NEW YORK – The NBA on Monday fined Philadelphia 76ers president of sports activities, Daryl Morey, for a tweet – now deleted – stating that Houston Rockets player James Harden had opposed the league’s rules. violate illegal negotiations.
A tweet was posted to Morey’s account on Dec. 20 commemorating the anniversary of another tweet he sent to congratulate Harden on breaking Calvin Murphy’s goal for the most assists from a Rockets player. Morey was part of the Rockets organization at the time.
This year’s tweet has been removed. Teams are generally prohibited from discussing contract players with any other team, and the NBA has warned that this could be considered an unauthorized approach.
Harden’s name has been discussed in recent weeks in discussions about possible transactions.
A tweet from Morey in 2019 caused serious problems for the NBA and its relationship with China. Morey expressed support for protesters against the Chinese government in Hong Kong on the social network. The NBA games were not broadcast on CCTV, the official Chinese network, for a year after this tweet, which was also deleted.