Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan was hit with a $100,000 fine for a relatively innocuous comment about one of the league's players, ESPN's Chris Broussard reports.
Jordan was quoted in an Aug. 19 newspaper story discussing revenue sharing, and made an offhand remark about Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut. The comment violated a league policy that bars team owners from discussing the lockout or any players during the work stoppage, Broussard reports, and a league-wide memo sent out shortly before the lockout began informed owners and employees that anyone who breaks the rules could be fined up to $1 million.
"We need a lot of financial support throughout the league, as well as revenue sharing to keep this business afloat," Jordan told The Herald Sun newspaper in Australia. "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 and better basketball team."
Jordan's comments were part of a longer interview in which he called the NBA's business model "broken" and reiterated the owners' claim that "22 or 23" teams lost money last season.
