Yahoo! Sports reports Cavs and owner Dan Gilbert are suspicious Miami broke NBA tampering rules. James, Heat visit Cleveland Thursday night.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and owner Dan Gilbert want to learn if the Miami Heat broke NBA tampering rules in their pursuit of LeBron James.Cleveland, Ohio -- As the Cleveland Cavaliers prepare to host the Miami Heat and LeBron James in his first visit to the city since leaving it as a free agent, another element is added to an already emotional situation.
As Thursday night's Miami-Cleveland game approaches, Adrian Wojnarowksi reports for Yahoo! Sports that the Cavaliers and owner Dan Gilbert have enlisted a law firm to investigate the circumstances leading to James' signing with Miami.
Wojnarowski writes:
The Cleveland Cavaliers have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a high-powered Midwestern law firm to investigate their suspicions that the Miami Heat broke NBA tampering rules while pursuing LeBron James, and owner Dan Gilbert has privately vowed he won’t relent until he has a thick binder of findings to drop on the desk of the NBA commissioner, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
The NBA won’t launch an investigation into a tampering case without a formal request from a team, but sources say Gilbert’s plan is to give commissioner David Stern a detailed case that includes meetings, phone calls and contingency plans that date as far back as 2008. Gilbert will implore Stern to use his powers as commissioner to get access to phone records and testimony of key people surrounding Heat president Pat Riley, James and others potentially involved.
James became a free agent last July 1. NBA rules do not allow a team besides the one a player had been on -- in James' case, the Cavaliers -- to talk with the player about a potential signing until July 1.
Wojnarowki wites:
One focus of the law firm’s probe includes an alleged Riley-James meeting in Miami in November 2009, and a meeting of James’ inner circle with Wade in Chicago in June 2010, sources said.
Riley, James, Wade and Bosh have denied there was a predetermined collusion in the historic free-agent binge, although the players have admitted to discussing the possibility of playing together as far back as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Gilbert and the Cavaliers are apparently resolute in their desire to get to the bottom of the issue.
Wojnarowski writes:
As one league source told Yahoo! Sports: The Cavs are “determined to get everything out there. They’re not letting go of this. They’re not going to just let this die.”
Potential penalties for tampering could include front-office suspensions, fines and losses of draft picks.