Stephen Jackson’s Fine Is Ridiculous
Stephen Jackson is 25 K lighter in the pockets and we’re somewhat responsible. But does that make me lose any sleep? Not really, since he chose to say it and the loss is not even a half percent of his $7.65 million salary. And let’s be honest, he knew exactly what he was doing (but probably didn’t realize what it would cost him). But considering the way it went down, I find that fine highly excessive for a couple of reasons.
As was reported last night, Jackson was fined by the NBA for “public statements detrimental to the NBA” in regards to his wish to be traded – a story that we broke. If I’m not mistaken, several players have publicly demanded a trade but haven’t been fined.
In 2007, Kobe Bryant said he’d rather play in Pluto than play another game with the Lakers. No fine. (The league said they didn’t fine Bryant because he retracted the statements the next day.) Same goes for Shaq, Allen Iverson and Karl Malone. In fact, when Captain Jack told me at the Protege promotional event that he wanted out, he didn’t say it in an aggressive, give-the-team-an-ultimatum-type of way. He just politely expressed his desire to move on and finish his career with a winner. And it wasn’t like he completely blindsided the franchise, even Golden State team officials confirmed his agent already made the team aware of his wishes.
Even if the team was blindsided by the trade request, it’s not like Jackson put individuals in the organization on blast. Didn’t call out the coach, any players, management, the city of Oakland - none of that. He even went so far as to praise Don Nelson’s system and , but preferred to be with a more established team at this point of his career. Is that worth losing the equivalent of buying a brand new Honda Accord? A few days ago Serena Williams basically threatened to do shove a ball down a line judge’s throat and was fined only $10,000. I know comparing the two situations is like comparing apples and oranges, but still.
Ever since the brawl in the Palace five years ago, the NBA has been quick to fine players on everything from criticizing an official to having your shorts too baggy. I understand rules are rules, but the league just has to be a little more consistent. Was Jackson fined so heavily because of his past? Would they have fined Chris Quinn the same amount if he went to the Miami Herald and said he wanted out? The league justified the fine by stating they did the same thing to Ron Artest after he told the media he wanted out in 2006. But again, Artest also doesn’t have the best track record with the league’s higher ups.
Mark Cuban has always been racking up six-figure fines - usually related to comments regarding officiating. But would the league fine him that much if they didn’t know he was a billionaire? In Jackson’s case, I agree an NBA-affiliated event is not the appropriate time to make such a statement, but I don’t agree on the severity of the fine.
Three or four years ago, I asked an NBA team’s PR official where the fine money goes. He told me all fines are donated to charity. So it’s somewhat reassuring to know that someone in need is going to benefit from this.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Austin Burton says:
Gerald, we’ve gone over this already: We don’t speak ill of Serena Williams around here.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Jacqueline Mitchell says:
I love watching NBA basketball,but some of these fines the players get smacked with are just dumb.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Austin Burton says:
Seriously, though, role players/”no-names” publicly ask for trades all the time, and I never hear of them getting fined. I think this has to do with Jackson’s level of celebrity, and the fact that he doesn’t have the best reputation.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:12 am
control says:
As much as I dislike Stephan Jackson as a basketball player (I think he’s a piece of shit, and hurts teams more than helps them) the fine is absolute bullshit.
There have been over 20 different statements in the press from various players like Haddidi the Hammer, etc that have been about the same or worse. Stern needs to be more consistent with this bullshit, it makes the league look 100x worse that some people get away with tuns of bullshit on the court and off the court without any fines, yet some others get so unfairly treated (Rondo in play offs for example, no fines? Seriously?).
This league is turning into a joke, and it’s not because you have idiot ghetto smurfs running their mouths, it’s because you have the dictator in a suit playing puppet master instead of being fair across the board.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Kermit the Washington says:
Kobe didn’t say “I’d rather play in pluto than with the lakers”. He was asked “if the lakers trade you, where do you want to go?” And his answer was “I dunno…I’ll play anywhere. I’ll play on PLUTO if I have to”, basically implying that he just wants to play ball and the team doesn’t matter. “Trade me anywhere”.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Michorizo says:
It’s not like he waived a gun in the air and asked for a trade…
September 16th, 2009 at 11:32 am
TJ says:
We get it that you broke the story. You can stop mentioning it every five seconds.
September 16th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
freeze says:
fine goes to “needy” kobe/lebron marketing campaign
September 16th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Heckler...formerly 'Yallallreadyknow' says:
good. fine his ass.
i like stephen jackson, but rules are rules. just abide by them dammit.
kobe aint request a trade. he just said he didnt want to play for the lakers anymore.
shaq didnt request a trade either. he told kobe to “opt” out. but lakers mngmnt selected to trade shaq.
i’m not sure if iverson requested a trade, but if he did, he must have been AFTER sixers mngmnt mentioned that he played his last game
and $25,000 is not a severe fine. a game suspension w/out pay is a severe fine.
September 16th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Mellmeister says:
Stern = Ridiculous
Don’t know what’s going on with the league… but Consistency is what they should implement.
America = Freedom
Freedom of speech is what jackson exercised… they should be more open to this kind of verbal attacks… and have their respective teams deal with it. if GSW didn’t mind capt.jack’s statements then why would they?
September 16th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Brado says:
Then shouldn’t Boozer be smacked with a fine since he went on national radio not once, but twice proclaiming Utah had agreed to trade him? He for sure caused locker room issues! WTF?
September 16th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Bizz says:
lmao @ #6…bam bam bam…HEY! HEY!…I DON’T THINK YOU HEARD ME THE FIRST TIME SO I HAD TO BRANDISH MY IRON AND MAKE A STATEMENT…I SAID I WANT A TRADE, DON! ahahahahahaha
September 16th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
George W Kush Sr says:
It’s a double standard because of his past, he didn’t do anything close to what Boozer’s done, to two teams really, and Stern n co never fined him anything.
This makes the NBA look dumb in a lot of way, especially since Golden State was already looking dumb playing it off like they appreciated the comment for his desire to win. If they really liked it so much they should pay his fine for him ha ha
September 16th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
steele says:
stephen got fined because of his actions. he knew the gm had been ousted, got a completely unnecessary max extenstion from the idiot team president when the franchise was weak(pay me or i’ll pout), to the huge detriment of the team, and then wanted out right after? this typifies what’s wrong with nba players in general. they always think they deserve more when they’re already grossly overpaid…and right after saying he wanted to retire as a warrior. kobe’s different, he is a far superior talent and his starters around him were smush and kwame—two guys that never should’ve been in the league. wade should be pissed as well. not jackson, who’s getting much more than he deserves.
September 16th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Korver says:
it’s funny because this country seems to hate everything that looks a little bit like socialisme but what Mr Stern is doing controlling every speech in this league is just good old stalinism …
September 16th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
the cynic says:
Stephen Jackson should appeal, the “reason” for the fine is ridiculous