Rockets owner reportedly fined $25K for talking about Russell Westbrook
The NBA and its teams might be making a mockery of the league’s various tampering rules, but one thing you’re still really not supposed to do is publicly comment on an incoming player before the deal is finalized.
That kind of misstep reportedly ended up costing Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta.
Per The New York Times’ Marc Stein, the NBA fined Fertitta $25,000 for commenting Russell Westbrook before the Rockets’ blockbuster trade for the former MVP was officially completed.
The Rockets were fined $25,000 over the weekend, @NYTSports has learned, for public statements made by owner Tilman Fertitta before the Russell Westbrook-to-Houston trade was officially completed
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 15, 2019
The trade has still not been announced by the Rockets or Oklahoma City Thunder.
The comment that got Fertitta into hot water was apparently this relatively harmless quote about Westbrook’s arrival and Chris Paul’s departure.
#Rockets owner @TilmanJFertitta on his franchise landing Russell Westbrook in a deal that sends Chris Paul to OKC: pic.twitter.com/LDYbeUxZpB
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) July 12, 2019
Of course, $25,000 is a paltry sum for Fertitta, who is one of the newer owners in the NBA after buying the team in 2017. Forbes estimates Fertitta to be worth $5.2 billion.
Fertitta also wasn’t alone as an owner of an NBA team in Texas who was fined for an illegal comment, as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban also drew the NBA’s ire to the tune of $50,000 for leaking news from a meeting of the Board of Governors.
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