The competition in the NBA is everywhere, as economic interests grow larger, there are open and covert struggles all around, and commercial factors often become an important consideration.
Like this time, when the Trail Blazers successfully signed Sabonis, they faced opposition from many teams, arguing how the Trail Blazers, clearly over the salary cap, could still sign free agents?
The Trail Blazers' reasoning was that Sabonis was previously a player for the Trail Blazers, and although he left the Trail Blazers in the past four years, he did not sign with any other NBA team.
Therefore, the Trail Blazers still hold Sabonis's Bird rights, allowing them to sign him despite being over the cap, not subject to the salary cap restrictions.
This explanation faced protests from many teams, including the Bulls, with Jerry Krause and others taking their complaints all the way to David Stern in New York.
