The Brooklyn Nets are now one of the few teams in the league that are at full strength. The team is now injury-free and will be fielding a full squad against the Toronto Raptors on Friday.
While this is an undeniably positive development for the Nets, they won’t be smiling about the NBA’s recent decision to fine them $25,000 for a recent injury report violation. Apparently, league officials did not appreciate how Brooklyn decided to rest no less than eight players during Saturday’s win against the Indiana Pacers:
“The NBA today announced the Brooklyn nets have been fined $25,000 for failing to comply with league policies governing injury reporting,” read an official statement from the NBA.
The Brooklyn Nets have been fined $25,000 for failure to comply with the league’s policy regarding “injury reporting”.
(via @NBAPR) pic.twitter.com/oe6hj53mn0
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) December 15, 2022
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Nic Claxton, Seth Curry, Joe Harris, T.J. Warren, and Royce O’Neale all ended up missing the Pacers game for various reasons. It seems like the Nets made some sort of documentation error in reporting the injuries, and the league, as always, has acted swiftly.
The Nets still ended up winning that game, though, 136-133, despite not having half of their squad available for the matchup.
For his part, Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaugh said that he felt that everything was taken care of in terms of the team filing the necessary injury reports to the NBA:
“I think everything that’s been reported today has been documented,” Vaughn said prior to the game against the Pacers last week, via Nick Friedell of ESPN. “And so we know that Seth [Curry] and Joe [Harris] had offseason ankle [surgeries], there’s no argument to that. Nic [Claxton] didn’t play last game because he had hamstring tightness, there’s no argument to that. Kevin’s leading the league in minutes, there’s no argument to that. Royce [O’Neale] had a personal reason, he’s missing the next game, there’s no argument to that.”
As it turns out, coach Vaughn was wrong, and the league is making sure that the Nets pay for their mistake — literally.