Kidd Trade Blocked by Ex-Laker George: "early Bird rights"

There's no crying in basketball

Jason Kidd has handles- on luggage packed-ready to shoot over to the Dallas Mavericks today -- until ex-Laker Devean George's contract did a 'shot block'.

Say what?

George was supposed to be among the players headed from Dallas to New Jersey, but he shot blocked it because of a virtual no-trade clause as part of a contract status called "early Bird rights." * (see below)

After Dallas beat Portland on Wednesday night, Mavs coach Avery Johnson said there was "zero" chance the deal would get done, but then added that was "as of now."

George then said there's still a chance things can be worked out. He was waiting to meet with his agent, Mark Bartelstein, to discuss their options.

"We're not trying to hold things up or be difficult, but just like teams make tough decisions all the time -- about cutting players or making trades -- they do what's best for their team, and it's my obligation to do what's best for Devean," Bartelstein said during the game. "You don't want to stop teams from doing their business, but we don't feel like it makes sense at this time."

Whether this is a setback or a deal-breaker will be determined in the coming days. The trade deadline is the afternoon of Feb. 21, and remember, the early bird gets the worm.

* (from above)

Larry Bird exception

Perhaps the most well-known of the NBA's salary cap exceptions, it is so named because the Boston Celtics were the first team permitted to exceed the salary cap to re-sign one of their own players (in that case, Larry Bird). Free agents who qualify for this exception are called "qualifying veteran free agents" or "Bird Free Agents" in the CBA, and this exception falls under the auspices of the Veteran Free Agent exception. In a nutshell, the Larry Bird exception allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, at an amount up to the maximum salary. To qualify as a Bird free agent, a player must have played three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent. This means a player can obtain "Bird rights" by playing under three one-year contracts, a single contract of at least three years, or any combination thereof. It also means that when a player is traded, his Bird rights are traded with him, and his new team can use the Bird exception to re-sign him. Bird-exception contracts can be up to six years in length.

Early Bird exception

This is the lesser form of the Larry Bird Exception. Free agents who qualify for this exception are called "early qualifying veteran free agents," and qualify after playing two seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent. Using this exception, a team can re-sign its own free agent for either 175% of his salary the previous season, or the NBA's average salary, whichever is greater. Early Bird contracts must be for at least two seasons, but can last no longer than five seasons

hermetically sealed and not ready for resale