NBA Fines Marc Lasry $25,000 For Comments On Anthony Davis

[RealGM Wiretap]

Marc Lasry has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for comments he made on Anthony Davis.

Lasry is one of the co-owners of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Davis listed the Bucks as one of the teams he would have interest in signing with long-term.

"I saw that report, and I think it's great," Lasry told Sporting News. "It's a little bit of what we want. We want players to come and play in Milwaukee. And part of it is, when you're winning and you're setting a standard for excellence, people see that. People want to win."

He continued: "We hope it would be players like Anthony Davis and others who want to come to Milwaukee."

Via Malika Andres/ESPN

[phenith]

A small market owner gets excited a high profile star wants to come to his team and he's fined...

[artsncrafts]

haha what the hell, he just said "I saw that report, that is awesome"

[tigerae]

Wow, they are taking this tampering thing way too far now. Ben Simmons wants to talk to Magic to get advice and we have an investigation. Bucks owner says its great that players like Davis want to come to Milwaukee and that's tampering. LeBron says he'd love to play with Davis and that's tampering. He also said he wants to play with 5 or 6 other players and he drafted all of the upcoming free agents and Davis to his all-star squad. Why not investigate that, too?!? How about New York using a picture of KD on their season ticket advertising?

This isn't a new thing, players have always talked about how great it would be to play together or for certain franchises. Why didn't we fine Green or start an investigation when he called Durant while KD was still with the Thunder? Or when GP and Malone joined Shaq and Kobe, or when LeBron joined Wade and Bosh? I'm sure all those players talked in prior seasons about teaming up. Hell, my NBA 2K MyPlayer talked to AD during his career about teaming up, maybe he should be investigated, too.

How about when Mourning demanded a trade and was then traded to Toronto. He never showed up and the Raptors had no choice but to buy him out. What if say AD does the same thing next season if he gets traded to somewhere he doesn't want to play? Would that team have to buy him out/trade him to a team of his choice or would there be an investigation now? There are other similar issues like Steve Francis, Wilt, Kareem, among many others that have happened over the years.

Make better rules to even out talent, like only one franchise tag for each team to use the supermax, even higher contracts for loyalty and even lower salaries for joining other teams or signing bonuses. Reward teams for making the playoffs and/or punish teams for staying in the lottery for too many years. Not with picks because you want them to get better, but maybe with profit sharing from TV contracts, etc. That way teams like the Pelicans are forced to build a playoff team instead of trying to just staying under the tax and milk AD for profit and think it's OK to waste his prime.