Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak were granted their Bird rights!

Hey now! Breaking news at this hour! Breaking great news! Here it is, via Howard Beck:

The arbitrator, Kenneth Dam, issued his ruling Friday, siding with the National Basketball Players Association, which challenged the N.B.A.’s interpretation of the rules under the collective bargaining agreement. Dam handed the union a complete victory in the ruling.

The ruling means that both Lin and Steve Novak of the Knicks will be able to re-sign with the team without respect to the salary cap, for a starting salary around $5 million each

This is wonderful, unexpected (well, not unexpected by everybody) news. As Beck explains, the Knicks can now sign both Lin and Novak without worrying about the salary cap. They won't have to use any of the mid-level or bi-annual exceptions to sign either player. Basically, they can keep two guys if they want them (and it sure sounds like they do), then spend the exception money on bringing in new players. Jeremy and Steve are also entitled to one penguin apiece. Hooray! Now it's time to worry about what New York will do with all this extra money...

Update: The league has announced that it will appeal the ruling. Do they have to? QUICK, GLEN, SIGN JEREMY AND STEVE BEFORE THE APPEAL GOES THROUGH!