These emm effers. Our team nuked and in the basement for 3 years because of the first screwing and Basketball Reasons from Stern the slimy, greasy midget weasel, and it's still not good enough for them. Not to mention when we are doing well all the profit sharing we contribute to their sorry a** little city teams. I hope the Lakers come out swinging with all the other crap that has gone on. Chris Paul signed, sealed and in agreement on trade and salary the second free agency started. Miami. Golden State. But noooooo .... keep the Lakers as your bogeyman team in the league. F*** them and all their stupid mascots and stupid owners, whichever are appropriate. "I understand the desire to take down the big, bad Lakers – especially now that they appear poised to become truly big and bad again. But it’s hard to find a team that can cast a stone at them from anywhere other than a glass house."
More Than a 'Wink'? Extensive Tampering Could Cost L.A. Lakers Paul George ERIC PINCUSAUGUST 21, 2017 Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Make no mistake, Earvin "Magic" Johnson is guilty of tampering. Just two months into the job as president of the Los Angeles Lakers, Johnson made an appearance on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Kimmel first asked about potential Lakers' targets Paul George and Chris Paul, but Johnson responsibly shut that down. "I had to go to school. I had to go to CBA school, salary cap school and tampering school," Johnson replied. "You can't tamper with somebody else's player." It was Kimmel's follow-up question that led Johnson astray. "What constitutes tampering? Like if you're on vacation and you run into Paul George, you're not allowed to speak to him?" Kimmel asked. "No, we're going to say, 'Hi,' because we know each other," Johnson replied. "Just can't say 'I want you to come to the Lakers,' even though I'm going to be winking like ..." Johnson gave an exaggerated wink, laughed and shook hands with Kimmel saying, "You know what that means, right?" So, while he never quite said outright, Magic all but spelled out on national television that the Lakers want George, instead of declining to comment on the player who was, at the time, under contract with the Indiana Pacers. It was good television but Johnson may need to revisit "tampering school," as his comments, explicit or not, represented a breach of NBA protocol. The Pacers, in particular, did not find the bit on Kimmel amusing. They've since filed a complaint with the league. In a statement on Sunday, the NBA announced: At the request of the Indiana Pacers, the NBA opened an investigation into alleged tampering by the Los Angeles Lakers. The independent investigation is being conducted by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The Lakers have been cooperative and, at this point, no findings have been made. We have asked both teams to refrain from commenting while the investigation is ongoing. The Lakers, in turn, responded with their own statement from Alison Bogli, the team's director of media relations: As the NBA's statement made clear, we cannot comment about the specifics of any ongoing investigation. We can confirm, however, that we are cooperating fully with the NBA in the hope of clearing our name as soon as possible. The question isn't necessarily, 'Did the Lakers, via Johnson, tamper?' but 'To what extent did the Lakers tamper?'" As delineated in the "Constitution and By-Laws of The National Basketball Association" in Article 35A, section (f)—with some minor edits for readability: No person may, directly or indirectly, entice, induce, persuade or attempt to entice, induce or persuade any Player who is under contract to ... any other Member of the Association to enter into negotiations for or relating to his services or negotiate or contract for such services ... The Commissioner, either in his discretion or at the request of any Member who alleges that its Player has been tampered with, shall conduct an investigation into whether a person has violated the anti-tampering rule set forth in the prior sentence. [If] the Commissioner determines that the anti-tampering rule has been violated, he shall have the power, in his sole discretion, to impose a penalty for such offense, which penalty may include (without limitation) the suspension of such person for a definite or indefinite period; the prohibition of the Member employing or otherwise affiliated with the offending person from hiring the Player tampered with for a definite or indefinite period; the forfeiture of Draft picks ... or the transfer of such Draft picks to the Member aggrieved by the tampering; and/or the imposition of a fine upon the offending person and/or the Member employing or otherwise affiliated with such offending person in an amount not to exceed $5,000,000. Kind of a big deal. Tampering might include something as simple as a public statement about another team's player or it may be far more insidious, with a franchise working behind the scenes to actually lay the groundwork to land that player. Johnson's ill-advised comments represent the former. If the investigation can find the latter, the Lakers could be in significant trouble. The league could flat-out bar George from ever signing with the team. In overstepping his bounds on Kimmel, Johnson made comments similar to Phil Jackson's in 2015 as president of the New York Knicks. His former team was fined $25,000 after Jackson included Derek Fisher as a coaching candidate while talking with the media. At the time, Fisher was under contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder as a player. Seth Wenig/Associated Press Johnson's recent comments were made to a much wider audience but even if Commissioner Adam Silver considers it 10-times worse than the Fisher incident, the Lakers would be able to absorb a $250,000 penalty without it derailing their plans in free agency. This public form of tampering isn't entirely uncommon. The Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets were each fined undisclosed amounts in 2013 for making separate comments that were more explicit than Johnson's. The Hawks sent out a letter via email to season ticketholders which read, "Player interest is skyrocketing as the possibilities of landing Chris Paul & Dwight Howard become more and more of a reality." Mike Malone, then-coach of the Kings, said Paul would "look pretty good in a Sacramento Kings uniform." The best case for the Lakers is a similar penalty that hits the team's bank account exclusively. Worst case would include investigators proving the franchise actually reached out to George's agent Aaron Mintz of Creative Artists Agency, in an effort to map out a path to bring the All-Star forward to Los Angeles. The Pacers would be due significant remuneration, presumably arguing the Lakers negatively impacted George's trade value. Indiana dealt him in early July to the Oklahoma City for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. If Johnson were found guilty of significant tampering violations, the NBA could essentially remove him from his position entirely (and indefinitely). The Lakers could be blocked from ever acquiring George, penalized for up to $5 million and forced to give up draft considerations. One of the more serious incidents of tampering occurred in 1995 with the Miami Heat who worked behind the scenes to hire then-Knicks coach Pat Riley. Lynne Sladky/Associated Press Before the NBA completed their investigation, the two teams were able to work out a settlement that saw Miami pay out $1 million and a first-round pick to New York. For the Pacers to gain any traction, they need investigators to find some sort of smoking gun beyond the Kimmel appearance. Mintz also represents forward Julius Randle and former Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell. It's not enough to simply establish contact between Los Angeles and Mintz. If the Lakers were foolish enough to communicate about George with his agent in writing, be it text or email, they're going to face significant punishment, deservedly so.
yawn... we're close and the other teams know it, whispers of Lebron and PG, really make these owners nervous they are the collective sun and we're the moon about to blot them out again if the summer league is any indication, leading prime time sport news every single time, these other teams know what's coming.
So if I understand this correctly Paul George would never have had the thought that he wanted to return to southern CA where he grew up following the Lakers and Kobe Bryant and now has a luxury multi million dollar home .......... if Magic hadn't done the "winking" bit on the Kimmel show to go along with Kimmel's fun line of questioning for humor's sake. On Kimmel's entertainment show.
real tampering would be if rob and magic were working with george's agent to try to make a trade happen this summer via the george posturing. now, if they were dumb enough to leave a paper trail on that, they deserve what's coming, but i doubt it. again, the chris paul stuff was egregious, and nobody batted an eyelash. if i were the lakers' brass, i'd have already reminded silver of this several times. don't make us blow the lid off the entire enterprise, bro.
There is actually a tiny part of me that hopes they do something drastic like not allow us to sign PG_13, then we go sign Westbrook and Cousins and Ingram, Ball and Randle all blow up and we win anyway.
What would happen if Magic said he was intoxicated and made a joke on a late night comedy show led by Jimmy Kimmel who is a comedian and used to be a co-host of the Man Show. Also, people f*** around with their friends... Another example is rap, you think a lot of these fools are really that gangster/hard talking about shooting and killing people. You dont see the police taking them into custody as if they made a true confession that they really did in fact kill someone lol. To be noted which i didnt know about, Ramona said these charges were filed around the draft time. Put 2+2 together.
What I like is what Ramona said that unlike the other 28 teams we actually didn't offer the Pacers s*** and never called lol...that's their smoking gun
If anything more than an insignificant, symbolic fine is levied against the Lakers.. I will personally haunt every NBA executive... & why is an independent Law Firm investigating this & not the NBA..?
I know NBA, let's let Herb Simon go on Jimmy Kimmel lets see what that does for promoting basketball and the NBA. The NBA NEEDS Magic Johnson going on JImmy Kimmel, talking to the media. The NBA NEEDS La Var Ball going on every show. The NBA NEEDS Lonzo Ball to be the next big thing. The NBA NEEDS the hundreds of millions of Laker fans in Asia WE are the NBA in Asia and the doorway for the rest of the NBA into Asia. Not Indy When they ask foreign ball players what teams they dream of (ask Zu) they don't say Indy or even the C Bags, they say The Lakers. The small market teams had their day against us during the last CBA now it's time for Adam Silver to engage his legacy and empower the biggest NBA market power so the NBA can grow like it really should. His reign will be directly compared to Steins and what a better way to ensure he looks better than to empower The Lakers. This tampering thing is petty and vindictive.
I hope to hear soon how long this investigation is and how long well be scratching our balls for. Praying this fires up the team. Maybe it takes some attention away from them which could be good since they have nothing to do with it.
which is why i'd be absolutely shocked if anything came out of this unlike stern, i think silver actually wants to see the lakers rise back up to the top (especially now that lebron got his ring(s) and he knows the league is responsible for the lakers being in the cellar the past handful of seasons. he's not going to do a thing about this BS
Good. This means they are shooting in the dark and speculating. Because they couldn't know. I'm sure Magic knows better having been around big business his whole life, he's aware there are certain protocol to follow in every big business. So does Rob and I'm sure they've had this talk. This is Herb Simon pissed off at Magic winking on tv.
still think you'd need a transcript or at least testimony as to the call's content. if players are allowed to openly court other players, why can't a former player talk to a current one about, you know, life and stuff?
i'm sure okc is in support! portland, sac, new orleans. no motivation in any of those places other than good ol' fashioned justice, right?
