- The NBA fined the 76ers and team boss Daryl Morey $75,000 each for tampering charges.
- Morey sent a tweet to Stephen Curry, jokingly telling him to join his brother Seth Curry on the 76ers.
- Morey's fine was $25,000 more than one given to former Heat star Meyers Leonard for making anti-Semitic comments.
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The NBA handed out a pair of $75,000 fines to the Philadelphia 76ers and team president Daryl Morey for tampering charges on Monday, all because of a six-letter tweet.
On June 3, Morey tweeted a screenshot of an Instagram post Stephen Curry made to congratulate his brother Seth Curry, who plays for the 76ers, on a 30-point performance in a playoff game.
Alongside the photo Morey wrote the words "join 'em," seemingly imploring two-time MVP Curry to join his brother in Philadelphia.
-Daryl MorΞy 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) June 3, 2021
Those two words in Morey's tweet were all it took to violate the NBA's anti-tampering rules, which prohibit executives from publicly talking about players on opposing teams.
The league said the Sixers organization was also fined due to Morey's "conduct."
The incident is just the latest in a string of indiscretions on Twitter to cost the Sixers and its executives dearly.
Most recently, Morey was fined $50,000 in December last year for a tweet that celebrated the one-year anniversary of James Harden breaking the Houston Rockets' franchise assist record.
Morey, who previously served as the Rockets general manager, was the one who brought Harden to Houston in 2012.
The tweet, which was sent automatically via a Twitter add on called On This Day, also broke the NBA's tampering rules.
Morey has also found himself in hot water for tweets about international politics. In October 2019, while still GM of the Rockets, Morey posted a tweet in support of demonstrators in Hong Kong protesting against increasing Chinese authority over the region.
That tweet sparked a lengthy confrontation between the NBA and China.
Previous 76ers general managers have also found themselves in trouble with the NBA over their Twitter activity.
In June 2018, then-GM Bryan Colangelo resigned after he reportedly used up to five secret "burner" Twitter accounts to to disparage his predecessor Sam Hinkie, and several 76ers players, news first reported by Ben Detrick of The Ringer.
Morey's recent incident, however, has proven to be the most expensive of the team's Twitter fines, as the total of the sanctions amount to $150,000.
Incidentally, that is three times the amount that former Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard was fined for using an anti-Semitic slur during a Twitch livestream on March 10.
Leonard was fined $50,000 and was suspended from the team for one week.
While Leonard's incident was the first of his conduct violations and Morey has been a repeat offender, the financial discrepancies in the penalties raise questions about the NBA's approach to fining players and executives, and what the league considers to be a more severe infraction.