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Free flights count against the cap
In a capped league, anything a team gives a player is income to the player. A private plane flight written into a contract is part of the salary calculation and counts toward the luxury tax. A trip from Los Angeles to New York runs around $80,000, and that amount counts toward the cap. If the flight goes undisclosed, or the player never pays it back, it circumvents the cap.
Game tickets work the same way. Players with big families and lots of friends ask for 20 tickets a game, and teams keep track of every ticket they hand over because players have to declare them. Baseball has the same rule: a team cannot start doing extras for a player and leave them undisclosed.
The NBA found that Leonard failed to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses that the collective bargaining agreement did not authorize, many of them requested by his uncle and business manager, Dennis Robertson.
How does the NBA luxury tax work?
The luxury tax charges teams a fee on payroll above a set threshold, and the rate rises the further over the line a team goes. Part of the money has been shared with teams that stayed under the line. The tax was written into the 1999 collective bargaining agreement and was first assessed in the early 2000s. Its purpose is to discourage the largest-market teams from simply outspending everyone else.
Why would a salary cap count perks like flights?
A cap limits total compensation, so anything with cash value to a player can become a workaround if it goes uncounted. Private flights, housing, and tickets have clear market prices, which makes them easy to value as pay. Leagues with caps generally write their rules to cover indirect payments as well as base salary. Teams therefore log perks such as tickets and travel, since each one can be reviewed in an audit.
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