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Rock Strongo
My mind spits with an enormous kickback.
Sources: Clips-Celts deal unlikely
The proposed trade of Kevin Garnett to the Los Angeles Clippers and corresponding transaction that would transport Doc Rivers from the Boston Celtics' bench to L.A.'s are unlikely to be approved by the league office, according to sources close to the process.
Sources told ESPN.com on Thursday that league officials have communicated to both teams that they have serious misgivings about the proposed transactions because Garnett and Rivers have been shopped by the Celtics as a package deal, which would violate NBA rules prohibiting contingencies or sides deals in any trade.
The Celtics and Clippers, sources said, were searching Thursday afternoon for new deal constructions to alleviate the league's reservations about L.A.'s intent to trade young center DeAndre Jordan for Garnett and separately send two first-round picks to Boston as compensation for Rivers' coaching rights. But it was not immediately clear if they could successfully come up with a new structure that NBA commissioner David Stern would sanction./p
In the wake of an ESPN.com report Thursday morning regarding the NBA's concerns, Stern appeared on both "The Herd" on ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio New York and confirmed that the prospect of the Celtics and Clippers trying to submit the deals for Garnett and Rivers as separate transactions would not be permissible under league bylaws.
"I would say that if we know that what the parties really wanted to do is one [trade] and they're going to break it into two for the purposes of trying to avoid the restrictions that the collective bargaining agreement places on it, we know how to deal with that as well," Stern told ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd.
The proposed trade of Kevin Garnett to the Los Angeles Clippers and corresponding transaction that would transport Doc Rivers from the Boston Celtics' bench to L.A.'s are unlikely to be approved by the league office, according to sources close to the process.
Sources told ESPN.com on Thursday that league officials have communicated to both teams that they have serious misgivings about the proposed transactions because Garnett and Rivers have been shopped by the Celtics as a package deal, which would violate NBA rules prohibiting contingencies or sides deals in any trade.
The Celtics and Clippers, sources said, were searching Thursday afternoon for new deal constructions to alleviate the league's reservations about L.A.'s intent to trade young center DeAndre Jordan for Garnett and separately send two first-round picks to Boston as compensation for Rivers' coaching rights. But it was not immediately clear if they could successfully come up with a new structure that NBA commissioner David Stern would sanction./p
In the wake of an ESPN.com report Thursday morning regarding the NBA's concerns, Stern appeared on both "The Herd" on ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio New York and confirmed that the prospect of the Celtics and Clippers trying to submit the deals for Garnett and Rivers as separate transactions would not be permissible under league bylaws.
"I would say that if we know that what the parties really wanted to do is one [trade] and they're going to break it into two for the purposes of trying to avoid the restrictions that the collective bargaining agreement places on it, we know how to deal with that as well," Stern told ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd.