I love how everybody has searched for the word ‘moratorium’ and now apparently know about the inner workings of the NBA. It’s like ‘The Little Train That Could… Do Law’. It’s cute, it really is.
But let’s leave it to an NBA Commissioner that actually has a background in law shall we? Now even though NBA is flourishing in the recent popularity even though the Finals have been and gone. There are still problems, some of them, if not resolved could result in another lockout. But luckily the moratorium and the DeAndre Jordan fiasco is a ‘right now’ issue.
Among other things, Adam Silver talked about the issues of the league. Labeling the DeAndre Jordan story as ‘not a good look’. But the flip-flopping may not have been a problem.
What’s been missed in the whole Jordan fiasco is that the problem wasn’t necessarily the moratorium – in this case, an eight-day period during which players and teams could agree to contracts but couldn’t sign them. It was the shenanigans that went on before the moratorium started.
According to a detailed, entertaining account from ESPN.com, Mavs forward Chandler Parsons’ recruiting of Jordan actually was more extensive than anyone knew. Chandler, according to the story, had been traveling around the country partying with Jordan for weeks while Jordan was still under contract with the Clippers.
“It’s largely out of our realm,” Silver said, when asked about the practice of players recruiting free agents to their teams. “And I technically would not call it tampering. We’ve made a decision that when a player is talking to another player and saying, ‘I’d love to play with you,’ and that’s not done at the behest of the team, we accept that.
“I think it’s not ideal,” he said. “I mean, because … preferably you wouldn’t want a player to be doing what a team couldn’t otherwise do.”
So why have a rule? Article 35, Section (e) of the NBA Constitution and By-Laws expressly prohibits player tampering.
Once again Chandler Parsons continues to do more talking than actually playing. I think he should just quit basketball and just become an agent. He clearly has a knack for buttering people up.
Player tampering is prohibited, but players that breach the law would simply refute it, saying that they’re just ‘making friends’. But let’s not completely take DeAndre Jordan off the hook here. He’s still totally impressionable, being wined and dined by anyone that’ll pay for his bill. There has to be some restraint from the person being courted.
