12/18/24
November 01, 2011
NBA Fines Heat Owner $500,000 for Twitter Posts: The NBA has fined Miami Heat owner Micky Arison $500,000 for remarks he made on his Twitter account Friday about the lockout. After the latest breakdown in talks with players, Arison expressed his frustration in a series of tweets. In response to a fan who asked him "How's it feel to be apart of ruining the best game in the world?" Arison responded: "You are barking at the wrong owner." There's a rumored split among big- and small-market owners regarding measures to "guarantee competitive balance," ESPN reports, with Arison on the side of the bigs.
posted by rcade to basketball at 01:38 PM - 7 comments
Pocket change.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 03:43 PM on November 01, 2011
I actually like Arison's response, only b/c it is nice to any sort of honest opinion from someone in this process. While I'm not a Heat fan (or "pro-owner" in this lockout), i can imagine Arison truly is irritated that he's spent all this coin on the big 3 and gets to have some of the worst owners in all of American pro-sports cost him money and games. What a joke.
posted by brainofdtrain at 04:16 PM on November 01, 2011
While the NBA, and the NHL, always take a back seat to football at this time of the year for me, I am not missing basketball at all.
I'm amazed that both sides are letting this drag on this long.
posted by dviking at 04:32 PM on November 01, 2011
What's $500,000 as a percentage of BRI?
posted by tron7 at 04:38 PM on November 01, 2011
I'm curious: the players have a union agreement that sets out the possibility of fines (although I always find that odd; it's so... grade school or something to get fined for how you dress or speak in public).
But on what grounds can the league fine one of the owners? They aren't beholden by a union contract, so was there some contract they signed as individuals when they purchased the team? And what exactly could the league do if he just said "Fuck you, I won't pay!"? They can't make him sell the team, can they?
I assume the fines are a gentleman's agreement only, that he'll pay on principle of not raising a stink, but they couldn't actually make him pay the fine if he didn't want to.
posted by hincandenza at 10:27 PM on November 02, 2011
Why couldn't they? There are presumably bylaws and contracts that require teams to obey league rules. This is one of the many rules that they have to obey to be apart of the league.
posted by bperk at 10:30 PM on November 02, 2011
That's classy, Micky "I Me Me Mine".