The NBA charges that Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka—a former NBA agent—engaged in tampering through communications about George with George’s agent, Aaron Mintz. The NBA further contends that Pelinka’s communications were, in effect, the second instance of the Lakers tampering in hopes of landing George. On April 20, Lakers president Magic Johnson appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show and, in a light-hearted way, discussed his interest in signing George. Following Johnson’s interview, the NBA warned the Lakers that its officials must stop engaging in external communications about George. It appears Pelinka didn’t heed the NBA’s warning.
It doesn’t take much to tamper in the NBA
The NBA has a decidedly “low bar” for tampering. Under Article 35A of the league’s constitution, teams are forbidden from any kind of attempt to persuade a player, coach, trainer, general manager or any other person who is under contract with another team to join the tampering team. The word “any” is crucial. Tampering need not entail direct communications with an employee of another NBA team. A finding of tampering also doesn’t require evidence that the supposed persuasion had any influence on the employee. In assessing whether tampering occurred, is the attempt of persuasion that matters.
The logic behind the NBA employing a low bar for tampering rests in how the NBA is structured. At its core, the NBA is a joint venture of independently owned franchises that each agrees to play by a certain set of competition rules. If one team doesn’t abide by those shared rules, it gains an unfair advantage over others. As a result of tampering, the league’s competitive model is degraded.
Along those lines, tampering entails interference with another team in hopes of convincing an employee of that other team to seek a new employer. Here, if George learned through his agent’s alleged discussions with Pelinka that the Lakers were positioning themselves to sign him in 2018, George may have become less inclined to re-sign with the Pacers. In that respect, the Pacers would have been “damaged” by the Lakers tampering: they would have landed in a weaker position to re-sign George if tampering led George to become more interested in joining the Lakers.
Tampering also provides the tampering team with an unfair advantage over teams that might be similarly positioned to recruit the person of interest. Should he become a free agent in 2018, George will have no shortage of suitors. A number of teams will likely be able to sign a max free agent and George would be at or near the top of their list of targets. To the extent the Lakers’ tampering helped to cultivate a favorable impression of the team to George, other teams could face a more difficult task in recruiting George.
To illustrate the NBA’s low bar for tampering, the NBA fined Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $100,000 in 2010 merely because Cuban publicly remarked about his interest in signing LeBron James if James ever became available. Even though Cuban’s remarks revealed nothing new or surprising, he technically tampered with the Miami Heat because James was under contract with the Heat. A few years later, the NBA fined the Atlanta Hawks an undisclosed amount of money in another example of indirect communications. In a letter mailed to season ticket holders, the Hawks expressed a desire to sign Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul and Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard once those players became free agents.