There's a problem I see with people speculating on a scenario where Baker
leaves and the C's shove his salary into the Big Dig. I don't think the
League, if given an option, will grant the exception.
For crying out loud, we had a player DIE and the C's got stuck for his full
contract. The NBA does not have any love for the C's--as witness the most
recent antics of Isiah "Bligh" Thomas, covered in another set of posts.
True, but you really can't use the Reggie situation as a comparable
example. I know people do all the time, but it's wrong. That was a very
different situation for one big reason - not the death per se, but because
there was nothing whatsoever in the CBA rules at that time about how to
handle a player's death. So any relief the Cs might have received would
have been purely optional, voluntary, and perhaps dangerously precedent
setting. Also, it was voted down by the rest of the owners, NOT the league
office. Part of Reggie's legacy is that that's no longer the case, and of
course there are also rules in place about how to handle medically mandated
retirements such as was being discussed re: Baker.