The Lakers are under investigation for tampering, and according to Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times, that probe was initiated after Lakers president Magic Johnson made comments about Paul George during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
As Turner details, the NBA will look at more than just Johnson’s late-night appearance as the league attempts to determine whether the Lakers are guilty of tampering in relation to George. But Johnson’s comments during that appearance angered Pacers owner Herb Simon enough to prompt Indiana to formally pursue a case against L.A.
Here’s more on the Lakers/Pacers situation:
- The Lakers and Pacers are both confident that their side will ultimately win out in the tampering investigation, as Dan Feldman of Pro Basketball Talk outlines. Feldman passes along comments from Bob Kravitz of WTHR, who says the Pacers “feel very strongly that there were correspondences between Lakers executives and Paul George’s representative.”
- Nat Newell of The Indianapolis Star explores what sort of punishment the Lakers may face if they’re found guilty of tampering. In Newell’s view, the Lakers are unlikely to receive more than a slap on the wrist unless there’s proof of further correspondence – beyond Johnson’s Kimmel appearance – between the Lakers and George’s camp. Even a penalty for Johnson’s comments during that appearance would be an overreaction, argues Mark Whicker of The Orange County Register.
- James Blancarte of Basketball Insiders examines the implications of the NBA’s investigation into the Lakers, while Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders takes a more general look at how NBA teams skirt the rules and operate in “gray areas” when it comes to potential tampering.
This is ridiculous. EVERYONE knew that PG13 wanted to join the Lakers, and EVERYONE knew that the Lakers wanted PG13 to come in and be their next star. Pacers are just being petty here.
Paul George openly saying he wants to be a Laker on jimmy kimmel is indys fault. Magic Johnson smiling and saying god is good is not tampering. Pacers traded george for nothing and now they are trying to get something from the lakers because they are mad
But they can’t actually get anything from the Lakers if the tampering charges are true. The Lakers would be penalized, but the Pacers wouldn’t be direct beneficiaries of a penalty.
This is sad and just goes to show how low Indiana is as an organization. Its always someone else’s fault that they’re bad. How about spending time trying to improve instead of slander.
Lol how does this prove Indiana is a lowly organization? I don’t remember ever seeing Indy’s management coming out and blaming other teams/not blaming themselves for being bad (if you can find something, I’ll gladly admit I’m wrong). I mean there’s not much time to point fingers in other directions because they’re bad when they’ve only been below a 40% win percentage 7 times since 1976 (first season in the NBA). But I don’t recall ever seeing people within the Pacers front office blame other teams/uncontrollable issues (such as being in a small market) as to why they might be bad.
This is a joke even if there found guilty nothing will change what’s it really going to cost them a few million so what it won’t hurt the team in anyway
The word “correspondence” is singular, referring to the stream of communication as a whole, so it should be “there was correspondence” not “there were correspondences”.
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IMO, the league will likely want to avoid the punishing of anyone promoting the NBA withTV appearances. Maybe a short unimportant suspension of the GM will be pursued.