Few fines have been made public yet, but the NBA has made it clear that any unapproved contact between team employees or players — or any on-record discussion of NBA players (including tweeting) — will result in a massive fine from the league.
This regulation, is sure to extend to one of the NBA’s greats, Michael Jordan.
A few days ago, Jordan was in Austrailia and reportedly spoke to the the Sydney Herald Sun in regards to Australian-raised Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut
“We have stars like Bogut who are entitled to certain type of demands. But for us to be profitable in small markets, we have to be able to win ballgames and build a better basketball team.”
[…]
“Bogut is a good piece to build around for Milwaukee,” Jordan said.
“I love Bogut’s game. He’s made a very good start and he’s definitely gonna be a star. His big problem is that he’s been dealing with that elbow injury. But he is a star to be reckoned with (and) will be a star for some time.”
M.J. is not allowed to discuss any aspect of the lockout in regards to how it relates to the players, let alone mention them by name. So he most certaily shouldn’t be discussing how the lockout affects particular players while speaking to local papers in a player’s home country.
It’s more than a little ridiculous that any team employee, much less someone of Jordan’s stature should have to watch what they say on record during this lockout, but I can guarantee the NBA will have no problem slapping a nice, big fine on Jordan as a reminder.