The city of Los Angeles clearly has a habitual line-stepping problem when it comes to the NBA’s anti-tampering rules. This time, it had nothing to do with Magic Johnson or the Los Angeles Lakers.
The NBA announced on Friday afternoon that the Los Angeles Clippers have been fined $50,000 for comments made about Toronto’s Kawhi Leonard by Clippers head coach Doc Rivers during his appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter special NBA Finals preview on Tuesday.
Specifically, Rivers said that Leonard is the player in the NBA who most is like Michael Jordan.
Obviously, Rivers is in a tough spot when he’s working for ESPN as an analyst on a topic in which Leonard is one of the key figures. But given that the NBA had fined Magic Johnson for similar comments about Giannis Antetokounmpo a few years ago, Rivers’ effusive praise of Leonard probably crossed the line for the league.
It probably didn’t help Rivers either that he said this during a show that Magic Johnson was also a part of, appearing after ESPN’s detailed report on the Lakers’ office culture during Johnson’s tenure as president of basketball operations.
