LB rights... i've been wondering for a long long time... what is Larry Bird rights? Someone pls explain this clearly to me!
The Larry Bird exception/rights allows teams to exceed the cap to sign their own free agents. The player must have played at least 3 consecutive seasons for that particular team, and if I'm correct it means the team can offer up to a 12.5% raise for that player, whereas other teams can only offer 10%.
Sir Des is right. It was named after Bird because it was formed because of him. The Celtics and the players union lobbied for this rule, and it helped the Celtics stay competitive in the 80's, as well as allow a lot of top players to get higher salaries. This was considered a major breakthrough in team sports payrolls at the time.
Interesting enough... this same question came up in an ESPN.com chat with Chad Ford yesterday. I just learned it today. Here it is.... <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Swade (Tasmania, Aust): Chad, For the uneducated among us, can you clarify what a player's "Bird rights" are? I assume it it's something other than the right to take a dump on public works of art. With the trade deadline and all the discussion surrounding it, I'm reading this phrase at least 3 times a week at the moment. Please explain and save me some frustration. Chad Ford: No problem. A team that has a player who has been under contract for three years has his "Bird Rights" (named after Larry Bird). They are allowed to go over the salary cap to re-sign him. For example, the Nets were over the cap this summer but because they had Bird Rights to Jason Kidd, they were able to give him a new contract starting at $13.2 million. If they didn't have his Bird Rights, the most they could've offered him was the $4.9 million mid-level exception. </div> Basically exactly what Sir Dez said...
