Our long international nightmare is over. After a marathon negotiating session that ended at 3:30 Saturday morning New York time, the NBA owners and players reached a tentative agreement for a 66 game season beginning on Christmas Day.

Before we get all hyped up on hoops, there is still some work to be done. The lawyers from each side must hammer out details and approve the deal. The players must re-organise their union and ratify the new CBA.

But it appears that the two sides finally decided that they had to do whatever it took to save the season. And that meant keeping the dispute out of the courts and doing business face-to-face.

The decision to re-launch on December 25th is a masterstroke. The NBA has built a presence on Christmas Day with marquee matchups featuring the league's glamour teams. That will continue. This Christmas it will be Knicks/Celtics followed by Mavericks/Heat and topped off with Lakers/Bulls. Late or not, that's a great way to start the season.

The schedule will have to be balanced and worked out to accommodate the loss of 16 games per team. That's difficult, but certainly not impossible. Until we see the fixture, we won't be able to ascertain which teams will benefit and which will suffer from a new schedule.

This solution comes at the perfect time. Fans and media members were starting to lose patience with both the league and the players, and while I never thought crowds would stay away, there's no doubt a missed season would have been problematic.

But it looks as if there will be games, and the NBA can pick up where it left off last year. The league finished on a high after the Dallas Mavericks stunned LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat in one of the highest-rated Finals series in recent times.

The questions ahead of this season are intriguing.

Can the Mavericks find a way to repeat? Will Wade and LeBron take the Heat back to the Finals? Can Kobe Bryant continue to put up remarkable numbers? Will Kevin Durant keep lighting it up in Oklahoma City? (The answers, by the way, are no, yes, yes and yes).

There are other things to ponder as well, although we may not have answers for another few weeks. I'm thinking, for example, what's going to happen to Tony Parker in San Antonio? When will Portland hire a General Manager? How's Ricky Rubio going to fare at point guard for Minnesota? And have we seen the last of Patty Mills in the NBA?

See, I'm already getting ahead of myself. A few New York lawyers in expensive suits could still shut this thing down (although I think it's unlikely).

All in all, the potential agreement is good news for most people. Sure, some moderately talented but overpaid players are going to lose some money. And a few owners will still wish they could overhaul the NBA's business model even further.

But given the current state of the economy - particularly in the US - the idea of billionaires and millionaires sitting the season out because they couldn't come to an agreement was starting to border on immoral.

So prepare yourself for a short, snappy season, which isn't a bad thing when you consider how the 82-game version can drag on. Like this year's NFL season - also affected by a lockout - altered pre-season preparations will throw up some quirks. Who will be a pleasant surprise, like the San Francisco 49ers? And who will fall off the face of the earth, like the winless Indianapolis Colts?

Here in Australia, the impact will be felt as well.

Andrew Bogut will go back to work, no longer needing to flirt with the NBL. The popular Mills, who just signed to play in China, will have to live with his decision. You can't feel bad for Patty; he took a chance and should make some money out of the move. He was never guaranteed an NBA contract anyway.

Fans will have their TV games again - starting, of course on Boxing Day - and Aussies traveling overseas will start combing Stubhub.com to lock in tickets.

I must admit, it does feel good to have "The Association" back, although it's been a long, hard road. If I never have to hear phrases like "BRI," "unlimited escrow" and "apron above the tax threshold" in relation to basketball, I'll be ecstatic.

As far as in-depth analysis of the upcoming season on the court, watch this space. We'll all have to figure this out together. Just like the players and owners.