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The Los Angeles Lakers escaped the NBA’s tampering investigation with the most expensive slap on the wrist in NBA history, but their ability ability to sign former Indiana Pacers and current Oklahoma City Thunder star Paul George in free agency next summer remains intact.
It sounds like that punishment isn’t good enough for Pacers owner and now-confirmed member of #TeamPetty, Herb Simon, who NBA insider Peter Vescey of Patreon reports is considering separate legal action against the Lakers.
“He’s so fed up, don’t be shocked if he sues the league and the Lakers for damages,” said one source Vescey described as “a confidant of the Pacers’ long-time owner.”
If Simon does sue the league and/or the Lakers, it sounds like it most likely won’t get very far. The NBA’s own set of rules make it fairly difficult (if not impossible) for its members to pursue litigation against each other or the league, as Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report astutely noted on Twitter:
Anyone can try to sue just about anyone, but teams are not going to get far, NBA has its laws set in constitution and bylaws https://t.co/2KUrPdfHOg
— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) September 4, 2017
It’s understandable that Simon is upset that George wanted to live in a far better area near his hometown rather than languish in irrelevancy in Indiana, especially considering how the Pacers are probably now consigned back to their usual status of “franchise your friend struggles to remember when trying to name all 30 NBA teams” due to how unremarkable their history is.
George is (sadly) probably the best player in Pacers history, so this one is going to sting the Pacers for a while. Just don’t expect their whining through anonymous sources to sting the Lakers very much beyond the tampering fine L.A. already received.
Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.