I am confused as to what rule he broke that warrants such a fine. Is this just being called conduct unbecoming of a GM or some nonsense?
Devil Stern needs to relax with his fines. If ever a group of people deserved to be publicly scrutinized it's NBA refs.
He embarrassed himself, his team, and the league. I think that is what it is based on. If they allow that, it sets a bad precedent for what they allow from other team employees/owners. And you KNOW Mark Cuban would be making a huge stink.
This is what I have a problem with. Who did he embarrass? As a fan, I wasn't embarrassed. I don't think the league was embarrassed either. I believe Danny got fined because people made a big deal out of it.
You're a Celtics fan though. We are biased. If that was Danny Ferry, I guarantee you that we would absolutely ripping him apart for being immature an unprofessional.
I think you are several hundred miles off base with this.
Basketball does not require corporate style professional detachment at all times. Basketball is entertainment. It includes trash talk on the court and in the media (Phil Jackson anyone?), Tommy Heinsohn, Wyc complaining loudly to the officials from the bench, Tony Allen complaining and dancing on the sidelines.
Danny Ainge gets into it with some fans and throws a towel as a joke. It's funny, entertainment. It doesn't even come close to tampering. It shows that the guy isn't viewing himself as a corporate suit presiding over an audit, but an ex-player with a sense of humor having a harmless bit of fun on the sidelines.
Does the NBA want its fans to think that its representatives are soulless robot decision makers who never do anything you shouldn't do at a job interview?
If Danny Ferry did the same thing, people would laugh and make fun of him, but I'd bet money that exceedingly few would rip him as a disgrace.
The league office has become absurdly draconian.
I don't necessarily disagree with this. However, I think you are overestimating the "fans", or the public in general. We are in an increasingly politically correct culture, to the point that people get up on their high horses about EVERYTHING. So when an executive does something unbecoming of a person in his position, he gets ripped by the media and the fans. Not because they are genuinely offended, but because they want to show everyone how mature they are, and how much more refined they are.
The league knows this, and they react to it. They look at that as bad press (its arguable whether it is or not). Whether it is the way the players dress, the comments made to the press, the "violence" in the game, or the way an executive acts in public. They give out fines and suspensions for things that people wouldn't have blinked an eye at 20 years ago. All because they are reacting to the percieved negative press, which is really just bored people trying to prove they are more offended than the next guy.
However, this is how it is. This is the standard that has been set. And by this standard, what Ainge did was 100% worthy of a fine. It was a stupid thing, but it caused an uproar (fake or not) that in the leagues mind, reflects poorly on them.
Ainge needs to be smarter than that, and realize that he just can't do that in todays NBA, just like KG needs to know that he can't flail elbows, and Doc needs to know that he can't complain about the refs.
Topic: Danny fined $25K for the "towel incident" (Read 13095 times)