Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
As expected, the NBA lowered its lockout hammer Monday on Micky Arison for offering opinions on the ongoing work stoppage on his Twitter account last Friday.
NBA spokesman Tim Frank confirmed to the Sun Sentinel that the league has fined the Miami Heat owner. Yahoo reported the sanction was $500,000.
NBA Commissioner David Stern had issued an edict before the July 1 start of the lockout that team and league personnel would not be allowed to comment on the lockout beyond the confines of league-approved media sessions.
Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan was fined $100,000 in September for comments made to an Australian publication regarding the lockout. At that time, the league only acknowledged the sanction, not the scope of the fine. Such was the case again Monday.
While Jordan mentioned Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut by name in his comments, Arison did not mention specific players while responding to questions on his Twitter account (@MickyArison).
Arison is considered among the owners pushing hardest for a resumption of play, reluctant to lose additional games with his stacked roster of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh that advanced to last season’s NBA Finals.
In the wake of Stern canceling games through the end of November due to an impasse in the negotiations, Arison began replying to lockout-related posts sent to his Twitter account.
It started with a post directed to his Twitter account that read, “Guess what? Fans provide all the money you’re fighting over you greedy (expletive) pigs.”
Arison responded, “Honestly u r barking at the wrong owner.”
That response later was deleted.
Later, from another Twitter account came this post to Arison’s account, “Know it’s not ur fault at this point, it’s become child’s play. Grown men making stupid decisions over money.”
Replied Arison, “Exactly.”
That had the initial poster chiming in with, “Then can you bark at the other owners? This is RIDICULOUS!!!”
Replied Arison, “Now u r making some sense.”
Arison then retweeted a post from another account that read, “Heat ratings proved that fans want to see super teams in big markets instead of a ton of small-market teams each with one st(ar).”
Another account offered, “NBA labor is a joke! You owners don’t care about us FANS at all!,” to which Arison responded on his account, “Wrong we care a lot.”
Later, he retweeted the question, “are you allowed to comment about ur feelings on the small market/big market issues some of the owners bring up?” He replied, “No.”
From there, Arison retweeted a post that read, “having ‘all 32 teams compete’ is complete BS. Such an unrealistic and stupid idea.” In response he simply offered a smiley face (since there are only 30 NBA teams).
WRITTEN BY By Ira WindermanSouth Florida Sun Sentinel -Â [email protected]. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat & FULL STORY HERE
