Question on Jerome James

[Tommy Udo 6]

Jerome James has a player option for 2009-10, which he will exercise.

However, there is a good possibility that he can no longer play & must medically retire.

Since he is in the last year of his contract, it will all count aginst Bulls salary cap even if insurance pays 80%

My question: would his salary count toward Luxury Tax determination on 6/30/2010 if he is forced to retire for medical reasons?

[magnumt]

Jerome James has a player option for 2009-10, which he will exercise.

However, there is a good possibility that he can no longer play & must medically retire.

Since he is in the last year of his contract, it will all count aginst Bulls salary cap even if insurance pays 80%

My question: would his salary count toward Luxury Tax determination on 6/30/2010 if he is forced to retire for medical reasons?

I think it would, because if I remember correctly, the Luxury Tax's formula takes into account all Contract on the Books for that Year. Since JJ would still be on the Books, he'd still be included in the calcs. (much like Mobley). Now if there's a Clause in his Contract where he's Partially Guaranteed if waived then he'd count as a % (but I don't think there's a clause like that in his Contract, or else NY would've kept him).

[LarryCoon]

For the first question -- the salary counts. It doesn't matter whether insurance is paying it. The team can apply to have the salary removed, after a year waiting period.

For the second question -- the Board of Governors can exclude the salary of disabled players from the luxury tax, and typically does so.

[Dunkenstein]

James was traded from NY to Chicago last February 19. The last game he played was for New York the prior December 19. So the issue for the league is when did his career ending injury occur. If they determine it happened while playing in New York, Chicago will have a tough time getting his salary removed from their team salary because a player can't get his salary removed if his career ending injury occurred before that team acquired him.

[dougthonus]

For the first question -- the salary counts. It doesn't matter whether insurance is paying it. The team can apply to have the salary removed, after a year waiting period.

For the second question -- the Board of Governors can exclude the salary of disabled players from the luxury tax, and typically does so.

If James didn't count towards the tax, could the Bulls trade him and have him not count towards the tax for the new team? IE, would he have a lot of benefit to a team looking to get below the tax by trading for James and effectively getting 6.6 million less tax liability?

[dougthonus]

James was traded from NY to Chicago last February 19. The last game he played was for New York the prior December 19. So the issue for the league is when did his career ending injury occur. If they determine it happened while playing in New York, Chicago will have a tough time getting his salary removed from their team salary because a player can't get his salary removed if his career ending injury occurred before that team acquired him.

Larry's already saying the salary counts. The luxury tax seems to be a different matter.

[Dunkenstein]

James was traded from NY to Chicago last February 19. The last game he played was for New York the prior December 19. So the issue for the league is when did his career ending injury occur. If they determine it happened while playing in New York, Chicago will have a tough time getting his salary removed from their team salary because a player can't get his salary removed if his career ending injury occurred before that team acquired him.

Larry's already saying the salary counts. The luxury tax seems to be a different matter.

What I was talking about was having his salary being removed from the team salary for the purposes of luxury tax computation. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that.

[Tommy Udo 6]

James was traded from NY to Chicago last February 19. The last game he played was for New York the prior December 19. So the issue for the league is when did his career ending injury occur. If they determine it happened while playing in New York, Chicago will have a tough time getting his salary removed from their team salary because a player can't get his salary removed if his career ending injury occurred before that team acquired him.

I never had a question about whether the salary would count against the Bulls cap. i know it does - and they would be ineligible for a Medical Exception since injury happened before the trade.

My question was whether it would count against Lux Tax since a disabled player would be retiring. The Bulls could argue that even though they knew about the injury before trade, they did not know that the player would be forced to retire.

[chakdaddy]

On a side note...

Can he exercise a player option if he retired?

Can he exercise a player option if it is obvious that a medical retirement is forthcoming?

I wonder if Chicago could file some sort of grievance if James picks up his player option while never intending to play.

If any of the above situations actually did have any meaning, would it make a difference if, semantically, James' decision were to "not opt-out of the final year" rather than to "opt in for an additional final year"?

[Sham]

I wonder if Chicago could file some sort of grievance if James picks up his player option while never intending to play.

Nope. Happens all the damn time. They signed the contract, so they have no leg to stand on.

[Dunkenstein]

The Bulls could argue that even though they knew about the injury before trade, they did not know that the player would be forced to retire.

He hasn't been forced to retire. He's still on their roster and will remain there until he is either traded next season as an ending contract, waived or finishes out his contract.

And since he ruptured his Achilles tendon in January before he was traded, any claim by the Bulls would likely be disallowed because, as Larry states in his FAQ on the topic of luxury tax relief for career ending injuries, "Teams are not allowed to trade for disabled players and then apply for this salary cap relief. Only the team for which the player was playing when he was disabled may request this relief."