Even though MJ may have felt like talking about Andrew Bogut while in Australia is basically the same thing as talking about wine when in Italy, he still wasn’t allowed to do it.
The NBA may be locked out and unable to reach players with their long arm of David Stern’s legislative department, but they can still ding owners for talking out of turn, and I guess Jordan did.
For comments His Airness made to the Australian newspaper, The Herald Sun, about both Bogut and the Lockout last month, Chris Broussard reported on Twitter earlier today that Mike was fined $100,000. So I guess hopefully that means he’ll stop buying hoop earrings for at least a little while.
What he said and was fined for specifically is as follows, via The Herald Sun back on August 19th:
“The model we’ve been operating under is broken. We have 22 or 23 teams losing money, (so) I think we have gotta come to some kind of understanding in this partnership that we have to realign,” Jordan said.
“I can’t say so much … but I know the owners are not going to move off what we feel is very necessary for us to get a deal in place where we can co-exist as partners. We need a lot of financial support throughout the league as well as revenue sharing to keep this business afloat.
“We have stars like Bogut who are entitled to certain type of demands. But for us to be profitable in small markets, we have to be able to win ballgames and build a better basketball team.”
“Bogut is a good piece to build around for Milwaukee,” Jordan said.
“I love Bogut’s game. He’s made a very good start and he’s definitely gonna be a star. His big problem is that he’s been dealing with that elbow injury. But he is a star to be reckoned with (and) will be a star for some time.”
I suppose it doesn’t matter really because one hundred large to Jordan is like three bucks to you and me, so who cares I guess. But as far as Jordan talking about Bogut in Australia goes – while it does read like he’s laying it on a little thick for some reason – it is probably something that will happen because of his status as a player. I’m sure there’s not many people in Australia that care what Dan Gilbert thinks of their favorite son, for example, but they would be sure to ask the greatest player of all time his opinion if given the opportunity. That said, David Stern is most likely particularly grumpy these days and he’s not playing around. Step out of company line, you get drilled, even if you are Mike Jordan.
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Photo: Ology.com
