Although the passing of the months has made the subject a bit forgotten, the NBA has continued during this time with its investigation of the sign & trade that supposed the arrivals of Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball to Miami and Chicago respectively. In fact, according to Adrian Wojnarowski, a journalist from ESPN, this investigation is already in a very advanced stage, so that news about it could arrive in the near future.
Specifically, the league has studied whether there has been tampering in such agreements, that is, if the franchises involved were negotiating with the players before free agency opened. To do this, he has been conducting interviews with executives and player agents and has compiled emails from the teams that were part of both movements.
In Lowry’s case, the teams involved were the Raptors and the Heat, as the point guard came from Canada to Miami in exchange for Goran Dragic and Precious Achiwa after signing a contract of 85 million in 3 years. In Ball’s, the Pelicans and Bulls are the franchises that have been investigated, since Lonzo was sent to Chicago after signing 80 million in four years, and New Orleans received Tomas Satoransky, Garrett Temple and a second round for him.
The investigation was opened on August 7, shortly after the transfer became known, and is evidence of the NBA’s attempt to enforce the rules regarding a practice like the tampering whose existence is an open secret and which is, for practical purposes, impossible to avoid. Already last season, the Milwaukee Bucks were sanctioned for illegally negotiating the arrival of Bogdan Bogdanovic, which ended up not taking place, which cost them a second round of the 2022 draft. We will see if this time the sanction (if it comes) is more severe.
(Cover photo: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)