The NBA has embarked in a perhaps futile mission to end tampering after a wave of blockbuster signings and trades took place in a wild free-agency period with record-breaking numbers. The Brooklyn Nets were among the teams pulling strings even before free agency started, reportedly confident that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were done deals as soon as the night before free agency opened:
The Nets, according to a source, were confident that Durant and Kyrie were a done deal the night before free agency started. Regardless, there’s no way to prove tampering. https://t.co/ZgN3iJse6q
— Stefan Bondy (@SBondyNYDN) September 15, 2019
The league is now looking to impose hefty fines, as much as $10 million for teams that are found to have tampered with players that are still under contract with another team — coupled with fines for unauthorized agreements of $6 million per team and $250,000 per player.
Yet players have been more than willing to leave money on the table in search of happiness or a better basketball fit, with several of the biggest names in the league leaving their franchises to wind up somewhere new.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver admitted it would be pointless to have anti-tampering rules if they can't be enforced, yet it seems the fines have been raised instead of the means to prove that tampering exists:
“I think it’s pointless at the end of the day to have rules that we can’t enforce,” said Silver, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. “It hurts the perception of integrity around the league if people say, ‘Well, you have that rule and it’s obvious that teams aren’t fully complying, so why do you have it?’ I think the sense in the (Board of Governors meeting) room was we should revisit those rules.”
The NBA has by no means perfected this new quest for transparency and policy obedience, but the Nets might just have escaped a big-time fine by assembling this dynamic duo in the summer.
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