67. What is the Amnesty provision?
Amnesty is a one-time opportunity for teams to release one player via the waiver process (see question number
63) and remove him from their team salary and luxury tax computations. For a player to be eligible for the Amnesty provision he must be on his team's roster continuously from July 1, 2011 to the date he is amnestied, without any new contract, extension, renegotiation or other amendment to his contract in the meantime. Players who were waived prior to July 1, 2011 and are still receiving guaranteed salary are also eligible. Teams cannot amnesty players they sign, receive in trade, extend, renegotiate, or otherwise amend after July 1, 2011.
Amnesty can be used prior to the 2011-12 through 2015-16 seasons, although teams may use the provision only once in total -- not once per season. For the 2011-12 season the Amnesty provision was available from December 9-16, 2011. For the 2012-13 through 2015-16 seasons it is available for the first seven days that follow the July moratorium (see question number
101). The waiver period for amnestied players is 48 hours.
Players waived using this provision are not counted in team salary (see question number
14) or luxury tax (see question number
21) computations, except for the following:
- Amnestied players continue to count toward the minimum team payroll (see question number 15).
- Amnestied players continue to count toward the players' league-wide revenue guarantee (see question number 18).
As with any other waived player, teams must continue to pay the guaranteed base salary of their amnestied players. The player's full salary comes off the team salary as soon as he is placed on waivers.
Also as with any other waived player, another team may place a waiver claim in order to acquire the player before he clears waivers (see question number
63). But amnesty is different from the normal waiver process in that it allows teams to make either a full or partial waiver claim. When a team makes a full waiver claim it acquires the player, assumes his full contract, and pays all remaining salary obligations (and the waiving team has no further salary obligation to the player). Full waiver claims have precedence over partial waiver claims -- if one team makes a full waiver claim and another makes a partial waiver claim, the team making the full waiver claim is awarded the player. If multiple teams make full waiver claims, the player is awarded to the team with the worst record.
A partial waiver claim is a bid for a single dollar amount. If no team makes a full waiver claim, the player is awarded to the team submitting the highest bid in a partial waiver claim. If multiple teams bid the same amount, the player is awarded to the team with the worst record. When a team is awarded a player via a partial waiver claim, it pays the following portion of the player's salary:
- The amount of their bid, spread pro rata across all remaining guaranteed years of the player's contract
- All non-base compensation, such as bonuses
- 100% of the player's salary in non-guaranteed seasons
The waiving team continues to pay the remainder of the player's salary -- any portion that is not paid by the claiming team. For example, the New York Knicks amnestied Chauncey Billups in 2011 with one year remaining on his contract for $14.2 million. The Los Angeles Clippers submitted the only bid, for $2,000,032. The Clippers paid Billups the amount of their bid, with the Knicks responsible for the remaining $12,199,968. This system (plus the rules for minimum bids, as described below) helps ensure that the waiving team doesn't have to pay the player more than they would have paid had they waived their player without amnesty.
The minimum bid for a partial waiver claim is whichever of the following is larger:
- The sum of the player's minimum salary for all remaining years of his contract, except for completely non-guaranteed seasons (seasons with 0% salary protection) which are ignored for this purpose.
- The sum of all non-guaranteed salary in partially-guaranteed seasons.
For example, if a 10+ year veteran is amnestied in 2012 with three years remaining on his contract at $10 million each season, and his salary is guaranteed 100% in 2012-13, 60% in 2013-14, and 0% in 2014-15, then the minimum bid for a partial waiver claim is $4 million -- the unprotected amount in the partly-protected 2013-14 season, which is larger than the sum of the minimum salaries for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons. Since the 2014-15 season is completely unprotected, it is ignored when determining the minimum bid amount.
If instead the above player's salary was 100% guaranteed in all three seasons, the minimum bid amount would be $4,200,178 -- the sum of the minimum salaries for a 10+ year veteran for those three seasons.
In order to submit a bid for a partial waiver claim, the bidding team must have cap room equivalent to the portion of their bid that would be charged to team salary in that season, plus the amount of any likely bonuses (see question number
72) for that season. If necessary, teams can create this cap room by waiving non-guaranteed players, but not by making trades. The team must make the cap room available immediately upon being awarded the amnesty claim.
An amnestied player's Bird clock does not reset when he is awarded to the team with the winning bid. In addition, for the purpose of the non-Bird or Early Bird exception (see question number
25) his prior salary is considered to be his full salary prior to being amnestied. For example, if a player with a $10 million salary is amnestied, claimed by another team for $1 million, and becomes a non-Bird free agent, his team can re-sign him for up to 120% of his full $10 million salary.
The waiving team may not re-sign or re-acquire the player for the length of his contract (which includes seasons following an ETO, but does not include seasons following an option), and the claiming team is prohibited from trading the player until the following July 1.