After months of investigation, the NBA has come to a resolution in the cases of the acquisition of Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball. The point guards changed teams in the offseason, which raised some concerns within the league.
The league’s front office start looking into the negotiations for these signings, finding out that the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls started negotiating deals before free agency opened at 6 p.m. ET on Aug. 2.
Officials found out they didn’t do things right and have handed penalties for both squads. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the teams will forfeit their next available second-round draft pick.
ESPN Sources: The NBA will make Chicago and Miami forfeit their next available second-round draft pick over findings in probe into early contact in summer free agency. Probe was centered on Lonzo Ball and Kyle Lowry sign and trades.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 1, 2021
The league had a series of punishments for the teams but decided to forfeit a second-rounder. Other penalties included fines up to $10 million, and suspension of executives. Some could say this ended up being good for these teams, but a second-round pick is still a valuable asset for them.
Among the penalties that were available to the NBA: Fines up to $10M per team, loss of draft picks and suspension of team executives.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 1, 2021
Kyle Lowry finished his tenure with the Toronto Raptors at the end of last season. He joined the Miami Heat via sign-and-trade, creating a Big 3 with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo in South Beach.
Lonzo Ball wasn’t part of the New Orleans Pelicans’ plans moving forward, which prompted the Pels to let him go via sign-and-trade. Ball landed in Chicago, creating one of the most exciting teams in the Eastern Conference alongside Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic.
Great as these moves have been, they were wrongly done and the league took care of things. Fortunately, they collaborated with the investigation, which made things easier. Still, that didn’t prevent them from getting penalties, as the league hopes that the rest of the teams learn that these practices aren’t allowed.
**Disclaimer**
Initially, this article indicated the league had fined the Heat and Bulls $10 million each and suspended their executives. They only got two second-rounders taken away by the NBA. We take full responsibility for the mistake and apologize for the inconvenience.
