NBA ready to veto any Rivers deal
Stern told ESPN Radio in New York that the league would not approve that arrangement because Rivers’ inclusion violates the collective bargaining agreement and that the multiple trade scenarios are an obvious circumvention of league rules.
“The teams are aware that the collective bargaining agreement doesn’t authorize trades involving coaches’ contracts.”
“If you think those, at this point — having been all over the media for the last week — are separate transactions … I have a bridge that I would very much enjoy selling to you,” Stern said.
In a separate ESPN radio interview, Stern repeated that the NBA was aware of the possible end-around plans and ready to act if a final proposal involving multiple trades came to fruition.
“I would say that if we know that what the parties really want to do is one [trade and] they are going to break into two [trades] for purposes of trying to avoid the restrictions that the collective bargaining agreement places on it, we know how to deal with that as well,” he said.