New Orleans Pelicans: Do the tampering claims hold water?

The New Orleans Pelicans wants the NBA to crackdown on tampering, but it’s not that easy

It must be hard to be ESPN’s Adrain Wojnarowski during a time like this. Since reporting earlier this week that Anthony Davis is not looking to re-sign with the New Orleans Pelicans, his Twitter notifications probably haven’t stopped rolling in.

One part of this story that is being overlooked is the Pelicans request that the NBA look into some tampering claims. In response to Davis’ announcement, the Pelicans released the following statement:

"“This past weekend, Anthony Davis’ representatives informed us that Anthony does not wish to sign a contract extension with our team and subsequently has requested a trade. Although we are disappointed in this decision our organization’s top priority is to bring an NBA championship to our city and fans and build our team for long-term success. Relative to specific talks of a trade, we will do this on our timeline. One that make sense for our team and it will not be dictated by those outside of our organization. We have also requested the League to strictly enforce the tampering rules associated with this transaction.”"

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A running theme in that response: tampering. Though his name was not specifically mentioned, it’s safe to say that the Pelicans are worried about LeBron James persuading Davis to join the Lakers when LeBron brought up Davis’ name in a list of players he’d like to play with earlier this year.

In response to that statement, many small-market GM’s were concerned about LeBron’s comments (which LeBron refuted in full), and it seems that the Pelicans are now wanting a formal investigation.

In response to these concerns, the NBA released this statement:

“We commenced an investigation this morning upon reading the reports regarding Anthony Davis. That process is ongoing.”

With that, the question remains, could LeBron be found guilty of tampering? Probably not.

NBA CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) expert Larry Coon described the league’s tampering rules as:

"Tampering is when a player or team directly or indirectly entices, induces or persuades anybody (player, general manager, etc.) who is under contract with another team in order to negotiate for their services. The NBA may impose suspensions and/or fines up to $50,000 if tampering is discovered, however the league’s practice has been to wait until a team lodges a complaint before investigating (but that’s not to say they don’t continue to monitor the league and won’t take action independently if they discover that tampering has occurred)."

Coon went on to illustrate two examples, the Heat in 1995 when they were found to have tampered with Pat Riley, and the Kings when Chris Paul‘s Hornets contract was about to expire. In both cases, the teams were punished and lost draft picks.

This isn’t the first time the Lakers have been investigated over tampering either. In 2017 the Lakers were fined $500,000 for tampering with Paul George, when President of Basketball Operations Erving “Magic” Johnson joked about not telling George to join the Lakers, and then winking. This incident could lead to the league being less lenient and giving the Lakers another fine, but chances are the Lakers will get away with just a slap on the wrist with this one. The difference, LeBron James.

James brings a different aspect to this case in two ways. First, the NBA set a historical precedent of not charging NBA players with tampering. For example, during the 2016 playoff, Chandler Parsons said about Dwight Howard:

"“I think he can still be a player in this league. And I think he’s going to leave Houston, so why not come here?”"

While Parsons was investigated for tampering, he was never punished. In 2012, then-Commissioner David Stern stated that player-to-player tampering is, “…not tampering or collusion that is prohibited.”

The other reason LeBron brings a different aspect to this case is due to his star power. LeBron is arguably the biggest star in the NBA right now, and anything and everything that involves him is heavily scrutinized. If the league were to issue fines to him or the Lakers because of this statement, especially in light of the Chandler Parsons incident, they could face some serious backlash. Something the league probably isn’t looking for right now.

Whether or not this was tampering, ultimately, will be left up to the league; and they will provide the punishment that seems fit. However, some will argue that allowing this on a consistent basis could lead to every star player only playing in big market teams; which is a situation that the NBA is certainly hoping to avoid.