The NBA owners have given up their desire to add a hard cap to its next collective bargaining agreement with players.

The NBPA was prepared to fight against the hard cap, which the league office has euphemistically called an upper spending limit, and there likely would have been a lockout over the issue.

Beyond the inevitable resistance from the union, there was also skepticism among smaller market teams that a hard cap would even be successful in creating competitive parity that was the goal of the initiative. 

The hard cap would have ended the current luxury tax system, so the league would have had to create a new mechanism to supplement revenue sharing.

The league is now focused on keeping the current elements while also finding other ways to limit high spending teams from retaining and acquiring talent in what is considered by some to be funnier.

The union would also like to create more opportunities for middle and lower spending teams to sign players as well.