NBA penalizes Warriors owner with historic $500,000 fine.
The NBA has penalized champion Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob$500,000 Wednesday in one of the largest fines in history for comments he made strongly criticizing the luxury tax system for exceeding the salary cap in roster confirmation.
Lacob called the luxury tax system unfair after the Warriors had to pay a $170 million luxury tax bill, all as part of a payroll worth $346 million, the highest luxury tax ever paid in NBA history.
Why was the Warriors owner punished?
The harsh penalty to Lacob, as reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, is due to NBA policy where it is clearly prohibited to make any “unauthorized communications regarding collective bargaining.”
Lacob’s comments were aired on the “Point Forward” podcast hosted by Andre Igoudala and Evan Turner, where he is upset because of the penalties he had to pay and how “expensive” it cost him the seventh NBA championship in franchise history.
The words that cost Joe Lacob $500,000
“The hardest thing of all is navigating this luxury tax, unfortunately,” Laco said.
“I went back to New York this week for labor meetings. I’m on the committee. And you know, obviously, the league wants everybody to have a chance and right now, there’s a certain element out there that believes we ‘checkbook win,’ we won because we have the most salaries on our team.”
