The Clippers met with DeAndre Jordan on July 2, making their case for him re-signing.
It didn’t work.
Jordan chose the Mavericks the next day.
He eventually flipped back to the Clippers, but that first meeting created major consequences.
NBA release:The NBA announced today that it has fined the Los Angeles Clippers $250,000 for violating NBA rules prohibiting teams from offering players unauthorized business or investment opportunities.
The violation involved a presentation made by the Clippers to free agent DeAndre Jordan on July 2 that improperly included a potential third-party endorsement opportunity for the player. While the NBA’s investigation ultimately concluded that the presentation of this opportunity had no impact on Jordan’s decision to re-sign with the Clippers, the team’s conduct nevertheless violated the league’s anti-circumvention rules.
The NBA’s anti-circumvention rules prohibit teams from, among other things, providing or arranging for others to provide any form of compensation to a player unless such compensation is included in a player contract or otherwise expressly permitted under the CBA.
If the Clippers tell Jordan he’ll get more endorsement opportunities in Los Angeles, is that OK? Yes, it’s part of every Lakers’ pitch (and the Knicks in NYC).
What if they name specific companies based in the city? What if they arrange for representatives of some companies to attend the meeting?
This is a fine line that probably gets violated regularly.
But in this case, the NBA found out about a specifically facilitated Lexus offer.
Apparently the Clippers offered DeAndre Jordan an endorsement deal with Lexus for $200,000 a year that NBA frowned upon, per source.
— Brad Turner (@BA_Turner) August 25, 2015
Of course, this situation is different because of what happened afterward. There’s an NBA owner who’s mad at Jordan. Would anyone be surprised if Mark Cuban asked the league to investigate the Clippers?
Cuban, who got fined for publicly discussing Jordan before the signing became official, just better hope the NBA doesn’t investigate his own potential tampering.
