Author Topic: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered  (Read 5563 times)

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Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #15 on: August 26, 2014, 04:21:33 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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Yeah, I think if both teams involved have no problem with the interaction, there's little chance of the allegation even getting to the point where the league would rule on it.  And that's ignoring the free agent issue, and the issue of confirming they discussed teaming up to a degree that could even be tampering.  Doesn't seem like much here, and this is probably the sort of conversation that happens all the time during the offseason.

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #16 on: August 26, 2014, 04:36:29 PM »

Offline D.o.s.

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in other non-news, Kobe would rather go 0-30 than 0-9.


he also, apparently, is studying  Pierce as a model for how to age gracefully. And he's a Tony Allen fan.

Seriously:
http://www.si.com/nba/2014/08/26/kobe-bryant-lakers-dwight-howard-tony-allen-retirement
At least a goldfish with a Lincoln Log on its back goin' across your floor to your sock drawer has a miraculous connotation to it.

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #17 on: August 26, 2014, 04:38:34 PM »

Offline Endless Paradise

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Joakim Noah approached Melo during the season about teaming up - gasp, tampering!
John Wall publicly acknowledged that he wants to bring KD to Washington - gasp, tampering!
Greivis Vasquez likened Durant to Jesus and said he'd lead the Raptors to their first title - gasp, tampering!
Joel Embiid had a short-lived Twitter campaign jokingly trying to bring LeBron to Philly. - gasp, tampering!
Rudy Gay admitted that Rondo repeatedly approached him about playing together. - gasp, tampering!

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #18 on: August 26, 2014, 04:48:01 PM »

Offline the_Bird

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I hate whining.  Sound like a ****' crybaby.

Really, who cares?  Does it matter in the least?

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #19 on: August 26, 2014, 04:49:22 PM »

Offline D.o.s.

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Joakim Noah approached Melo during the season about teaming up - gasp, tampering!
John Wall publicly acknowledged that he wants to bring KD to Washington - gasp, tampering!
Greivis Vasquez likened Durant to Jesus and said he'd lead the Raptors to their first title - gasp, tampering!
Joel Embiid had a short-lived Twitter campaign jokingly trying to bring LeBron to Philly. - gasp, tampering!
Rudy Gay admitted that Rondo repeatedly approached him about playing together. - gasp, tampering!

Drake, of course, did get fined for tampering.  ;D
At least a goldfish with a Lincoln Log on its back goin' across your floor to your sock drawer has a miraculous connotation to it.

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #20 on: August 26, 2014, 05:14:22 PM »

Offline mmmmm

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Just so we can have (hopefully) a little clarity on this:

From:  http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q109

Quote
Tampering is when a player or team directly or indirectly entices, induces or persuades anybody (player, general manager, etc.) who is under contract with another team in order to negotiate for their services. The NBA may impose suspensions and/or fines up to $50,000 if tampering is discovered, however the league's practice has been to wait until a team lodges a complaint before investigating (but that's not to say they don't continue to monitor the league and won't take action independently if they discover that tampering has occurred). Here are some examples:

The Miami Heat were discovered to have tampered with Pat Riley in 1995 by negotiating with Riley while he was the head coach of the New York Knicks. The Heat "settled," and avoided league-imposed penalties, by compensating the Knicks with $1 million and their first round draft pick in 1996.
After Will Perdue left San Antonio in the 1999 offseason to sign with Chicago, he commented to the press about the possibility of the Bulls signing Tim Duncan and/or Grant Hill in 2000. The league considered this to be tampering, and issued Perdue a warning.
You may have noticed that when general managers and other team personnel talk to the press, they are careful to avoid talking about specific players who play for other teams. They do this in order to avoid tampering. The only allowed response when talking about players under contract with other teams is to decline comment.

Some key points:

1) Based on the wording up above, it doesn't seem to matter whether Lebron was, himself, under contract at the time.   The issue is simply whether he "enticed, induced or persuaded anybody (Love) who is under contract in order to negotiate for their services".

2) Players definitely can be flagged for it (the Will Perdue example).

3) The penalties obviously range from pretty huge ($1M in 1995 dollars plus a first round pick) to a less than a slap on the wrist (a warning).

4) Nothing is likely to happen unless a team complains.   I don't believe that a complaint has to come from either of the two teams involved.  Another team can probably file a complaint.

I doubt any team is going to complain in this Lebron-Love case.
NBA Officiating - Corrupt?  Incompetent?  Which is worse?  Does it matter?  It sucks.

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #21 on: August 26, 2014, 05:19:13 PM »

Offline saltlover

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Ok let's get technical here.

LeBron committed to the Cavs on 7/11, but he didn't sign with the Cavs until 7/12.

If he called Love the night he committed, he was still a free agent, so can a free agent tamper?


Anyway, I bet saltlover chimes in soon with the exact answer to all of our tampering questions.  Dude has the CBA memorized.  Of course one of us could just google it and look it up ourselves, I would but for some reason when I try to go to the cbafaq.com site from work, I got the message that it's blocked "Reason: Not allowed to browse P0rnography category", go figure).

LOL.  TP for making me log on.

LeBron could probably be fined for tampering with Love if the NBA wanted to do so.  Love was under contract with the Wolves, and James was telling him he wanted to play with Love on a team other than the Wolves.  It shouldn't matter whether or not LeBron was technically under contract with Cleveland at that point.  LeBron was still considered an active NBA player and bound by the rules of the CBA -- I'm quite certain he could have been drug tested on July 8th, for example (not trying to sidetrack the discussion about LeBron and his suspected PED usage held by some fans). 

The NBA has stayed away from fining players for tampering in general -- it's very difficult to prove, and the league knows players talk, and bond at events like the US National Team and All-Star games -- both of which help promote the NBA product.  LeBron might get a warning since Love admitted something publicly, and the league was rather annoyed that the negotiations for the trade dragged out in public for about six weeks.  They could even fine him a nominal sum to make an example, but I'd doubt they would.  They much more care about enforcing the rule on teams and executives, since those are the people who actually have the authority to sign players and make trades.  Also, in the grand scheme of creating good relations with players, fining them $5k-$25k for off-court communications seems like a bad thing to fight over.  Much better to fight over the split of revenue.

Short of LeBron holding a press conference to demand the Cavs trade for Love, I wouldn't see the NBA acting on this.  Again, maybe he'd get a warning.  Doubtful, but maybe.  He'd probably have to get multiple warnings before being fined though.

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #22 on: August 26, 2014, 06:08:48 PM »

Offline LooseCannon

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may not be illegal in the NBA but I've long felt that this is no different than teams tampering with players on other teams.  thing is, short of suspending Lebron and Love for part or all of this season as a penalty, there's nothing the league could really do to make Cleveland pay for this transgression.  financially they're laughing all the way to the bank so there's not much a fine will do and a fine would never be leveled on the league's lovechild (not that I expect them to ever suspend him short of using firearms on the court)

The difference between a player talking to another team's player and an executive talking to another team's player is that the executive is in a position to back up under-the-table promises such as a new contract. 
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Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #23 on: August 26, 2014, 06:44:13 PM »

Offline slamtheking

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may not be illegal in the NBA but I've long felt that this is no different than teams tampering with players on other teams.  thing is, short of suspending Lebron and Love for part or all of this season as a penalty, there's nothing the league could really do to make Cleveland pay for this transgression.  financially they're laughing all the way to the bank so there's not much a fine will do and a fine would never be leveled on the league's lovechild (not that I expect them to ever suspend him short of using firearms on the court)

The difference between a player talking to another team's player and an executive talking to another team's player is that the executive is in a position to back up under-the-table promises such as a new contract. 
for most players, that may be true.  Lebron dictates what happens wherever he goes.   Few players in the league command that level of influence but the point that Lebron isn't an executive doesn't really matter. 

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #24 on: August 26, 2014, 06:46:50 PM »

Offline puskas54_10

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Usual daily whining... about Lebron
I don't understand what good comes from hating on the best player.
Rondo constanly talked about playing with his buddies Josh Smith, Cousins, etc.
It's not like players can't talk to each other. When Iggy played for Denver and they played Golden State in the playoffs you had the feeling that he and Mark Jackson are in a good relationship. Next season Iggy ditched Denver for GS. I can fabricate things just like you it's not hard.

Re: Kevin Love Just Admitted that LeBron Tampered
« Reply #25 on: August 26, 2014, 08:57:25 PM »

Offline mgent

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i thought it's been established many times already that there is nothing preventing players from talking to each other.  Players recruit players all the time.  Tampering is when coaches/owners/gms talk to players on other teams.
It's actually been established many times (if not each time) that it's not legal.

A player can "recruit" by telling other players they want to play with them.  They can say stuff like "come to Cleveland and we'll be undefeatable" and you can't prove they're actually tampering rather than just fantasizing about how great it would be.

On the other hand, if a player was ever recorded saying something like "Pat Riley told me he'll give you the max if you leave Cleveland next year," tampering charges would probably stick.  So would something like, "my GM agrees to clear cap space to sign you next year, as long as you guarantee us you will sign here."  It's just incredibly hard to prove that a player facilitated the tampering between their team and another player.

If I had to guess, there was definitely some type of agreement between Riley and LeBron ahead of time.  How else can you explain LeBron putting in his change of number 6-8 months before (and taking advantage of all that media coverage)?  If anything, going back to 23 just further proves that he never would have changed if not for Miami.
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