Union Challenges Loss of Bird Rights for Players Claimed Off of Waivers

[LooseCannon]

I doubt it will go anywhere, but the union is using the argument that:

"The view of the players association is when you go through waivers and someone claims you, your contract is assigned in the exact same manner it's assigned in a trade, so you should obtain your Bird rights."

The players affected this off-season would be Jeremy Lin, Steve Novak, Chauncey Billips, and J.J. Hickson.  (Note that this applies only to players claimed, not to players who pass through waivers and then sign as a free agent with another team.)  Supposedly, this is only being challenged now because, in the past, no player claimed off of waivers has found himself in a position to seek more than the minimum in free agency.

Regardless of the merits of this particular case, do you think it would be fair to change the rules for the next CBA?  If so, to what?  I can see this as something that the owners would want to address in the next CBA because they hate the idea of a team becoming too successful in developing a player that they can't afford to keep him.

Maybe a player who would have had full Bird rights could have his clock reset only partially so that he would still have early Bird rights.  Perhaps the waiver wire should allow teams to bid a (second round) pick to claim a player off of waivers and the priority goes through teams willing to give up a pick before teams not willing to do so (but they still need to have the cap space to absorb a contract over the minimum) and you acquire a player's early Bird rights if you send a second-round pick to the team that waived him.

[Lucky17]

It could be difficult for the union to win because the rules of the CBA state that to be eligible for Bird rights, a player can't be waived or change teams as a free agent.

Bartelstein countered, "The view of the players association is when you go through waivers and someone claims you, your contract is assigned in the exact same manner it's assigned in a trade, so you should obtain your Bird rights."

I see Bartelstein's point. But, because it's the Knicks, I say screw 'em.

[Fafnir]

Read an article about it, interesting challenge that would really help those specific players (and teams that claimed them potentially) out in the FA market.

It sounds like it will be a hard case to win.