The NBA announced today that Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden has been fined $100,000 by the NBA for public comments on August 14 and 17 indicating that he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless traded to another team. The league’s investigation, which included an interview of Harden, confirmed that these comments referenced Harden’s belief that the 76ers would not accommodate his request to be traded.
Actually, I think the owners would be all for something like that - they’d probably be able to exercise more control over superstars. It’s players who I don’t think would want that. Some make lots of money, others aspire to. Currently, rookies get their tech fines paid off by the team or vet players, I’m pretty sure, or at least I’m pretty sure that’s how they do it on the Raptors
Yeah the owners would want it, but to negotiate power like that you gotta give something up. I just think it’s such a rare occurrence that you’d want to fine a guy more than $100k that it’s not a big priority.