Yahoo Finance 76ers' Daryl Morey fined $50K by NBA for 'on this day' tweet celebrating James Harden
It seems like an innocent use of social media, but Daryl Morey drew a fine for it anyway.
The NBA fined the Philadelphia 76ers president $50,000 for violating the league’s anti-tampering rule, the league announced Monday. The violation is for a tweet Morey shared on Dec. 20 that he quickly deleted.
Former #Rockets GM Daryl Morey was fined $50,000 for violating the NBA's anti-tampering rule. This was because of a "social media post Morey made on December 20 regarding the Houston Rockets' James Harden." pic.twitter.com/yYAAQC4den
— Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) December 28, 2020
That post was an “On This Day” anniversary post from Dec. 20, 2019, when Morey was the Houston Rockets general manager. It has a photo of James Harden celebrating that he broke the franchise assist record set by Calvin Murphy.
Daryl Morey tryna tell us something? 🧐 pic.twitter.com/wevj6hGwWz
— Bleacher Report NBA (@BR_NBA) December 21, 2020
Morey told the league the post was inadvertent and from an automated app that shares posts the user made previously on Twitter for that day, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
In the minutes that the post was live on Morey’s feed, 76ers fans went crazy thinking and hoping the executive would make a deal to get Harden in Philadelphia. Harden reportedly wants out of Houston and on to a team contending for a championship. At the time of the tweet, rumors were already going that a trade could happen given Morey’s history with the star. It was also days before the new season tipped off.
The NBA has also fined Harden already this season for a separate incident. He was docked $50,000, the same amount as Morey, for violating the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Harden was seen at an event — reportedly a strip club, which Harden denied in a quickly deleted Instagram story — without a mask and missed the scheduled season opener due to contact tracing. The game was postponed because of a multiple coronavirus-related issues.
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