The NBA seems to be trying to emphasize having owners and teams follow tampering rules.
The league fined the Houston Rockets $25,000 over the weekend, according to the New York Times’ Marc Stein. Stein says the fine was for owner Tilman Fertitta’s comments before the Russell Westbrook trade was officially completed.
The Rockets were fined $25,000 over the weekend, @NYTSports has learned, for public statements made by owner Tilman Fertitta before the Russell Westbrook-to-Houston trade was officially completed
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 15, 2019
Fertitta shared comments with FOX 26 in Houston reporter Marc Berman about Westbrook last Thursday even though the trade hadn’t officially been completed at the time.
#Rockets owner @TilmanJFertitta on his franchise landing Russell Westbrook in a deal that sends Chris Paul to OKC: pic.twitter.com/LDYbeUxZpB
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) July 12, 2019
“We’re so excited to have Russell Westbrook,” Fertitta said. “I would watch him play for Oklahoma City and he’s so athletic. At the same time this franchise just had the two years with the most wins it’s ever had in consecutive years and we wouldn’t have accomplished that without Chris Paul. Chris Paul is unbelievable and he’s gonna be sadly missed.
“I said at the end of the year we’re never gonna stand pat. We’re always gonna try to get better. I think this makes us a better team. I hate to lose Chris Paul, but we felt like we did what we had to do to become a better team.
“I think it’ll be very interesting and fun. James [Harden] and Russell wanted to play together. It oughta be fun this year.”
The fine for Fertitta comes shortly after we learned Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $50,000 by the league for leaking information to a reporter.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver had said previously that he planned to address the trade requests from star players. NBA owners are growing concerned about superstar power as well. Maybe getting owners to start following some of these rules is the first step towards addressing some of that.
