matt harpring

[randy]

i have read that because matt harpring played during the playoffs, the jazz can't get any penalty tax relief if it turns out that harpring is too injured to play in the league any longer, and must retire. is this true even if an nba certified doctor determines that he can no longer physically play? how does all of this work? thanks a lot.

[answerthink]

I don’t know much about Harpring’s situation and I am not a typical RealGM responder, but I will provide some thoughts in an effort to get you a timely answer.

Your question refers to what the CBA calls a “Long-Term Injury.” When a team terminates the contract of a player who suffers a career-ending injury or illness which is confirmed by a league-appointed physician, the player’s contract is excluded from the team’s team salary… and therefore tax threshold. However, there is a one year waiting period following the injury or illness before a team can apply for such relief.

Keep in mind that the tax payment is based upon team salary as of the last day of the regular season. Since Harpring played in the playoffs (which was after the last day of the regular season), the one year waiting period would expire after the last day of the 2009/10 regular season, which would mean any potential tax relief could come no sooner than the 2010/11 season. But since Harpring only has one year left on his contract, the Jazz would not be entitled to any relief under this provision.

A buyout of a player’s contract may be another potential alternative for relief.

[Three34]

This isn't a definitive answer, but I'm not sure that the initial question is correct. While Harpring did play in the playoffs, he sustained his injury a long time ago, and the injury exemption doesn't exclusively state that the waiting period begins after the date of the player's last game. Harpring's been injured for ages and has gutted it out, so what date they'll consider to be the date of the injury, I don't know. But it's not automatically the date of the last game.

[Dunkenstein]

This isn't a definitive answer, but I'm not sure that the initial question is correct. While Harpring did play in the playoffs, he sustained his injury a long time ago, and the injury exemption doesn't exclusively state that the waiting period begins after the date of the player's last game. Harpring's been injured for ages and has gutted it out, so what date they'll consider to be the date of the injury, I don't know. But it's not automatically the date of the last game.

Sham, can you point out an instance where a career-ending injury exemption was given prior to the one year anniversary of the last game in which the player played?

[Three34]

Nope, which is why I was hoping no one was going to ask that.

[FGump]

As I recall, the effective date of an injury BY RULE is the year in which he last played 10+ games, and the date in that year is his last game played in that year.

So as originally noted, given his contract he cannot be eligible for a "permanently impaired" exemption.

[Three34]

I only mention what I did because I swear we had a discussion about it once, where we concluded that it wasn't a hard and fast rule that the date of the last game was the start of the exemption clock, if the injury had been prior to that and the player had tried to play on it anyway. I can't remember the example player we used. It may have been Eric Snow, but I'm not sure.

[FGump]

Sham, I don't recall the prior discussion ending that way, and the rule is quite definitive.

Art VII Sec 4 (h) (3)
"...the career-ending injury or illness of a player who plays in more than ten (10) games in any Season shall not be deemed to have occurred prior to the last game in which the player played in such Season."

That defines the earliest date that said injury can be assumed, subject to the approval of the docs and the later 10-game-in-a-season disqualifiers of course.

[Three34]

Well, that's pissed on my strawberries. Let's move on.

[chakdaddy]

Interesting thing about that is, that if a guy guts it out at the beginning of a season (preseason?) but doesn't make it to 10 games, you might be able to push the date of the injury to the last game of the prior year.

But if he gets hurt later in the year, after he already played in 10 games, you couldn't push it back (but it shouldn't matter much, since it should only be a couple of weeks difference.) Maybe it would matter if a guy plays 10 games early, gets hurt, then guts out 1 or 2 games in a failed comeback at the end of the season or playoffs. Sounds like Bill Walton in 86-87 - played 10 regular season games, then came back for the playoffs and never played again. Celtics deserve cap relief for him and Len Bias and Reggie Lewis and for Derek Smith and for Tim Duncan!