The investigation will have lasted several weeks, even several months, and the NBA has come to the conclusion that the Sixers had violated the rules of “free agency” this summer. In the sights of the league, the arrivals of PJ Tucker and Danuel House Jr, announced a few minutes after the opening of the transfer market. Recruitments directly linked to the financial sacrifice of James Harden during his extension.
For the NBA, Philly executives spoke with James Harden about his financial sacrifice before the market opened, and it’s a first offense. In addition, they made contact with Tucker and House Jr, before this same opening of the market. Consequently, the sanction is heavy: Philadelphia thus loses its second draft rounds for 2023 and 2024.
In the past, the NBA had sanctioned the Bucks for the Bogdan Bogdanovic episode, then the Heat and the Bulls for “tampering”, each time removing the franchises from a second round of the Draft. This is also why there were only 58 choices this year in the Draft, because Miami and Chicago had been deprived of their second round, following the signings of Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball in 2021.
