Anthony Davis reportedly said he’d re-sign with the Lakers, Knicks, Clippers or Bucks if traded to one of those teams. My theory: Davis put the first-place Bucks on his list, knowing they lacked a viable way to trade for him, to show he cares about winning and not market size.
People in Milwaukee were a little more excited.
Bucks owner Marc Lasry, via Mitch Lawrence of Sporting News:“I saw that report, and I think it’s great,” Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry told Sporting News near the Barclays Center court after his team shredded a depleted Nets club in Brooklyn. “It’s a little bit of what we want. We want players to come and play in Milwaukee. And part of it is, when you’re winning and you’re setting a standard for excellence, people see that. People want to win.
“It doesn’t make a difference if you’re in Milwaukee, New York or LA. The whole goal is winning. So we hope it would be players like Anthony Davis and others who want to come to Milwaukee.”
NBA tampering rules are vague and arbitrarily enforced. Predicting when the league will or won’t act is usually foolish.
But if this isn’t tampering, I don’t know what is.
Lasry is openly advocating for a player under contract with the Pelicans to join the Bucks. That is essentially what the tampering rules are designed to prevent.
The most similar comment I recall was then-Kings coach Michael Malone saying Chris Paul would “look pretty good in a Sacramento Kings uniform” while Paul was on the Clippers in 2013. That got the Kings fined despite coaches usually getting more leeway. As an owner, Lasry could face tighter scrutiny.
Or not. Who knows with the NBA and tampering?