Adam Silver Is Determined To End Tampering Even If It Kills Him
(ESPN) – When the NBA’s board of governors convened earlier this month in Las Vegas, the owners’ heads were spinning from a league-shaking flurry of deals that reshaped their realities in a matter of days.
The powerful men and women, some through clenched teeth and others with open arms, asked themselves two basic but important questions: What the hell just happened, and what should we do about it?
What followed was a potentially pivotal discussion that exposed fears, examined inner workings and authored fixes aimed at trying to level an offseason playing field that’s gone full tilt.
Within days, the league opened an investigation centered on the timing of some of the earliest reported free-agency deals on June 30, sources familiar with the matter told ESPN.com. The scope of that investigation is developing. It is expected to include interviews with players and possibly agents and team employees, sources say.
The league has the power to punish teams it finds to be guilty of tampering ahead of June 30 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time — the first minute that teams are allowed to speak with representatives of free agents. It also might seek information on the timing of negotiations so that any revised free-agency calendar might better align with what is actually happening.
One of my favorite parts about NBA free agency is how teams and players try and pretend as if tampering doesn’t exist. Any public comment you hear from a team about a free agent signing always talks about how they didn’t start negotiating or even talking to a player until June 30th. This is hilarious because we always get leaks of where players are going well before free agency officially begins, and how could we forget Woj unloading his clip releasing a billion signings just seconds into the official start. Are we to believe teams were starting and closing deals with players/agents in 30 seconds? I don’t think so. Everyone with a brain knows tampering exists both between players under contract and teams and pending free agents. That’s why I find the news of this investigation funny. What is Silver going to do, punish every single team in the league that signed a free agent seconds into free agency? Guess what, they all tampered so save your money. While you may think that players can talk about whatever they want whenever they want, that’s actually not true. Lowe and Windhorst explain how that’s actually against the CBA if someone is currently under contract when the conversation takes place
The league’s constitution grants Silver the authority to fine and suspend any player who “induces, persuades, or attempts to entice” any player under contract with another team “to enter into negotiations for his services” — i.e., player-to-player tampering.
The problem is this is almost impossible to enforce so the league basically ignores it. For example do we think LeBron in AD talked about when they had dinner earlier last season when Davis was under contract in NO? This is the big problem that Adam Silver has to try and solve. Players are always going to talk to their friends no matter what their contract situation is, especially if they know the league isn’t going to do shit about it. During this board of governors meeting there were a couple solutions that definitely intrigue me.
The possibility of allowing teams to talk to free agents and their representatives immediately after the end of the Finals
This makes sense. If the season is technically over, you should be allowed to talk to players about their pending free agency. We know those conversations are happening anyway, so why not make it officially acceptable. If you’re a star player who misses the playoffs, let’s say Kemba Walker for example, why should you have to wait so long before you learn about your options. Maybe this would help agents leverage negotiations if they knew right from the jump who was in and who was out. Teams can then also prepare for the rest of their free agency if they know in early/mid June that Player A is locked up.
A more extreme version of this same general change: conduct free agency, signings and all, before the NBA draft. But this change, while practical, may not be in the immediate offing.
This is still the leader in my clubhouse. It’s something the Rockets are in favor of as well as Mike Zarren of the Celts and it makes too much sense in my opinion. Sure there are scheduling things to figure out, but I don’t know why anyone would be against handling all this shit before the Draft. That could impact what direction a team goes. This wouldn’t exactly solve tampering in my mind because teams and players would simply talk earlier in the year, but if we just accept that everyone already has an idea of where they’re going by the draft, you may as well switch it up.
If players can continue to recruit each other freely and at all times, the general sense was that teams should have more time and methods of communicating with impending free agents
You wanna get nuts? Let’s get fucking nuts. If players are able to openly recruit I’m down with this idea of letting teams get in on the action. Think of what we’ll see on social media if this is allowed. This younger generation I feel like is highly impressionable so if there’s a marketing department that can put out the best recruiting pitch then they deserve to win the player. Let’s have fun with it since we already know it’s going on anyway. Maybe it’s starts with something small like some eye emoji’s on a player highlight video or something. Who knows where it could lead to but I am absolutely here for teams having the same communication rights and abilities as players.
Either way, the league is certainly trying to solve an issue that everyone knows exists that doesn’t exactly have an easy solution. They are looking into seizing servers and cellphones and any sort of communication to try and determine what exactly is going on. There is a history with this sort of thing, in 1996 the league voided Juwan Howard’s contract and then the whole under the table Joe Smith deal with MIN in 1999. In the end though I can’t see the league ever completely eliminating tampering. It’s always going to exist no matter what the penalties end up being. Guys are going to find a way to play with their friends, teams are going to strike deals with free agents well before the official start time so they can plan out the rest of free agency. It’s no surprise one of the owners that was most vocal during those meetings was the Bucks owner, considering everyone and their mother is about to tamper their dicks off in regards to Giannis if he doesn’t sign that extension.
Adam Silver may not like it, but he’s most likely going to have to deal with it.