The NBA has decided to remind teams that it does not like tampering all that much. In the aftermath of LeBron James’ public comments about how he’d like to play with Anthony Davis, which drew jeers from executives of teams around the league and from New Orleans Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry, the league dropped a memo on Friday morning regarding its stance on tampering.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who acquired the memo sent to all 30 teams, the league sent a stern warning that looked to remind teams about the anti-tampering rules that exist.
ESPN has obtained a memo that the NBA sent to teams today to "serve as a reminder of the league's anti-tampering rule." In letter, NBA says, "employment contracts are to be respected and conduct that interferes w/ contractual relationships is prohibited."
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 28, 2018
Memo: "This principle is particularly important in today's media environment, where any actions or comments relating to potential player movement receive immediate and widespread public attention. Teams should be entitled to focus their efforts on the competition this season…" https://t.co/m1VVWmnCUX
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 28, 2018
More NBA memo: "…with the players they have under contract, without having to divert attention or resources to conduct or speculation regarding the potential destinations of those players in future seasons once their contracts expire." Translated: Knock it off w/ Anthony Davis.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 28, 2018
Over at ESPN.com, Wojnarowski wrote that the memo also included a warning about how the rules regarding tampering do not include any specific guidelines and are, essentially, taken on a case-by-case basis.
“Teams should be aware that the scope of the anti-tampering rule is broad, and its application in any given case is based on all facts and circumstances,” the memo read. “Accordingly, conduct that doesn’t violate the rule in any single instance may nevertheless constitute a violation if it becomes repeated or part of a broader collection of improper actions.”
The timing of this could really only mean one thing: The league was not exactly stoked about how things went down during the lead-up to James and Davis squaring off last week. Of course, there’s no way that the league could prevent players from talking in private, nor can it stop players/agents/teams from using the media as a way to get messages out, and you can argue that if it really viewed this as a gigantic issue, James would have been fined or reprimanded more strongly, but for what it wanted to accomplish right now, a memo works.
