Draymond Green given $50K tampering fine for saying Devin Booker needs to get out of Phoenix during TNT studio show

Draymond Green’s stint as a TNT analyst on Friday has led to a tampering fine from the NBA.

According to sources of Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes, the Golden State Warriors star has been fined $50,000 for comments he made about Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker.

“It’s great to see Book playing well and Phoenix playing well but get my man out of Phoenix,” Green said in a guest stint on TNT’s “Inside the NBA.” “It’s not good for him, it’s not good for his career. Sorry Chuck, but they gotta get Book out of Phoenix. I need my man to somewhere where he can play great basketball all the time and win because he’s that type of player.”

To Green’s credit, he at least realized he probably had tampered with those comments. When host Ernie Johnson asked Green if he was tampering, he chuckled and said, “Maybe.”

You can watch the clip below.

The Suns beat the Heat on Saturday night to move to 5-0 in the NBA bubble and remain the only team to not lose a game in the bubble. So there is a little bit of short-term irony to Green’s comments. The Suns’ bubble run means the team is just two games back of the No. 8 seed after the team was 13th in the West before the restart began.

Not long after the news of his fine became public, Green tweeted this:

NBA tries to enforce tampering rules

Green’s comments drew a fine from the NBA likely because the league wants to show that it’s enforcing its tampering rules. The NBA’s rules on tampering prohibit those employed by teams from interfering or commenting on contractual matters involving other teams. And while you know that the type of comments Green made publicly on Friday are made more candidly by team execs and players privately, the NBA clearly doesn’t want them expressed publicly.

Green’s fine is the most prominent tampering fine issued by the NBA since Magic Johnson was fined for talking about Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2018 when Johnson was working for the Lakers. That same year LeBron James wasn’t fined for saying that he would love to play with Anthony Davis. While James and Davis are now teammates, James’ comments came when Davis was with the Pelicans and months before he was traded to Los Angeles.

– – – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

More from Yahoo Sports:

• Ex-Angels employee indicted for distributing fentanyl to Tyler Skaggs

• Favre sympathizes with Trump over coronavirus

• Draymond says Booker needs to get out of Phoenix, accused of tampering

• Washington releases RB Guice after domestic violence arrest