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Just filed to ESPN.com: NBA issues memo warning all teams about illegal contact w/Hornets guard Chris Paul or his reps. Link forthcoming
NBA says penalties for any contact w/Paul or reps about trade NOT authorized by Hornets could include loss of picks/fines up to $5 million
Awesome!
good, NBA is getting smart
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5414701Reports of Paul courtship draws memo
The NBA issued an unexpected, leaguewide memorandum to its teams Tuesday to remind them about tampering regulations and specifically warn them about illegal contact with Chris Paul.
ESPN.com learned that the memo spells out that "no team should be having communications with Chris Paul or his agent or representative about a potential trade for Paul that have not been authorized in advance by the New Orleans Hornets."
This measure comes in the wake of various media reports in recent days that Paul's new agent, Leon Rose, has been talking to a handful of teams about pursuing trades for his client.
The memo, sources said, also threatens penalties for any such communications that could potentially include "suspension of the offending person, prohibition of the offending team from hiring the person being tampered with, forfeiture of draft picks and individual and/or team fines of up to $5 million."
The Hornets have been telling teams for weeks that they are not interested in trading their star point guard. That message was also delivered to Paul on Monday during a face-to-face meeting in New Orleans that was convened to address numerous reports that the All-Star wants to be dealt.
The memo serves as further evidence that the subject of Paul's future in New Orleans has replaced LeBron James' free agency as the new obsession.
It's believed that the league office has taken this step as a proactive measure in hopes of avoiding some of the charges of tampering and/or collusion that have been levied from within league circles and in the press in response to James' decision to join Team USA colleagues Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.
In other words, David Stern is warning Mark Cuban. If the Lakers or Heat or Knicks want to tamper, then tamper away.
Cuban talked to Lebron about free agency before Lebron was a free agent (he said so in an interview), he never got a fine for it.
are you in re ed?Cuban talked to Lebron about free agency before Lebron was a free agent (he said so in an interview), he never got a fine for it.
http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nba...ory?id=5210828
What aCuban talked to Lebron about free agency before Lebron was a free agent (he said so in an interview), he never got a fine for it.
Chris Paul is very fragile and child-like. You should not touch him in any way, or you might break him. Good for you NBA... Good for you...
lol alchemist
League office to Paul: "Did [the NBA team] touch you here? What about here? Did he try one of these on for size...?"
http://ken-berger.blogs.cbssports.co...38893/23463741Where selective law enforcement happens
The NBA office issued a memo to all 30 teams Tuesday reminding them of the league's tampering policy and warning of steep penalties that would result from illegal contact with Chris Paul or his representatives.
It was a welcome development, no doubt, for the New Orleans Hornets, who are dealing with their disgruntled point guard's desire to be traded. I'd also have to guess it generated a day-late, dollar-short reaction in Cleveland, where the Cavs will be reeling for a decade or longer from the su ious departure of LeBron James to Miami.
The memo issued Tuesday, first reported by ESPN.com, was similar to one sent in December 2008 warning teams about commenting publicly on prospective free agents under contract with other teams and outlining the penalties for making contact with such players. League policy calls for penalties up to and including loss of draft picks, the voiding of player contracts and a maximum fine of $5 million for discussing transactions with players under contract without consent of their teams. The 2008 memo was in response to growing public commentary by team executives regarding the free-agent class of 2010, which of course included James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Paul, through his new agent, Leon Rose, informed the Hornets recently that he wants to be traded and gave the team a list of preferred destinations. Paul and Rose met Monday in New Orleans with Hornets president Hugh Weber, GM Dell Demps and coach Monty Williams to hash out their differences. Not surprisingly, everyone emerged from the meeting saying they've all agreed to get along. But we know better, and so does the league office. Sources told CBSSports.com that Monday's meeting did not quell Paul's desire to push for a trade and this his representatives planned to continue applying pressure to get him out of New Orleans. The league memo Tuesday only underscored the reality facing the Hornets.
But under league rules, such conversations can only be initiated or approved by the Hornets. So on Tuesday, the league made a strong statement in defense of an organization that faces an uphill battle in keeping its franchise player happy. The last thing Demps and Williams need is to have Rose and William Wesley recruiting trade partners through back channels -- which is how much of the business of the league is done.
"This kind of thing happens all the time," said a person within the NBA. "But the league wants to have more control over the players. They don't want players working behind the scenes to get themselves traded."
That train, it could be argued, whizzed past the station long ago.
So why such a strong stance against tampering with Paul when nothing has been done to investigate whether James was tampered with prior to his "decision" to join Wade and Bosh with the Heat? One possible explanation is that once a case of alleged tampering has occurred, standard procedure is to investigate only after the offended team files a tampering charge. The Cavs never complained publicly or to the league about a reported meeting last November attended by James, Michael Jordan and Heat president Pat Riley. Another reported meeting last month involving James, Wade and Bosh would be more difficult to probe because league tampering rules essentially are aimed at teams and team executives. Meetings and conversations among players are more difficult to police. Nonetheless, the Cavs have no plans to file tampering charges, preferring instead to focus on moving forward with their post-LeBron plans.
The Hornets, meanwhile, are just trying to get through each day without Rose pitching possible trade scenarios for Paul to competing franchises.
Conversations this summer between James and Paul -- which presumably led Paul to drop his association with Octagon and hire Rose as his agent -- would be difficult, if not impossible, to tie to any kind of tampering. The league obviously can't control agents like Rose and operatives like Wesley as closely as it can monitor its teams' executives. So a memo like this warning teams to leave Paul alone is the best that can be done, I suppose. Is it mostly for show? Yes, mostly. The NBA grapevine is a free-for-all, with illegal conversations that can't be adequately policed happening all the time. But at least for now, the league's stance theoretically will provide a chilling effect to what has become the Summer of CP3.
It may or may not help the Hornets keep their star point guard. It won't, however, do anything to help the Cavs get over the loss of LeBron. That's life, I guess, in the NBA.
Because it was a case of a difference between free agents and contracted players? Technically James may still have been under contract after the season, but the fact is, they weren't working. His season was over...
It could be legally tampering, but the spirit of the law seems to lean the other way...
Yay, I'm glad that you posted a link to Ken "The Authority On Chris Paul" Berger's opinion of this matter.
forgot he did get fined
mono with the goods
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