Due to a lockout, the season did not start until February 5, 1999, after a new six-year collective bargaining agreement was reached between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association.
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.
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 in the opposite conference.