Kobe's no-trade provision more trouble than it's worth

Kobe Bryant is the only player with an active no-trade clause. Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images

RELATED • THOMSEN: Arenas sounds off on Kobe

Also in this column:
• Is Magic tampering in TNT role?
• Win-win trade for Wolves, Spurs

We might see a Kobe Bryant trade in the next few hours, days, weeks or months. Or not.

But we probably won't be seeing any more no-trade clauses. Not anytime soon.

That little provision in the Lakers scoring star's contract has turned a bad situation into something far more regrettable. Bryant is the only player in the NBA who has such veto power over a transaction that would find him employed elsewhere -- in keeping with both his singular ability, apparently, and his singular view of himself in this world -- and judging by the fallout that has resulted, it figures to stay that way.

"I sure hope it's not a trend,'' Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Jim Stack said. "I'd like to think that most players don't want to be that involved in something like this. The way they ought to think of it is, you're signing a contract to play in the NBA. You're being paid a tremendous amount of money. The trend of that [the no-trade clause] becoming pervasive, it's not really good for our league.''

So far, there has not been a rush of agents demanding no-trade clauses for their clients because, for one thing, few players qualify for them. Under collective bargaining rules, a player has to have completed at least eight seasons in the NBA and played for the team with which he is signing for at least four seasons.

Also, the provision has been limited to new contracts -- such as the $136.4 million deal Bryant signed with the Lakers in what generally is remembered as his Shaq's-gotta-go free-agency flirtation in 2004. Simply extending an existing contract doesn't count; Kevin Garnett and agent Andy Miller were blunted in their attempts to get a no-trade clause in the Big Ticket's five-year, $100 million extension in 2003. That's why Tim Duncan, in the extension he agreed to the other day, doesn't have a no-trade either.

Then there's this: If the purpose is to provide the player with some leverage over where he's sent, there already is an effective mechanism available. A trade "kicker,'' that extra 10 or 15 percent that triggers in certain players' deals when they are traded, isn't there just to pay for cardboard boxes and the U-Haul trailer. Given the NBA's complex salary-matching rules for trades, a player's willingness to budge on that extra money can make, break or at least delay a deal.

"The kicker in its own right gives a player his say,'' Miller said. "A no-trade clause doesn't serve any extra purpose. It's only benefit is to bring up more hype, glamour and discussion among the media. But you have control anyway.''

Said Stack: "The player has to sign off on any modifications of his contract. He could blow up a trade by refusing to do that.''

Example: Before Garnett could be traded to Boston, the Celtics and the Wolves needed to work with Garnett to navigate his $6.75 million kicker (15 percent of the value left on his contract at the time). Had he still been reluctant to play in Boston -- as he was before Ray Allen got there -- Garnett could have scuttled the deal by refusing to waive a portion of his kicker.

Even when a player digs in his heels, though, the teams still can do business if they build out the trade to accommodate the bigger numbers. As new Suns president Steve Kerr said: "The kicker, you still can go ahead and do it. You just may have to swallow some money. The no-trade clause gives complete authority to the player.''

Bryant has a trade kicker, but it is his no-trade provision that has caused so much collateral damage. Because the player and his agent have to be consulted at the front end -- will they even approve of a certain city or team? -- rather than at the back end, sensitive information is even more likely to leak. A deal becomes more difficult, obviously, when the list of possible destinations is cut to three or four teams rather than 29. And other players can get dinged when the guy with the no-trade starts to dictate their futures.

Look at Luol Deng. It had to be bad enough to have trade rumors rumbling through the Chicago Bulls' practice gym in the same week that Deng was hoping to negotiate a multimillion-dollar extension. But then he had to hear his name bandied about not just by the Bulls or the Lakers, but by Bryant or, at least, his mouthpieces. The frustration in Lakerland with the entire situation even had Magic Johnson, a team vice president, speculating about Deng from his pulpit on TNT's Inside the NBA studio set.

1 of 2