NBA Commissioner David Stern filing an appeal against Bird Rights ruling - Update
The NBPA got the ruling in their favour which allowed the players being waived off this season to secure early bird rights. The ruling would have been hugely beneficial for New York Knicks, who were hoping to resign both Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak.
However according to recent reports the saga isn’t over yet with NBA Commissioner, David Stern, all set to appeal the ruling made in favour of the players association. With the appeal Stern is hoping overturn the decision made by arbitrator Kenneth Dam who
granted these players early bird rights in the first place.
According to the Bird Rights rule, a certain player can resign with the same team even if the deal exceeds the league`s salary cap given that they have represented the same organization for either two or more years.
The NBA management remains adamant that the players being waived off which include the likes of Chauncey Billups, J.J. Hickson along with Lin and Novak have already given up their rights to secure an early bird after signing with different teams.
As the current situation stands this would be a huge set back especially for Knicks who now would have to wait for the appeal process to complete before they are allowed to get into new contract negotiations with these players.
Both sides are set to undergo several meetings in the next few days to set up a panel for the appeal made by Stern to assess whether to allow these players an early bird or go with league`s point of view.
One possible option to avoid the whole dispute would be to allow Lin and Novak to secure early bird rights over the summer with the appeal process occurring at the same time.
However, one thing is for sure that the Knicks find themselves in a tricky situation and looking at a possibility of losing several players given the fact if the appeal holds up.
If they are not allowed to resign Lin and Novak, they would have to choose the option of using their mid level exception. Given the fact if the exception is used not only would they be losing the ‘Linsanity’ phenomenon and a sharp shooting Novak, it would
make it hard for them to resign J.R Smith for next season as well.
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