I Philadelphia 76ers ended up at the center of an investigation for tampering: the NBA in the past few hours has in fact started studying the moves of the franchise in the offseason, in particular the renewal of James Harden and the signatures of PJ Tucker and Danuel House. The tampering it is a practice that consists of “illegal” contacts between players and teams, when perhaps the former are still under contract with other franchises. This is the case of Tucker, who even before he started free agency it was known that he would leave Miami for Philadelphia.
Tucker’s signing then had a direct link to Harden’s renewal. The three-year period of 33 million in total of the former Miami was only possible thanks to the renunciation of Barba, who turned down a $ 47 million Player Option to sign a 1 + 1 that next season will earn him “only” 33 million dollars, 14 less. According to some rumors, Harden already has an agreement with the Sixers for a further renewal next season, this time at much higher figures. If so, it would be another violation of the rules.
What are the Sixers at risk? Surely a hefty fine, in the past executives like Magic Johnson (in the Lakers’ days) had to pay fines for the tampering. But Philadelphia may also have to say goodbye to a choice of the second round of the 2023 Draft, as happened last June in Chicago and Milwaukee following another story of tampering. The choices were in fact 58 and not 60. In extreme cases, there is also the cancellation of the contract or a suspension for the players concerned (a suspension of James Harden would certainly be heavy).
NBA’s expected to pursue circumstances surrounding Harden declining $47M option to sign a 1+1 deal that cut salary to $33M and gave team more flexibility to sign Tucker and House. Some have wondered if another deal was already in place for future — which is against CBA rules.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 29, 2022
Milan. Graduated in Labor Management and Communication for Organizations at the Catholic University, I founded BasketUniverso in 2011. Yes, I support Orlando Magic and I do everything I can not to hide it.
