The NBA recently announced that they have fined Golden State owner, Joe Lacob, $50,000 for violating the league’s anti-tampering policy stemming from his recent comments about the Philadelphia Sixers’ small forward, Ben Simmons.

In a recent interview with the SF Chronicle, Lacob was asked about the potential Warriors-Simmons connection. Lacob appeared to shoot down any hopes of Simmons coming to the Bay as he explained that the Sixers star likely wouldn’t be a good fit for the Warriors.

“In some ways, it doesn’t really fit what we’re doing. He makes a lot of money. And, can he finish games? I don’t know,” said Lacob. “He’s very talented. The problem is: We have Draymond. Draymond and him are very similar in he sense that neither one really shoots and they do a lot of the playmaking. That’s one issue. The salary structure is another.”

A few days later the NBA announced that Lacob would have to take out his checkbook and pay up for his alleged tampering.

This was a bit unusual for the NBA to do in my opinion as Lacob was actually expressing why he didn’t want to trade for Simmons, rather than the opposite.

The league is obviously very strict when it comes to potential tampering violations. I’ll admit, it would be pretty funny if the Warriors do end up with Simmons on their team after all of this.

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