RealGM

Hi all,

I'm sure this has probably been asked (but it wasn't easily visible in the search results), so apologies if this is wasting peoples time.

I've been trying to get a better understanding of the NBA's Salary Cap and was intrigued by Kobe's previous contract (£30,453,805 in the 2013-14 season according to Basketball Reference. I was wondering what exceptions the Lakers had to use in order to provide him with this contract.

Obviously he did have the required 3 'Bird' years and could receive a max 105% extension on his previous contract. Was it only the 105% increase, coupled with a pay increase year on year (his last contract before this was a 2 year contract)? Or were there some other exceptions applied (the Lakers' MLE perhaps)?

I'm hoping this makes some sense.

Regards,
Jamie.

There were some changes to the CBA in 2005 and 2011. Afaik in both instances the allowed raises in a contract from year to year were reduced (as well as the max length). Kobe signed a 7-year deal in 2004 and an extension in 2010, so he just slipped by those changes and had the bigger raises for the last decade. Don't think there is anything else going on, but I'm not that familiar with the older versions of the CBA, so maybe someone else knows more?

In the current CBA the MLE can't be used to make a max "bigger". Max is 105% of previous salary or a league wide number based on cap and years in the league. See http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q16 for details.

Knosh wrote:There were some changes to the CBA in 2005 and 2011. Afaik in both instances the allowed raises in a contract from year to year were reduced (as well as the max length). Kobe signed a 7-year deal in 2004 and an extension in 2010, so he just slipped by those changes and had the bigger raises for the last decade. Don't think there is anything else going on, but I'm not that familiar with the older versions of the CBA, so maybe someone else knows more?

In the current CBA the MLE can't be used to make a max "bigger". Max is 105% of previous salary or a league wide number based on cap and years in the league. See http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q16 for details.

You got it basically right on. Two CBAs ago, the maximum salary didn't work the way it does now. Last CBA, I believe you could get more than the 105%. And, obviously, it is now different under the current CBA.

There were no other exceptions added to Kobe's deal.

Kobe simply got a max deal years ago, with max allowable raises each year until his extension that began in 2011-12 (in which his raises were slightly less than max). The cumulative effect of all those max raises eventually resulted in his salary being over $30M in 2013-14.

His first non-rookie deal started in 1999-00 at $9M, and he got the max raises of 12.5% per year (1.125M) each of the next 4 years.

In July 2004 he signed an new 7-year deal, which by rule allowed a 5% raise in the initial year and 12.5% raises (1,771,875) each season thereafter.

He tacked on a 3-year extension that began in 2011-12 which could have had a 5% raise in the first year and 10.5% raises the next two, but he took slightly less (his 3 yr total deal was almost $83.55M and could have totaled almost $2.8M more if he had gotten full max raises).

DBoys wrote:Kobe simply got a max deal years ago, with max allowable raises each year until his extension that began in 2011-12 (in which his raises were slightly less than max). The cumulative effect of all those max raises eventually resulted in his salary being over $30M in 2013-14.

His first non-rookie deal started in 1999-00 at $9M, and he got the max raises of 12.5% per year (1.125M) each of the next 4 years.

In July 2004 he signed an new 7-year deal, which by rule allowed a 5% raise in the initial year and 12.5% raises (1,771,875) each season thereafter.

He tacked on a 3-year extension that began in 2011-12 which could have had a 5% raise in the first year and 10.5% raises the next two, but he took slightly less (his 3 yr total deal was almost $83.55M and could have totaled almost $2.8M more if he had gotten full max raises).

You ever wonder why he didn't just take the max he could have? At that point another 2.8 million spread out wasn't helping the Lakers any against the cap. I always wondered why, when your contract is so high that you handicap your team anyway, you don't just take the most you can?