{"id":1454779,"date":"2021-12-15T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1454779"},"modified":"2023-05-09T18:11:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T22:11:28","slug":"what-are-bird-rights-how-nba-teams-use-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/what-are-bird-rights-how-nba-teams-use-them\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Bird Rights and How Do NBA Teams Use Them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Over the last four decades, the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/nba\/\">NBA<\/a> has allowed the use of Bird Rights to help teams retain players. The regulation is named after former <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/boston-celtics\/\">Boston Celtics<\/a> great <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/larry-bird\/\">Larry Bird<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/larry-bird-dominant-celtics-career-created-nba-rule-now-wishes-would-change\/\">originated from the Hall of Famer's own free agency<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout this article, you'll read about what Bird Rights are and how they work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Larry Bird remains forever associated with Bird Rights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Celtics Legend Larry Bird, according to Chris Broussard: \u201cYou kids just don\u2019t know\u201d | FOX SPORTS\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xomZ4kF0c4I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the last four decades, the NBA has operated using Bird Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rule's origination was directly associated with former Celtics great Larry Bird's free agency in 1983. That year, he hit the open market as one of the league's biggest stars right as the NBA implemented a salary cap, and Boston was given an exception to retain his services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if that's the lone association, the timing led to the longstanding moniker. And it's a phrase the Celtics legend isn't too fond of since it keeps his name in the news. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI know a few years ago I was hoping they\u2019d take that out of the last Collective Bargaining Agreement because you\u2019re sitting at home sometimes and you hear your name and you\u2019re like, \u2018What are they talking about now?\u2019 and it\u2019s always the Bird Exception or the Bird Rule,\u201d Bird said, per the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/c68f53a9abf745ccaeb35edf96aa5534\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He may not be happy with the wording, but the exception does serve a unique and worthwhile purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-bird-rights-explainer\">A Bird Rights explainer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How the Lakers clear cap space for a 3rd max player | Get Up\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mL1qGbdMlUQ?start=208&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Bird Rights allow teams to spend over the salary cap to keep their veteran talent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NBA further breaks down the exception into three different types: Full Bird Rights, Early Bird Rights, and Non-Bird Rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first applies to a player who has spent three years with the same team without leaving in free agency. It allows an organization to offer a max salary between 25-35% of the salary cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second is a designation placed on a player who spent two years with a team without departing in free agency. Depending on which is higher, teams can offer up to 175% of the player's previous salary or 104.5% of the average league salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third is used on players who have spent a single year with the franchise. The exception permits a team to spend up to 120% of the player's previous salary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> A proposed contract using any type of Bird Rights can be for a maximum of five years. Meanwhile, competing teams can offer no more than a four-year deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The intent of Bird Rights is to help franchises keep their internal talent by offering lucrative long-term deals that can't be proposed by other organizations. In other words, it's an added financial incentive for players to stay with a given organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NBA has allowed the use of Bird Rights for four decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":1454897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[62310,91],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Are Bird Rights and How Do NBA Teams Use Them? - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the last four decades, the NBA has allowed for the use of Bird Rights. 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Bob excels at covering the NFL, NBA, and NASCAR for Sports7 while also working to build knowledge and expertise in other sports, as well. His lifelong passion for sports led to Bob earning a bachelor's degree in journalism and hitting the hardwood to play basketball in his spare time. Bob keeps up to date on the latest sports news by reading the work of industry insiders such as Adam Schefter, Ian Rapoport, Adrian Wojnarowski, Dave McMenamin, Todd Archer, Gary Klein, and Brad Turner. 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