Re: CONTRACTS

[Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>]

At 08:40 PM 6/10/98 -0400, Dorine wrote:
>OK.  I love pro basketball in general and the Celtics in particular and
>have been a fan for many years.  However, I never paid that much
>attention, until I joined this list, to things like contracts.  I
>understood it on the only level I needed to, I guess.  The rest was not
>interesting.  Now, I find myself every night when I read the list
>wondering if the Rookie contract is (at least at this point) three
>years, then why in heaven's name is a team held up an entire year or
>more before the end of that contract?  There's some-
>thing terribly wrong with that scenario in my judgement.  If all was
>right with the world, we wouldn't have to worry about Antoine until next
>spring at the earliest.  I hope they change that whole rookie thing,
>make it longer and give the team that drafts them a chance.

The signing to an extendion after the 2nd year thing  is actually to give
the drafting team an advantage -lets them try to sign their player BEFORE he
can even listen to outside offers. So if there's a hold  up involved, it's
in the player, not the rule. If the team waits until after the 3rd year,
they can use the Bird Exemption, BUT the player is out on the open market,
which might raise his price and greatly increases the risk of losing him.

However, you're right about the contract length being a problem. Mostly IMO
because players are coming younger and less prepared into the league,
requiring more development time afterwards to show their true worth. See
RP's comments re: drafting high school players. The 3 year contracts were a
response to situations like Montross, Larry Johnson, et al, where rookie
contract demands could only be met by extending contracts out a lot of
years. Since these were unproven players, that's pretty risky. So to save
themselves from their own stupidity the owners proposed the 3 year contract
and pay scale. Players went along because it left more money for the vets
rather than having it all go to the rookies.  One of the prime things the
owners are looking for is 5 year rookie contracts. haven;t heard if they
intend to include a similar restricted to drafting team signing period, but
at least at the end of 5 years  they should have a truer picture of whether
they should re0sign the player and for what kind of contract.

-Kim
Kim Malo
kmalo19@idt.net