I've always been a big NBA fan and always thought I understood restricted vs unrestricted but then I read an article on Kyrie Irving on ESPN.
So if a player is a RFA and gets offered say 5 years 50 million by another team, and the players current team matches the offer, what does that mean? Can the player chose either team, or does he have to stay with current team since they matched?
If they have to stay with current team why would a franchise ever offer a max deal to a player that is a RFA? They can just sit back and match any offer, which would always be less than what a max deal would cost.