Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Well, there's a difference between what Silver would do, and what he should do.
Of course you're right, AD to a big contending market is a good thing for Silver and the NBA in terms of financial gain and media hype. So even if he could fine, say, Stephen A Smith, he wouldn't.
But if he could fine SAS, or ESPN in general, or whatever, he should because it is clearly in violation of the tampering rule. Now, I'm aware that the NBA takes tampering about as seriously as I take claims that Giannis is better than AD, but still, at least on paper, it is tampering.