[Celtics' Stuff ] Re: "Bird Rights"

[Kim Malo]

At 07:32 PM 8/26/2007, Steve Ouellette wrote:
>I think they would need to give them three-year deals to get Bird
>rights, and if they used up the rest of the MLE, they can't do that,
>however ... the NBA tried to help teams who couldn't keep their breakout
>second rounders. Don't remember the details, but I think they can use
>the MLE on them in year three ... though if both Pruitt and Davis
>thrive, then they wouldn't be able to sign both.

Early Bird rights
This is a weaker form of the Larry Bird exception, and is also a 
component of the Veteran Free Agent exception.  Players who qualify 
for this exception are called "Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agents" 
in the CBA.  A player qualifies for this exception after playing two 
seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent. Using 
this exception, a team may re-sign its own free agent for 175% of his 
salary the previous season or the average player salary, whichever is 
greater (see question number 24 for the definition of "average 
salary."  Also note that for 2005-06 they used a defined figure of $5 
million).  Early Bird contracts must be for at least two seasons 
(which limits this exception's usefulness -- it's often better to 
take a lower salary for one more season and then have the full Bird 
exception available the next season) and no longer than five 
seasons.  A player can receive raises up to 10.5% of the salary in 
the first season of the contract using this exception.