With NBA Commissioner David Stern making the rounds today in advance of Game 7 of the NBA Finals tonight, he revealed that the league would have no choice but to block the trade between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Clippers as constructed.
As it stands now, there are two deals in place. One would send the Celtics' Kevin Garnett to Los Angeles in exchange for DeAndre Jordan. The other would send two Clippers draft picks to Boston in exchange for the Celtics releasing head coach Doc Rivers from his contract, presumably so he could sign on to coach the Clippers.
According to the Celtics Green Blog, the Clippers and Celtics had discussed a similar Garnett-Jordan swap (with a few other minor aspects) earlier in the season, but Clippers owner Donald Sterling did not like the deal and it fell through. Now, however, Clippers point guard Chris Paul is said to be the driving force behind the talks, and he is both a huge fun of Rivers and an unrestricted free agent who Los Angeles would very much like to re-sign.
Here's the problem: the league will not approve separate deals that are "connected;" contingent on each other in any way. Technically these are two separate deals, but obviously they are connected. As Celtics Green again points out, Garnett is presumably only waving his no-trade clause to stick with Rivers as coach. So while Rivers-for-picks may not be contingent on Garnett-for-Jordan, there is no way for the teams to frame this to the league as separate deals, because Garnett will not waive his no-trade clause if Rivers does not go with him.
Here's what David Stern said this morning on Collin Cowherd's ESPN Radio show:
"I would say that if we know that what the parties really wanted to do is one and they’re going to break into two 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."
So naturally, the teams are now trying to rework the deals so they are not blatantly plain as one deal split into two.
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