An automatic tweet has cost Daryl Morey $50K after the NBA fined the Philadelphia 76ers executive for tampering. Morey’s Twitter account sent out a post commemorating the one-year anniversary of James Harden breaking the Houston Rockets’ franchise record for assists on Dec. 20. Morey quickly deleted the post and tried to explain to the league that it was sent from an automatic app, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, but he was still hit with a fine.
Daryl Morey’s automated James Harden tweet led to a $50K tampering fine
The Philadelphia 76ers executive is in trouble again over Twitter.
NBAE via Getty Images
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Here’s the post in question:
Morey worked for the Rockets from 2007 until October of 2020 when he stepped down from his role as the lead basketball decision-maker with the franchise. Two weeks later, he announced he was joining the Sixers. Morey’s departure started an offseason full of turmoil for the Rockets that now includes Harden’s infamous trade request. Morey and the Sixers have emerged as a popular trade destination for Harden since he went public with his demand.
This is not the first time Morey has gotten in trouble over his Twitter account. Morey sparked a standoff between China and the NBA for tweeting “free Hong Kong” during last year’s preseason. The NBA lost sponsorships with China over the tweet and games were pulled from its state-run television network. The tweet was estimated to cost the NBA about $400 million.
Morey’s $50K fine was the same amount that Harden was recently fined for breaking Covid protocols.
This is the second high-profile tampering penalty from the league in recent weeks. The Milwaukee Bucks were stripped of a 2022 second round draft pick for botching a potential sign-and-trade deal with Bogdan Bogdanovic during the offseason.
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