Just when you thought the whole sordid DeAndre Jordan saga was behind us, the league offices have peeled back another layer of the onion skin. According to a report from NBA.com, the Los Angeles Clippers have been fined $250,000 for violating what the league calls its “anti-circumvention rules.” Here’s more from the official press release:
“The violation involved a presentation made by the Clippers to free agent DeAndre Jordan on July 2 that improperly included a potential third-party endorsement opportunity for the player. While the NBA’s investigation ultimately concluded that the presentation of this opportunity had no impact on Jordan’s decision to re-sign with the Clippers, the team’s conduct nevertheless violated the league’s anti-circumvention rules.
The NBA’s anti-circumvention rules prohibit teams from, among other things, providing or arranging for others to provide any form of compensation to a player unless such compensation is included in a player contract or otherwise expressly permitted under the CBA.”
It boggles the mind to think about how often this happens and goes completely unnoticed, especially during free agency. Potential endorsement opportunities have long been a staple of the courtship process when it comes to luring free agents to town. But it apparently can’t be done so overtly. It’s more of a wink-wink, nudge-nudge sort of deal. Then again, nothing about the DeAndre Jordan free agency fiasco went according to due process.
And that’s due in large part to the fact that the rules surrounding the free agency moratorium process are so nebulous. A supremely antiquated system that relies solely on handshake deals, while good for the players, can be extremely bad for business. You can bet it’ll be a point of discussion once the new CBA negotiations start to ramp up again in 2017.
(via NBA.com)
