Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert said his team “killed it” in the Kyrie Irving trade.
One of Gilbert’s justifications stood out.
Gilbert, via Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer:
“I don’t know, but I think Kyrie will leave Boston,” said Gilbert.
The league’s enforcement of tampering is so arbitrary. I have a general rule against predicting when the NBA will punish someone for tampering.
I’m breaking it here. This has to be tampering.
Irving is under contract with the Celtics until July 1. A rival owner is publicly predicting Irving will leave. This is the essence of tampering – a member of another team interfering in a team’s contractual relationship with a player. And owners get even less leeway.
Maybe Irving will leave Boston. But it’s wild Gilbert said this publicly.