NBA: Wade's comments don't break any rules
Miami Heat #3 Dwayne Wade goes to the basket against the New York Knicks. (April 11, 2010) Credit: JASON DECROW
The NBA admitted Friday that it can't stop players from talking to each other and, in some cases, recruiting each other as pending free agents, even though team officials are heavily fined for merely uttering the name of a player who is still the property of another team.
"We understand that players talk and interact with each other all the time and there's no real way to regulate that," the league said in a statement Friday. "We therefore reserve discipline only for the most egregious player tampering cases."
The league said Dwyane Wade's comments from earlier this week "do not meet that standard."
Wade on Wednesday caught the NBA's attention when he said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that some of the top free agents plan to talk before July 1 to share their thoughts and plans and, perhaps, discuss pairing up.
Wade can opt out of his contract with the Heat to become a free agent and has made it no secret that he'd like another star-level player - LeBron James, Amar'e Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, for instance - to join him in South Beach.
Wade also took shots at the Bulls, one of several teams that, like the Heat, have enough salary-cap space to sign a maximum-contract player. He questioned the Bulls' loyalty to former players and said the Heat "is a very loyal organization."
There have been rumors that James might consider leaving Cleveland for the Bulls. Wade has talked about having James join him in Miami.
With cap space to make two max-contract offers, the Knicks would love to talk both players into coming to New York. Or any of the above, with James as the most coveted prize.
While New Yorkers are pining for LeBron, Ohioans aren't ready to give up on him yet. James' hometown of Akron has scheduled a "LeBron Appreciation Day" at the University of Akron's InfoCision Stadium on June 19. The focus of the event is to convince James to stay with the Cavaliers.
James, who attended a Drake concert Thursday at Cleveland's House of Blues, has been mostly laying low since the Cavs were eliminated from the second round of the playoffs earlier this month.
The Dolan family owns a controlling interests in the Knicks, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.
