LeBron James has now put pen to paper for the Philadelphia 76ers … along with one interesting contract clause.
The former MVP James has officially signed his new two-year, $8 million contract with the 76ers, Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Sunday. Charania adds that James’ new contract comes with a notable clause — a full 15 percent trade kicker.
In other words, James will be owed an extra 15 percent of his contract value by the 76ers if they end up trading him. James’ trade bonus would then be spread out over the remaining years of his contract and will be counted (along with his base salary) against the receiving team’s salary cap.
The all-time NBA leading scorer James was not eligible for a no-trade clause with the 76ers. That is because a) he does not have the four seasons of experience required with his current team in order to receive an outright no-trade clause and b) he did not re-sign with his previous team, meaning that he is not eligible for a implied no-trade clause for players on one-year contracts (or two-year contracts with a player option in the second year).
James, now 41 years old, is in fact though joining the 76ers on a two-year contract with a Year 2 player option. He only ended up getting the veteran’s minimum as well, which is worth $3.9 million this year and an estimated $4.1 million next year (for players with over 10 years of NBA experience).
Because James is only on such a modest salary, his 15 percent trade kicker would only work out to a total sum of roughly $600,000. That means that, while unlikely, there is always a possibility that the 76ers could look to trade James if the experiment goes south (which might affect James’ reported goal for the rest of his NBA career).
