Another NBA-David Stern Fine-Happy Move. Whatever happened to the First Amendment? http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2987741&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines Report: NBA fines Sonics partner $250K OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The NBA has levied a $250,000 fine against an Oklahoma City energy tycoon who is a partner in the Seattle SuperSonics, according to a published report. The Seattle Times reported Thursday that Aubrey McClendon, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, was fined for telling the Journal Record newspaper: "We didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle, we hoped to come here. We know it's a little more difficult financially here in Oklahoma City, but we think it's great for the community and if we could break even we'd be thrilled." A spokesman for the NBA had no immediate comment Thursday and the team's ownership group declined comment. The newspaper also reported that Seattle City Council member Richard McIver planned to introduce an ordinance when the council meets on Sept. 4 that would prevent the owners of the Sonics from buying out of their lease at KeyArena. That lease runs out in September 2010. FIND MORE STORIES IN: NBA | Thursday | Seattle | Oklahoma City | Sonics | Seattle Times | Mcclendon | Chesapeake Energy An Oklahoma City-based group, headed by Clay Bennett, bought the Sonics last year and wants to have an agreement to build a new arena in Seattle by Oct. 31. If a deal is not in place to build the new facility by then, Bennett has said he plans to move the team to Oklahoma City. Bennett has said McClendon's comments about the team move were "personal thoughts" and that McClendon was "not speaking on behalf of the ownership group." Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast Ever wondered where all this fine money goes??? http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/fines.html
The guy deserved to be fined. If there were any justice, he would have been stripped of his ownership, unfortunately that's impossible. The dude basically said, "I have been a lying scumbag for the past 2 years and have negotiated with the Seattle-area government in bad faith. All I wanted to do was create an impasse so I can move the team to OKC where I will make less profit that before, but I don't give a crap b/c I like OKC". If I were from Seattle and a Sonics fan, I'd want to kick this guy's ass. "Comments not in the best interests of the NBA" is spot on. This stuff only makes the NBA look bad.
NBA Fines where ever does this money go? I gotta say after reading this article, it looks pretty bad. I am always suspicious when an organization hides it's finances like this. As if David Stern doesn't have enough to deal with at the moment with the Dougnahy case.... http://espn.go.com/nba/s/2001/0406/1168454.html Friday, April 6 Updated: April 27, 3:15 AM ET A Fine predicament for NBA? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Darren Rovell ESPN.com No player in the NBA is better at getting fined than Rasheed Wallace. The NBA, however, isn't very keen about explaining where that money goes. Wallace, the Portland Trail Blazers' much-whistled forward, has been hit with a league-record 41 technical fouls so far this season. At $500 a "T," that comes to $20,500. Throw in another $30,000 in fines for various violations of league policy and $280,000 in lost salary from his two-game suspension, and "various NBA charities" should soon become flush with some $330,500, thanks to Wallace. The fine calculator Unofficial totals of fines and lost salary from game suspensions levied by the NBA, through April 25: Category Amount Player fines $330,000* Player suspensions $2,808,641* Player technicals $615,000* Coaching fines $77,500* Executive fines $10,000 Owner fines $4,005,000 Team fines $157,500 Total $8,003,641 Note: Fines and suspensions are subject to reduction in arbitration. * Totals split by NBA and NBPA, and are to be donated to charities. Or will they? NBA officials do not publicize the identities of charitable organizations that receive money collected from league fines and lost salary (players are charged 1/90th of their salary for each missed game). That total -- plucked from the pocketbooks of players, coaches, owners and even game officials -- has now surpassed $8 million, prior to appeal. The NBA and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), per the league's collective bargaining agreement, equally split fines paid by players, then donate the respective shares to the charities of their choice. Only the NBPA has to approve of the NBA charities, and not vice-versa, according to Dan Wasserman, spokesman for the players' association. But Wasserman told ESPN.com that he's "not so sure that (the player's association) has been served with any formal notice over the last couple years" and that "it might be something that we ask them for this time around after the season." Stu Jackson, the NBA's vice president of operations, declined to answer questions concerning the league's procedures on distributing player fines. NBA spokesman Seth Sylvan maintains the league does give the money to charity, but he would not specify which charities benefit from the league's donations. Wasserman said the player's association donates its share to various youth foundations. Unlike the NBA, the other three major professional leagues announce where the money collected from player fines go. Follow the money While the NBA will not disclose the charities to which it donates player fines, the NFL, NHL and MLB each publicize the organizations that benefits from its players' fines: National Football League Player fines totaled some $1.1 million during the 2000 season, according to Arthur McAfee, staff counsel for the NFL Player's Association. The money was split equally among four organizations, the league's charities of choice for many years: the Lombardi Cancer Research Center, Brian Piccolo Cancer Fund, ALS Neuromuscular Research Foundation and the Player's Association Assistance Trust Fund. National Hockey League Approximately $1.25 million has been collected this season, mostly from players salaries lost during league-levied suspensions. All money collected is donated to the NHL Players' Emergency Assistance Fund, which helps financially-strapped former players, league spokesman Frank Brown said. Major League Baseball Baseball funnels fine money either to a central fund, which is shared among the league's 30 teams, or in some cases it goes to the charity of the player's choice, according to Rich Levin, the league's spokesman. Baseball player fines and suspensions are considered minimal when compared to the other leagues. -- Darren Rovell But outside the NBA's New York headquarters, it remains a mystery which charities benefit when the league hands down a fine. Two high-ranking team executives, who asked not to be identified, said they assumed that money from player fines went to charity, but that they have never been made aware of the specifics. "I don't know who the NBA gives the money to, but I would love to know," said Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has accumulated $505,000 in fines this season, the bulk of it for remarks to or about game officials. Ironically, it was Cuban who sent a league-wide email last week encouraging the NBA to keep the fines private. "I think the NBA has the right to and should keep all its disciplinary actions private. No different (than) ESPN keeps its disciplinary actions private," Cuban said Monday. "But it's just like the NBA to send a press release announcing I have been fined, but not to announce the positive part of the message, that the money I have been fined is going to charity. That's NBA Marketing 101." It appears that Cuban's fines might not to go to charities. Fines levied by the NBA against teams, owners and game officials are not shared with the NBPA. According to Sylvan, that money can go directly into the league coffers, since the direction of such fines are not stipulated in the league's constitution or collective bargaining agreement. That's more than $4 million this season, including a $3.5 million fine the league slapped on Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor in late October for circumventing the salary cap with Joe Smith's contract. The NBA is believed to have collected more than $7 million in fines and lost salary in previous seasons, though a league spokesman refused to confirm the exact amount. One of the most prolific seasons for the league was the 1997-98 season, when Latrell Sprewell alone forked over $6.4 million while serving a 68-game suspension for choking former Golden State Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo. Last season, the NBA fined its players $374,000, as calculated from the league's news releases during the season. That number does not include salary lost for suspensions or fines for technical fouls. This season, announced player fines could match last season's pace, totaling $337,500. Another $615,000 will be collected from players whistled for some 1,230 technicals so far this season.
The A-Train 60 inch plasma screen TV fund is a little dry at the moment...where do I sign up to get some of this NBA fine money?
Man I hope they don't let the Sonics move to OKC because of those good ole boy carpetbaggers. They didn't buy an independent business they can do what they wish with, they baught into the NBA. I guess the commish is good for something.
1) The NBA is a business. It is not a non-profit organization. They exist to make money. 2) Fine money is small potatoes. I'm sure the NBA makes a lot more money through other means (like when a company puts the NBA logo on their product).
The NBA is smart. They fined the Supersonics owners for even considering a move to OKC, knowing that they'll lose more money later on if they go through with it. The NBA wants to make the most money it can, so it would be better if they kept the team in Seattle.
That right, and it is run by the collection of owners and their minion, Stern. In this case let the devil go get these OKC cowboys.
Even though I'm not a JVG butt sniffer, doesn't anyone else think that JVG had the right to say what he did about the officiating without getting fined $100,000???? I mean, c'mon free country right? What if JVG refused to pay the $100,000 and the NBA fired him and the case ended up in court? Wouldn't that be an unfair employment practice and in violation of JVG's first amendment rights? As to where the money goes...for all I know it could end up in D. Sterns pockets. Might not even be reinvested into the league or worse yet...it could go to the Gambini family charity to pay for officials at NBA games. That's the problem with keeping records like this private and not naming the charity, if indeed there actually is one.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20050511.html Why Houston Rockets Coach Jeff Van Gundy Is a More Fitting Free Speech Hero Than New York Times Reporter Judith Miller By MICHAEL C. DORF ---- Wednesday, May. 11, 2005 Last week, National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern imposed the stiffest fine ever on a head coach: $100,000. What terrible offense did Houston Rockets Coach Jeff Van Gundy commit to warrant this unprecedented penalty? Did he punch, kick or bite a player? Hardly. Van Gundy incurred Stern's wrath for stating publicly that the league had instructed its referees to call more fouls on the Rockets' All-Star center, Yao Ming. Worse, Van Gundy said his source was himself an NBA official, but he refused to name that official. Until Van Gundy apologized and the league declared the matter closed, Commissioner Stern had even suggested that further sanctions against Van Gundy could be forthcoming. At that point Van Gundy joked that unlike New York Times reporter Judith Miller--who has just asked the Supreme Court to hear her case--if push came to shove, he would give up his source rather than go to jail. Does Van Gundy's joke trivialize a truly important question of press freedom? After all, Van Gundy's own case only involves a monetary fine for statements about a mere game, whereas Miller faces imprisonment for statements concerned with national security. In fact, there is a difference between the two cases, but Van Gundy, not Miller, is the more fitting hero of free speech. Moreover, his case dramatizes an important point: whatever scant protection the law provides for reporters to protect their sources, it provides woefully inadequate protection for whistleblowers who, like Van Gundy, are in other lines of work. The Miller Case's Background The Miller saga began in early 2002 when the Central Intelligence Agency sent former career diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV to the African country of Niger to investigate reports that, in the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein had purchased yellowcake uranium. Wilson concluded that the reports were blatantly false, and said as much to the CIA and the State Department. Nonetheless, in his January 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush claimed that British intelligence had learned that Iraq under Saddam had indeed attempted to purchase uranium from Africa. Wilson later inferred that the so-called British intelligence must have referred to the Niger story--known by U.S. intelligence to be bogus. Thus, in July 2003, Wilson wrote a New York Times op-ed explaining what he had learned on his trip to Niger and posing the question whether the Administration had deliberately used intelligence it knew to be faulty, in order to puff up its case for war. Barely a week later, syndicated columnist Robert Novak came to the Administration's defense. Although Novak praised Wilson's prior diplomatic record, Novak argued that Wilson's 2002 mission to Niger was a low-level affair, the reports of which would not have reached then-director of the CIA George Tenet or President Bush. Hence, Novak concluded, neither the CIA nor the President knowingly made false claims in support of the war.
I'm no financial genius, so somebody please tell me how the NBA won't make as much money in OKC as they do in Seattle. If the Sonics can't get an arena deal done, they're going to have to move. Key Arena is the worst arena in the league right now. If the Sonics get a new arena, then they should probably stay in Seattle, but as it stands now, they would be stupid not to move. Hell, Stern was practically begging the Sonics to move last year, but that was before all of this started. He fined McClendon because those comments could alienate the Sonics fan base and kill ticket sales until their lease expires, or worse yet, cause fans not to show up if a new arena in Seattle is built.
I think the individual owners keep ticket sales. But the league gets a FAR bigger amount from TV contracts (national and international), merchandise and such. Losing the Seattle area/Washington in terms of population/media exposure, etc, is a much bigger hit than gaining Oklahoma/OKC. Plus, what self respecting kid in the US or anywhere else would buy an jersey with Durant on the back and Oklahoma letters stuck anywhere visable on the jersey (front or back). Maybe if Texas annexed OKC they could call it the North Texas Sonics or something, a little more palatable. Or maybe use the Oklahoma letters part in 2 point font or on the inside tag only. I guess I could maybe buy a Durant jersey then, and I am an adult
Yeah, that would mean they would be in the part of the in our division and we would have play them all the time. As if our division wasn't hard enough but having to play the Sonics would suck.
I actually meant it in a more general sense. New Orleans is not a good NBA town and the Hornets will probably move eventually. It may as well be to OKC. The Sonics need to stay where they've always been and it would diminish the NBA if they made that move. Seattle is a much better sports market than OKC, but they need to act like they really want the team to stay.
