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It ranks right up there with w/ Horry's 2005 shot in game 5 of the Finals...eh?
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailyd...dime-090124-25
Feel The (Veto) Power
The Bobcats and Mavericks could have satisfied the salary-cap requirements on last week's Matt Carroll-for-DeSagana Diop swap without Charlotte including the little-used Ryan Hollins.
Charlotte and Dallas, however, could not have thrown Hollins into the deal without the raw center's consent.
Kobe Bryant remains the only player in the NBA with a specific no-trade clause in his contract, but Hollins was part of that exclusive club which came to prominence last season when Devean George took advantage of a little-known league rule that prevents certain players with one-year contracts from being dealt without their permission to pull himself out of Dallas' trade with New Jersey in February for Jason Kidd.
The rule dictates that players on a one-year contract -- but who are also eligible for Early Bird or Full Bird free-agent rights at the end of that contract -- cannot be traded without their consent, because Bird rights are not transferrable to a new team in one-year deals.
The athletic-but-unpolished Hollins was one of 13 such players in the club this season … as is George yet again. But Hollins -- unlike his new teammate last February -- had zero hesitation when asked to sanction this deal. Knowing that the Mavs, after shedding Diop, had no true backup center behind Erick Dampier, Hollins was eager to come to the Western Conference to try to kick-start his career with the athletically challenged Mavs after two-plus seasons of limited opportunities with the Bobs.
The 24-year-old had to forfeit his Bird rights as a result, which means George remains the only Mav who falls under this classification. Yet it's a good time, as trade season gets serious, to identify the 17 players in the league who still have a say in trades like Hollins did. They break down into three groups.
Group 1: Bryant is the only player in the NBA with unlimited veto power on all trades.
Reason being: No-trade clauses in the NBA, as we've discussed here before on numerous occasions, are extremely rare. To get one, players must (a) have at least eight seasons of service time, (b) have spent at least four seasons with the same team and (c) be an unrestricted free agent with the right to negotiate a no-trade clause into a new contract with his old team.
Most NBA stars who would have the stature and/or leverage to request a no-trade clause sign their first big-money deals well before their eighth pro season and frequently sign extensions to those big contracts as opposed to going onto the open market and then re-signing with their current team as Bryant did in the summer of 2004. Many stars, then, are never even eligible for a no-trade clause, because the NBA does not allow such clauses to be added to contract extensions. They're only permissible in new contracts.
Group 2: One-year Bird cases like Hollins and George.
A team must receive permission from the player to trade him if he has signed a one-year contract (excluding options) and if the player (a) can become an Early Bird free agent at season's end (player completes a two-year contract or finishes two consecutive years with the same team), (b) can become a Full Bird free agent at season's end (player completes a three-year contract or finishes three consecutive seasons with the same team) or (c) has accepted a qualifying offer for the fifth season of a Rookie Scale contract.
Players on the following list lose their Bird rights and become a non-Bird free agent at season's end if, like Hollins, they give consent to be traded in these cir stances.
Atlanta: Mario West
Boston: Eddie House* and Sam Cassell
Chicago: Ben Gordon
Dallas: Devean George*
Denver: Anthony Carter
Detroit: Walter Herrmann
Miami: Chris Quinn*
New Orleans: Ryan Bowen
Oklahoma City: Robert Swift
Orlando: Adonal Foyle
San Antonio: Michael Finley*
* House, George, Quinn and Finley would no longer be on this list if they exercised their player option for 2009-10 … and players are permitted to pick up options during the season. Who could ever forget Milt Palacio doing so at the trade deadline in 2002 so he could be included in a deal which sent Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers to Boston for Palacio, Randy Brown, 2002's No. 22 overall pick (which Phoenix used on Casey Jacobsen) and a future All-Star guard named Joe Johnson?
Group 3: Players who, as restricted free agents in the previous offseason, signed offer sheets with other NBA teams that were matched.
A team that exercises its right of first refusal to retain a restricted free agent cannot trade that player for one year without the player's permission. The player -- there are only four in the league at present after Cleveland's Anderson Varejao came off the list in December -- also can't be traded to the team that gave him the offer sheet for one year.
Players With Matched Offer Sheets
Name Signed With Veto Right End
Josh Smith, ATL Memphis Aug. 8
K. Azubuike, GSW Clippers July 24
Carl Landry, Hou Charlotte Sept. 29
C.J. Miles, Utah Okla. City July 25
It ranks right up there with w/ Horry's 2005 shot in game 5 of the Finals...eh?
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