaining agreement in the coming months.

Either side can opt out of their current 10-year pact in 2017.

“Since the day Michele took the job, we’ve been talking on a regular basis,” Adam Silver told the Globe. “I think we’ve both been clear that our jobs are to bring stability to the league and to continue and build on the success we’ve had. We’re looking forward to engaging with the union. We have a labor relations committee formed. She has her executive committee. We hope to get together this fall and continue the discussions we’ve been having on a staff level.”

The NBA is investing in the study of wearable GPS devices with the probable end goal of having players wear them during games.

The league is funding a study, at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, of products from two leading device-makers: Catapult and STATSports.

Most teams already use the technology during practices.

Weighing less than an ounce, these devices are worn underneath a player’s jersey. They track basic movement data, including distance traveled and running speed, but the real value comes from the health- and fatigue-related information they produce.

Several GMs and other team higher-ups have privately pushed for in-game use, but they understand the league has to collectively bargain that kind of step with the players’ union. 

There is a concern on the part of the players' union on how teams uses the data and who gets to see it.

The National Basketball Players Association has signed a contract to sell its headquarters in Harlem for $21 million.

Once the sale is completed next year, the organization will relocate to a 47,000-square-foot facility in midtown Manhattan that includes a practice court, locker room, lounge and training facility, the union said.

The union bought the Harlem building at 310 Lenox around 2007, at which time its value was listed at $3.4 million in a filing with the U.S. Department of Labor. The union’s 2014 labor filing, or LM-2, said the building was worth $19.7 million.

The NBA's new national television deals requires ESPN and TNT to pay the league even during a work stoppage.

Owners would lose gate receipts from canceled games, but they would be able to continue making money to allow them to outlast the players.

The previous lockout did little to damage the popularity of the NBA.

Michele Roberts was quoted in an Italian publication that the NBA and its players may be able to announce a new collective bargaining agreement by the end of the season.

Roberts confirmed via email that she and Adam Silver have indeed talked about those specifics, but she added a cautionary note: “That is accurate,” Roberts says. “That is the goal. We did discuss that timeline, though it is not a deadline. It is more aptly described as an aspiration or goal.”

Silver declined comment through a league spokesman.

Owners, agents, union officials and other stakeholders have expressed increased optimism of avoiding a work stoppage.

The NBA generated more revenue than projected in 2014-15 for the second straight season, and the new national TV megadeal, which will pay the league an average of $2.7 billion per season, doesn’t even kick in until 2016-17. 

Mikhail Prokhorov is nearing a deal to buy Brett Ratner's share of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center.

Prokhorov has been in talks to buy the 55 percent of the arena and 20 percent of the NBA team he does not already own. 

Selling the sports interests would make it easier for Ratner's Forest City to pull off a complicated conversion to a tax-advantaged real estate investment trust, which would help boost its share price.

“People can’t wait for them to sell these assets so they can focus on real estate development,” said one analyst who follows the company.

The team is valued at an estimated $700 million, according to the analyst who follows Forest City. After subtracting $210 million of debt, the franchise has an equity value of $490 million.

Michele Roberts is optimistic the NBA and its players can avoid a work stoppage.

"Sitting down at a table already now with the NBA to understand what worries the owners and what worries the players," said Roberts. "In the past very few attempts to speak in advance of the problems that led to the lockouts have been made. Whether both commissioner (Adam) Silver and myself want to do everything possible to prevent the NBA to stop: the only way is to negotiate. We have already started, we will meet again in early September with the hope to announce within the end of the season that the union and the league have solved their problems."

The NBA had a lockout in 2011 that lasted from July until December.