My assumption is that there must have been something in some sort of email or phone conversation that implied George which is what the NBA keyed in on. They said that the Magic wink was nothing, besides it could easily have been played off as Magic playing to an audience. It might even be as simple as something like, "We can get back to this next summer" or something like that which would imply that the Lakers were interested in a certain free agent. There has to be something that is somewhat incriminating given the amount being taken from us. If it's just phone calls, then that's bull****. It has to be something in writing. Either way, this still stinks to high heaven as an attempt to go after the Lakers. I keep coming back to this, but if we fail this summer to attract LeBron and/or George and/or whomever, Jeanie needs to start sticking up for herself. The other owners may say publicly that they respect her, but nobody would be screwing with Dr. Buss this way if he was healthy and active in the league.
I agree real. But on the contrary, if there is a text or email implying anything about PG13...then we got really really lucky. I am very tired of other owners complaining about the Lakers but giving teams like the Rockets or Cavs a pass. The Rockets 100% tampered with Cp3 prior to the free agency moratorium...i mean how did Cp3 arrive at that decision so quickly that he was going to choose the Rockets when the Rockets didn't even have the requisite cap space to sign him outright? How did Cp3 just decide that it's better to opt in and get traded and not sign a monster deal to secure his future? If I'm the Clippers...I open up a tampering investigation on the Rockets too...don't let these smaller markets bully you and then let them off the hook.
I agree and I'm hoping that she's just finding a good way to do it, but there's no way dip**** teams like the Pacers and Cavs should be crying about what we're doing. There's just no way that should happen. When the Lakers are great, they buoy the whole league. The income we share as a franchise to help support these small market morons helps keep them in business. It's been long enough that we've been down and if I were Jeanie, I'd be compiling a "doomsday" button so to speak for next summer. If the league colludes again against us, I'm releasing documentation on: steroids in the NBA, collusion we've seen (Pelinka an ex agent), more closet racists in the owners suites, sexism exhibited towards her, and any other number of things. If the league is going to continue playing this game, the Lakers can take the whole thing down. I'm done with this dance. Of course, if we sign LeBron and George which is totally within the rules, I just give every other owner a wave over a glass of bourbon with a big pile of money burning behind me.
I feel like we are sort of the Patriots of the NBA...except the Patriots are actually beating people. We suck and they're still coming after us. Whatever. This is a slap on the wrist. The only way I can see this affecting us is if we were to do something dicey in the future, we might get a repeat offender upgrade to our punishment. But 500k to call dibs on PG13? Not bad if you ask me.
this, in particular, has been pissing me off. i'm actually a bit concerned that houston's going to pull off the same thing with lebron next year. my wild guess: text messages regarding trades and maneuvers and keeping space open for george and others, wherein rob made the mistake of naming names. given that rob, a seasoned veteran agent, made the mistake I'm guessing that these types of messages exist all over the league, but the lakers were the only team investigated. which is some b*******.
Pincus said pretty much the same re: evidence found. Probably just something overt which may have even been just a "PG" instead of spelling out his name. There has to be something. Pincus also said this is an embarrassing moment for the new FO, which is true, but it should also be a shameful moment for the Pacers who have already had a shameful summer.
First Sterned, then Silvered. The 500K does not bother me at all since it's not my money, but the special standard applied only to the Lakers is more than a little irritating.
still a BS fine, we all know dam well Bos were in talks with Gordon and his rep way before FA started maybe even during all of last season, Cp3 didn't just magically decide to join Hou 1 day before FA started....the opting out and than opting in to get traded was all a ruse to make it less obvious, Riley didn't all of a sudden wake up one day and decided to clear his team of all contracts and keep expiring 1 yr before Bosh/Wade/James became FA's.....Durant already knew who he was joining, he was never going to sign with Bos nor was he returning to OKC. F Indy, I hope they rot in hell and finish last in the upcoming season only to get the 4th pick and draft a bust
Honestly, 500k sucks for the Lakers but in the grand scheme who cares. As long as we get George next year all is right.
They hate us because they can't be us moving on, let's keep tampering with PG and now include tampering on the King
It stinks but it could have been worse. Tampering happens everyday in the NBA. To me this just makes the Pacers look like whining babies. The NBA needs to open investigations into the other 29 teams if they really want to make a difference on tampering....oh that's right, it's just if the Lakers are involved that they are concerned.
500K is no joke, I can't see any other franchise getting this for contact between an agent and a GM. That said, we pay it and move on, and we can still sign George. I wanted him to be a Laker before, but now I couldn't want it more, just to stick to Indy that much more.
Genuinely I want both him and LeBron in Laker jerseys partly just to feel the hatred of the other owners. I want to bathe in it. I want them to suffer what we just suffered through for the last 5 years times 100. Screw these petty small market billionaires.
We'll have made the $500K back in PG/LeBron jersey sales this time next year. The league knows what's about to happen and knows there's no stopping it - hence just the fine. It's good to be the bad guy again. Go Lakers.
Lol, I'll take the fine if it means actually signing the players. Mitch never got us fined, but he never got us a star free agent either. Seems you have to play the game a little dirty to do so.
Well glad it wasn't something stupid behind the scenes that Magic did. It's true the wink on TV was going along with the conversation and joke with Kimmel. If it's Rob being shark like it's better and this maybe is a good wake up call for him to be smarter about this stuff.
