No no-trade contract? No problem for The AnswerBy Marc Stein
ESPN.com
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What they're saying on the Allen Iverson grapevine: The Answer has let it be known that he doesn't want to play in Charlotte.
What they're also saying in front-office circles: Iverson isn't thrilled about the prospect of relocating to Sacramento, either.
What I find myself saying whenever I hear such sentiments: How do players scare teams off so easily when almost no one in the NBA possesses a no-trade clause?
The Bobcats, let's face it, would be skittish about trading for A.I. even if he welcomed the move, given owner Bob Johnson's obvious comfort level with a roster that doesn't pay a single player more than $5.5 million. Although he badly wants to fill up his building and ranks as one of the league's most outspoken owners regarding the struggles of small-market, Johnson is clearly hesitant to sanction an Iverson deal. Sure, Iverson has a knack for selling tickets, he also has $39.8 million left on his contract after this season and the little man has a hard-to-handle history.
But here's the thing.
Iverson doesn't possess the ultimate hammer. NBA front-office sources confirmed Tuesday that his contract does not contain a no-trade clause.
In fact, as far as I know, the Lakers' Kobe Bryant is the only NBA player who has one.
Why?
This simply isn't baseball, where no-trade clauses or partial no-trade clauses are routinely built into player contracts ... and where the famed 10-and-5 rule automatically enables veterans with 10 years of service time and five with a player's current team to veto trades.
In the NBA, only players with at least eight years of service time and four with the same team are eligible for a no-trade clause.
The problem?
Very few players get to that point with one team and then have the opportunity to negotiate a no-trade clause through free-agency.
Star players like Iverson, for starters, generally sign their first big-money deals well before their eighth season.
Star players like Iverson, furthermore, often sign extensions to those big deals ... and NBA extensions do not allow players to add major changes in contract terms, such as a no-trade clause. A player must enter free agency to change major terms in a contract.
That's how Bryant put himself in the rare position to negotiate a no-trade clause. He was a full-fledged unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2004 and, having just completed his eighth season and after flirting seriously with the Clippers, signed a new seven-year, $136 million contract with the Lakers which includes a no-trade provision.
Iverson?
He's actually never been eligible for a no-trade clause, even though this is his 11th season with the same team. His four-year, $72.4 million extension with the Sixers, which began last season, operates under the same main terms -- without a no-trade clause, in other words -- as his previous contract, which he signed before he had eight years in the league.
The league, on top of that, now has the right to suspend players who refuse to report to their new teams after trades, following the Alonzo Mourning debacle in Toronto after the Nets swiped Vince Carter from the Raps in December 2004.
Yet the league's authority in such matters didn't stop the Bobs from quickly abandoning the concept of adding Iverson to their quartet of promising kiddies: Emeka Okafor, Adam Morrison, Raymond Felton and Sean May.
We'll have to wait and see how it impacts the Kings, who continue to flirt with the idea of sending Mike Bibby (and others excluding Kevin Martin) to Philly to pair Iverson with Ron Artest ... and who have a history of ignoring star players' initial resistance to Natomas County (Chris Webber and Artest) and trading for them anyway.
Iverson, sources says, most wants to go Minnesota or Boston. He's also apparently open to Indiana and would presumably sanction Denver, which has registered interest in spite of its vows to sit this out.
All those teams continue to face serious issues assembling the package of young players, draft picks and/or favorable contracts Philly is looking for, but their quests live on and actually gain momentum if Iverson can continue to dissuade Charlotte from making bids.
Even without official trade-blocking power.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.
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