The fine that the Los Angeles Lakers have received from the tampering charges is woefully unfair.
The Los Angeles Lakers were fined $500,000 on Thursday for tampering with Paul George while he was still under contract with the Indiana Pacers. Apparently, it wasn’t even Magic Johnson who the infamous Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz’s investigation busted breaking the “rules”; it was our very own general manager Rob Pelinka who made contact with George’s agent.
Congratulations Indiana, you got us.
The issue with this debacle is the hypocrisy of it all. Under NBA tampering rules, no team-affiliated person may entice or induce a player under contract with another team to play for his team. This part seems simple enough and if Pelinka did, in fact, contact George’s agent, then the Lakers did break the rule.
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However, the rule also bans players from persuading or attempting to persuade a player under contract with another team to enter into negotiations with his team. This is where the tampering rule loses its legs.
Players are all friends with each other and I’m 100 percent positive that this happens all the time. The players work out together all summer and play in the same summer league circuits. These guys are always actively recruiting one another and they have been since middle-school AAU days.
Of course, the Lakers communicated with Paul George; he publicly stated that he wants to come to Los Angeles and any general manager would be silly not to reciprocate interest. But, to single the Lakers out, when the Golden State Warrior players notably recruited Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade obviously reached out to LeBron James seems bogus. If you ask me, the NBA still owes us one after the whole Chris Paul deal.
I get it, player and general manager tampering isn’t the same thing, but rules are rules. Either enforce them or don’t.
The NBA probably singled out Pelinka to “draw a line” of sorts distinguishing team officials from players, but even this seems disingenuous because we all know Magic spoke with George (and probably LeBron too).
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I guess the line we’re creating puts ex-players on the side of players. Who knows? It’s really all unclear and unfair. Thanks NBA for not banning Paul George from coming to Los Angeles, but please don’t pick on us because of our allure.