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Speaker 1: In April, Los Angeles Lakers president Magic Johnson appeared on

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel Live, and he was a hit. Johnson drew

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Speaker 1: last when he was asked about NBA rules against tampering

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Speaker 1: with players who are under contract with another team, like

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Speaker 1: four time All Star Paul George. What constitutes tampering? Like

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Speaker 1: if you're on vacation and you run into Paul George,

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Speaker 1: are you not allowed to speak to them? No, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna say hi because we know each other, can say hey,

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Speaker 1: I want you to come to the Lakers, even though

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna be wink winking likes. But but George's former team,

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Speaker 1: the Indiana Pacers, isn't am used, and apparently neither of

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Speaker 1: the league. The NBA is now investigating whether the Lakers

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Speaker 1: violated the league's tampering rules. With us to talk about

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Speaker 1: the investigation and the big money world of NBA free

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Speaker 1: agency is Larry Coon, the founder of cb a F

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Speaker 1: a Q dot com. It's a site dedicated to the

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Speaker 1: ins and out of the NBA's collective bargaining agreement. Larry,

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Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. UM Your website helpfully tells me

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Speaker 1: that tampering occurs when a team quote directly or indirectly

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Speaker 1: entices a player who's under contract elsewhere. I realized he

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Speaker 1: was joking. But even with just what he said on

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Speaker 1: on Jimmy Kimmel Live, is it possible to Magic Johnson

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Speaker 1: crossed that line right there. There's a broad spectrum of

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Speaker 1: tampering everywhere. From the overt Hey, we want you to

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Speaker 1: come play with us as soon as your contracts over,

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Speaker 1: come on down. Just don't tell anybody all the way

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Speaker 1: to these things that are barely over the line. Magic

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Speaker 1: in his chimical appearance could be considered to be over

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Speaker 1: the line. On the other hand, he's a gregarious guy

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Speaker 1: who's joking. And is it technically illegal possibly? Is it

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Speaker 1: overtly tampering? Probably not. It sounds also if you put

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Speaker 1: it in context, he knows what he's doing on a

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Speaker 1: national television show. He's an obviously an experienced businessman and

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Speaker 1: experience in this business, and he would not admit a

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Speaker 1: plot to tamper on TV, I would think. And there's

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Speaker 1: also this this factor that sort of um I wonder about,

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Speaker 1: which is George knows Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, he came

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Speaker 1: from there, from California. He's expressed desires to play for

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Speaker 1: the Lakers. I mean, at what point is it tampering?

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Speaker 1: And at what point is it This guy wants to

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Speaker 1: go to play for the Lakers and has always wanted

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Speaker 1: to do that, right, and the Lakers certainly don't need

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Speaker 1: to tamper in this case. If everything that's been rumored

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Speaker 1: that Paul George wants to sign with the Lakers as

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Speaker 1: soon as this contract is over is true, then all

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Speaker 1: the Lakers really need to do a sit back. They

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Speaker 1: don't need to make any go verd gesters like that,

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Speaker 1: and especially risk something like this. How rigorously are the

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Speaker 1: league's anti tampering rules in forest I would have to

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Speaker 1: imagine um or maybe I just am imagining that that

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Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of uh winks and nods that

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Speaker 1: go on all the time among players and perspective teams.

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Speaker 1: Of course, you're not the thought police, nor can you

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Speaker 1: monitor every have a conversation that happens, especially in the

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Speaker 1: scenario like Magic said, oh I happen to run into

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Speaker 1: the guy on vacation. They're not going to monitor every

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Speaker 1: conversation that happens, especially since guys like Magic and guys

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Speaker 1: like Paul George's agent are going to be having conversations

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Speaker 1: about other things all the time anyway, So they wait

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Speaker 1: for a team to complain they think that violation occurred, Um,

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Speaker 1: they'll complain to the league and then the legal will

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Speaker 1: launch an investigation, which is what happened in this case. Now,

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Speaker 1: if they do find something, if all we have to

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Speaker 1: go on is the kimbl case, then that's probably not much.

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Speaker 1: The punishment is going to fit the crime. So for

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Speaker 1: something like that, they might even issue just a warning

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Speaker 1: or a small fine. But if in their investigation, you know,

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Speaker 1: they're going to look at emails, they're going to look

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Speaker 1: at other conversations, and if they do happen to turn

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Speaker 1: up something that that indicates that something a little bit

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Speaker 1: more egregiousness going on here, then you could start to

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Speaker 1: see more severe penalties. Why is a law firm investigating

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Speaker 1: this instead of the League's office. I think they wanted

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Speaker 1: to have an independent third party take a look at it.

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Speaker 1: And you know, the the league is supposed to be

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Speaker 1: that in cases like this between a couple of teams,

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Speaker 1: but I think that they wanted to keep it at

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Speaker 1: arms length. Lair, let me just back up and and

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Speaker 1: and ask you a question that I'm curious about. In

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Speaker 1: so many other fields, you can talk with somebody who's

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Speaker 1: under contract with with another entity who works for another

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Speaker 1: another company, for example, why is tampering against the rules

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Speaker 1: in the NBA In the first place, the league is

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Speaker 1: very careful to make it so that the only agreement

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Speaker 1: between a team and a player is reduced into an

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Speaker 1: NBA contract and protect that relationship between teams and players

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Speaker 1: that do exist. Teams can't even negotiate with their own

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Speaker 1: upcoming free agents until the free agent actually becomes a

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Speaker 1: free agent. It's it's just the line that the league

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Speaker 1: doesn't let people cross. So if they protect that relationship

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Speaker 1: between teams and their own players by not letting other

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Speaker 1: players step in and do anything so versive, I want

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Speaker 1: to thank our guest Larry Coon. He's the founder of

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Speaker 1: c B a F a q dot com, a site

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Speaker 1: that looks at the NBA's collective bargaining agreement with all

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Speaker 1: sorts of issues like salary caps and in this case,

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Speaker 1: the rules against tampering with players who are under contract

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Speaker 1: with another team. Talking about UH, the NBA's investigation of

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Speaker 1: possible tampering by the Los Angeles Lakers