On Saturday night, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green made a seemingly innocent comment about young Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker. It proved costly.
Work as an analyst for TNTs Within the NBA, because his Warriors were not good enough to earn an invitation to the NBA bubble, Green said, ‘Get my man out of Phoenix. It’s not good for him, it’s not good for his career … I need my husband to go somewhere where he can play and win great basketball all the time, because he’s that type of player. “
Host Ernie Johnson responded to Green by asking if the three-time All-Star was tampering, and did so in a teasing tone that suggested such an accusation was stupid.
It turns out he was tampering, and it was stupid.
The NBA came down hard on Green the next morning, fining him $ 50,000 for the comments.
It is not the first time a team-employee-turned-analyst has been fined for sabotage. During the ESPN preview show for the 2019 NBA Finals, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said that then-Toronto Raptors were ahead of Kawhi Leonard, ‘The most like [Michael] Jordan that we have seen. ”
The league gave him the same $ 50,000 bill they later gave Green.
OFFICIALLY #NBA | The League fined Los Angeles Clippers $ 50,000 for these comments (deleting) in which Doc Rivers compared Kawhi Leonard to Michael Jordan in an ESPN show | The comment appears in the second issue 49 of the video |
pic.twitter.com/LHBkNxuUSl– Basket Flow (@RealBasketFlow) 31 May 2019
Doesn’t matter that Rivers declared that Leonard was not the best player since Jordan, just the most stylistically similar. Doesn’t seem like the conversation started when ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith asked if Leonard was the best player in the league, and Magic Johnson asked for Rivers’ opinion. And keep in mind that the paycheck that is more than Warriors has no way of buying Booker, who will not be a free agent until 2024.
Rivers, a coach, said something good about Leonard, a player, and was fined. Just like Green, a player, said something good about Booker, a player, and was fined.
The desire to stop sabotaging is understandable (though stupid and futile), but the NBA censors the broadcast work they allow – no, encouraging players and coaches to do.
Green appeared on Turner Sports, an NBA partner, probably in exchange for money. Rivers appeared on ESPN, the NBA’s largest broadcasting partner, probably in exchange for money.
They speak like analysts, not like players and coaches, and yet the fines do not reflect that. Green the player was punished for fully appropriate remarks by Green the analyst, just as Rivers the coach was notorious for fully appropriate remarks by Rivers the analyst.
If one full-time analyst made those comments, no one would have caught an eye. But because Green and Rivers have day jobs with teams, they get a pat on the wrist and a pull back from the sleeve.
If the NBA does not want its players and coaches to offer analysis, they may have to stop working as analysts.
