Jeremy Lin: The Early Bird Gets the Worm

What does this thread have to do with Steve Novak?

 

Because Novak is one of the primary beneficiaries of this ruling, as another player who was claimed off waivers and whose Early Bird rights are being determined by this ruling.


On the ruling itself, I am with Larry Coon that it is inconsistent with the plain meaning of the language in the CBA. The relevant CBA language would have been worded differently had the parties truly intended for waived players to retain Bird rights.

Stuff like this happens all the time in the business world. The parties reach an agreement and put that agreement into writing. Both parties have the opportunity to review and approve the language before signing the agreement. But then, lo and behold, one of the parties will claim that the agreement "doesn't say what we thought it said" and complains, trying to change the deal after it has been reached.

This is what the NBPA has done here. And, surprisingly, they were successful.

I would be surprised if this didn't get overturned on appeal, which the NBA has already stated it plans to file.

 

^

What is the ruling for Amnestied players? Maybe that says they retain rights...so the argument would be "How's that different than being waived." btw: does the CBA allow retaining bird rights if a waived player is picked up off the wire prior to clearing waivers? I would say it should; thus, further gray area.

twas a joke ... was tempted to make a copy cat thread "Steve Novak: The Early Bird Gets the Worm" quoting the Novak paragraph of the article rather than the Lin one.

 

Jeremy Lin Rule

 

This bolded question is the EXACT question that was the subject of the ruling.

The answer is: the CBA specifically spells out situations in which Bird rights are retained in great detail. Nowhere in that language is there any mention of a waived player who is claimed being able to retain Bird rights. The CBA even spells out all the different ways a player can change teams yet still retain Bird rights, yet waivers was NOT one of them.


I've actually got a question in to Larry Coon about Bird rights for amnestied-then-claimed players, both before and after this ruling.

To me, it seems wholly unjust that the Clippers might have full Bird rights on Chauncey Billups based on his $14.2M salary, even though they only paid him $2,000,032 this past season. Even if the ruling is struck down and the Clips would only have Non-Bird rights (allowing them to sign Billups for 120% of his prior year's salary), it seems ridiculous that the "base amount" for calculating his Bird rights would be $14M instead of just $2M.

Here's hoping I get more clarification on that from Mr. Coon.

 

BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!


I wanted to see how Lin did without being on a team with those other two ball hogs.

 

ah, didn't realize Lin and Novak were picked up before clearing waivers.

I see your point then. Agree.

 

Yep.

Steve Novak, after playing the last part of the 2010-11 season with the Spurs, re-signed with San Antonio on another one-year deal, was subsequently waived by the Spurs and claimed off waivers by the Knicks.

Jeremy Lin, after signing a two-year rookie deal with the Warriors, was waived last offseason, claimed by the Rockets, waived again by Houston and then claimed again by the Knicks.

Both players WOULD have had Early Bird rights (Novak with the Spurs; Lin with the Warriors) had they never been waived. The ruling today appears to have granted them their Early Bird rights, even though the plain reading of the CBA language does not permit it.

Bad ruling.

 

is Lin RFA or FA? Can some team(Toronto, etc) just come and throw him 10mil a year and NY not able to do anything about it?

 

read the article. RFA now.

 

Lin needs to go to LA. LOL.
Kobe knows how good he is.

 

...this rule sounds completely made up, but what do I know?

 

I tend to agree...why now? Because of Lin and NYC.

Unless the Amnesty Rule in this new CBA has opened a new loop hole. It's possible the Union lawyers got wording into the Amnesty Rule (on purpose) that created a loop hole, and they were ready to pounce the moment the agreement was signed. Like sneakering to themselves "do the owners just realize they opened a loop hole wrt Bird Rights for waived players? Let's hope they sign the agreement before they realize the mistake."

BimaThug, please let us know what Larry Coon says about Bird Rights for Amnesty players.

 

Found it in his FAQs:

http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q67

Here is the impact of this rule and today's ruling on Chauncey Billups (the only NBA player who was (1) waived via the amnesty provision this past season, (2) claimed off waivers via a partial waiver bid, AND (3) is now an impending free agent):

Even before the ruling today, the Clippers had Non-Bird rights on Billups, allowing them to re-sign him at up to 120% of his FULL SALARY ($14.2M) as opposed to being based on the portion of his salary actually paid by the Clippers ($2M). This hardly seems fair to me, but that's what the parties agreed to in the CBA.

Today's ruling, however, would grant the Clippers with FULL Bird rights on Billups. Now, this is all a moot point, given that Chauncey is already eligible for a max salary based on his Non-Bird rights alone, since his prior year's salary was so huge. So this doesn't really matter with Billups this year.

However, this could become a much bigger issue in the future with guys who just happened to be on the books for less money than Billups was when he was waived.

 

It's probably better for Lin to stay at NYC. Not too much pressure on him as everyone will blame Melo and Amare if they keep on losing.

 

are they renaming early bird right to the jeremy lin rule.

 

I think Bima is right it is clearly in the language that this ruling should not stand up. The reason the NBA is letting it go through is because it is good for the league to have Jeremy Lin in New York.

If it was some other who scrub who had lost his bird rights it would be a non issue.

 

Who cares about him? Learn how to drive left, how to play defence and how not to be most turnover prone player in NBA, then we can talk.

 

You are a dumbass. Apparently plenty people care about him.