Contrary to a common misconception, a player?s first-season salary on a maximum contract is NOT determined, or in any way affected, by the team?s Bird rights over that player.

For players with 7 to 9 years of NBA service (a category into which LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh fall), the first-season salary on a max contract is the HIGHEST of three figures:


(a) 105% of that player?s previous season?s salary OR

(b) 30% of the Salary Cap (the 48.04% of the basketball-related income based Salary Cap, not the more commonly used 51% of the BRI based Salary Cap) OR

(c) $11 million.

The first-season salary of a max contract, therefore, would be the SAME for all teams if offered in the SAME season (assuming, of course, that the team has the salary cap space to be able to make such a max offer to begin with).  

For example, even if the salary cap declines significantly next year as projected, James would earn at least $16.5 million (a bit more) in the first year of a new max contract, during the 2010-2011 season, regardless of which team offers him the max contract.


The team that holds Bird rights on a player has three main advantages, however:


(a) That team can offer a maximum of 10.5% annual raises (starting in the second season of the contract), while other teams are limited to 8% annual raises.

(b) That team can offer an extra 6th year on the player?s contract while other teams are limited to 5 years.

(c) That team can exceed the NBA?s soft cap in order to sign the player while other teams cannot.