Thunder forced to give up draft pick to Celtics as compensation for Jeff Green's health issues
NEW YORK – NBA commissioner David Stern has punished the Oklahoma City Thunder, ordering them to send a future draft pick to the Boston Celtics as compensation for the heart problems that Jeff Green suffered with the Celtics, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Oklahoma City will send Boston the 2013 second-round pick that it controls from Charlotte. Expected to be the worst team in the league again, Charlotte's pick will likely be the 31st overall.
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After Green had season-ending surgery for an aortic aneurysm in December, Boston's doctors constructed a case to take to the NBA trying to show proof that Oklahoma City owed the Celtics some kind of compensation, sources said. The Thunder had traded Green to the Celtics in February of 2011 as part of a package for center Kendrick Perkins.
In a statement, the NBA said, "Stern found that there was no evidence of bad faith or any intent to withhold information on the part of Thunder management or its physicians, but that Oklahoma City's cardiologists were in possession of information about Jeff Green that was not shared with Thunder management and that should have been disclosed to the Celtics in connection with the trade of Green in February 2011."
Green missed the 2011-'12 season with the condition, but plans a comeback this year. Green will be a free agent, and Boston has shown interest in re-signing him.
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