A number of NBA franchise owners raised concerns over the way the free agency trade deals were carried out this season and allege that a lot of tampering took place.
These concerns were raised during the Annual Board of Governors meeting. As a result, the NBA has decided to launch an investigation into the allegations.
The 2019 free agency opening period is when NBA teams, players and their agents are supposed to negotiate, discuss and finalize contract agreements to determine how much they get paid and where they will end up playing.
There were a number of top free agency trade deals that took place over the last 30 days that saw players like Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis change teams.
NBA free agency rules makes it mandatory for all parties involved to start discussions and negotiations only during this period and not before. However, given the fact that a majority of players were signed just a few hours after the free agency period opened, it raises suspicions that some NBA franchises and players had already completed their discussions before the free agency period started and were prepared to close deals once the free agency period started.
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To give you an idea of how this all went down, over a billion dollars in combined free agency traders were signed within the first day of free agency opening.
There are also allegations that some NBA franchises tried to bribe players by offering them special perks that do not fall within their contract as this was the easiest way to get around the salary cap restrictions imposed by the NBA.
Kawhi Leonard who won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award decided to leave the Toronto Raptors and move to the Los Angeles Clippers. There are unconfirmed reports that Kawhi’s uncle who is commonly referred to as “Uncle Dennis” had carried out negotiations asking for perks such as guaranteed sponsorships, planes and houses outside of contractual obligations.
The scope of the investigation is yet to be confirmed but the NBA will look into all of the above concerns plus carry out interviews in the coming weeks to determine if any manipulation took place. As of now there is no confirmation as to when the investigation is expected to be completed.
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