t's beginning to look a lot like basketball! With a tentative labor agreement reach overnight between NBA owners and players, the Miami Heat are expected to kick off a salvaged 2012 season with a much-anticipated Christmas Day NBA Finals rematch on the road against the Dallas Mavericks. "I must be dreaming," tweeted Heat owner Mickey Arison, who was fined $500,000 last month for Twitter comments that indicated he disagreed with some owners' demands for unprecedented financial concessions from players.

The 149-day tiff will have claimed 16 regular season games and all pre-season hype by the time players approved the deal as expected, but Miami's Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh will still try to play Santa to a city salivating for their next shot a second NBA title, starting at 2:30 p.m. on December 25. (Watch cakes for everyone!) "All I feel right now is 'finally,'" Wade told The Associated Press Saturday morning, following NBA commissioner David Stern's hastily-assembled 3:30 a.m. announcement.

And despite a likely post-Thanksgiving food coma, James was even more effusive: he Heat may have been poised to weather a long lockout better than some small-market teams, the standstill was tough on local employees. Per an agreement made last fall to keep their positions in the event of a potential lockout, staffers including coaches, trainers, scouts, equipment managers and media relations specialists saw their salaries — already reduced 10 percent since July — slashed 25 percent when the lockout continued past October 1.

Countless other workers who depend on the franchise, like concessions, parking, and merchandise attendants, are also rejoicing at this morning's news. A 66-game season is far, far better than no season at all, especially in an economically challenged city with a suddenly-hot NBA team anchoring its downtown core. "I had already prepared myself for no season. Took another second job," said a part-time employee who asked to remain anonymous because he is not allowed to speak about the lockout.

"[It’s] not at all real just yet, but I'm sure it will be easy to get back at it that first game." Of course, the Heat being the Heat, they've been front and center of pre-post-lockout snidery. "Here's hoping D-Wade can finally win a ring for Prince James," wrote ESPN's Skip Bayless on Twitter. Others, naturally, are already giggling what will likely be the Heat's awkward moment of the new season, planned before tip-off in the very area that saw the Heat's epic Finals collapse last spring: