NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Offers An Update On Free Agent Tampering Investigations

At the end of every NBA season, there comes a time in which teams and players are allowed to begin to negotiate deals with one another and make trades. This period is free agency, and it is one of the most fun and chaotic times in the League. However, sometimes teams can be too quick to get a deal done, leading to NBA starting “tampering” investigations.

During the 2022 free agency period, after former Miami Heat forward P.J. Tucker opted-out of his player-option with Miami, he then, within just a few short minutes of being on the free agent market, had inked a three-way trade deal with the Sixers.

Tampering is something that the NBA does not tolerate, and teams found guilty of this action are either fined heavily or even end up losing future draft picks. The Sixers are not the only team this offseason to be investigated for tampering; the New York Knicks are also in the hot seat after the NBA announced they’d be looking at New York due to the circumstances surrounding their acquisition of Jalen Brunson before he officially signed with the Knicks.

At the recent NBA Board of Governor’s press conference, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver gave his thoughts and an update on both investigations.

“I think what prompted [the investigations] was sort of just the tick-tock chronology around sort of when the signings are permissible and the announcements of those signings and the information that came out about them,” Silver continued. “[That] was cause for the league office to investigate.”

Silver then wrapped up the topic by stating, “The statuses of those investigations are still ongoing,” and “Hopefully, they’ll be wrapped up in the next few weeks.”