Doc Rivers fined $25,000 for criticizing the refs

[Rattler4life000]

Wish Drew would speak up for the Hawks!!!

[ATLSmith]

That's like 2.5% of Drew's salary though.

[yungsta]

drew cant afford it coach :laugh: He is a head coach being paid assistant coach money

Doc rivers is one of the highest paid coaches in the league.

[cam1218]

Lol my thoughts exactly, Drew can't afford it.

[Gray Mule]

I believe, to be fair, players and coaches alike should have their fines

be a % of their annual salary.

What is a pittance for one high salaried player or coach is a terrible

burden to one making so much less.

This is a great example. Our coach couldn't stand many fines of this amount.

Soon, he would be without funds. Doc Rivers, on the other hand, makes

enough money that he hardly feels this.

Now, if the fine was .02% of the annual salary, for example, our coach could

pay the fine as easily as Doc can pay his.

[Guest]

Aaah Doc - now you know how us Hawks fans feel. This is the norm for us, playing against the refs. Welcome to our World.

[DrReality]

Refs need to be fined for their bs calls

[frizzledizzle]

You could almost blame the owner. The owner has the money to cover the fine so if the owner wants him to speak up, he should let the coach know he'll cover it.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1550717-roy-hibbert-covering-lance-stephensons-fine-in-wake-of-fight-with-warriors

Hibbert told The Indy Star that he's going to pay Lance Stephenson's $35K fine for being a good teammate and having his back.

The $35,000 would be roughly 0.2 percent of Hibbert's salary this season, compared to the 3.8 percent it would be of Lance Stephenson's sub-million dollar contract, so it is actually a very generous offer.

It might not be the owners job to pay fines for the coach and players. You could also argue that in if Drew speaks up and it accomplishes something, it would benefit him in the long run. If he just gets walked all over, he may never be a head coach again but if he benefits from it and gets a couple W's, his resume will look better in the future with some playoff wins as opposed to getting pulverized when he had a chance to possibly do something about it.

In the end though, the owner is spending all of this money to win so if he wants Drew to speak up, he should make it known he'll cover the fine imo. The article I just saw while looking for his salary said hiring him was a cost saving move. So the owner sounds kinda cheap if true and if the owner was trying to cut corners and pay a coach as little as possible, why should the coach stand up and throw away his money?

Maybe I have it all wrong but I just think the owner should want to win more than anyone and a 25,000 dollar fine is nothing to him. I would gladly offer to pay it if I thought my coach calling out the refs would have a positive influence the rest of the series.

Edited April 26, 2013 by frizzledizzle

[Guest]

If an owner pays the fine, then they are circumventing the salary cap. You can't do that since the owner would be giving more compensation to the player than what the salary cap allows for.

And why should the fine be different based upon someone's salary? That does not make sense for me. How about you do not fine a player but suspend them instead? I think that would be more effective. (and implicitly when you suspend a player you are docking their pay an amount that is based upon their salary)

[frizzledizzle]

If an owner pays the fine, then they are circumventing the salary cap. You can't do that since the owner would be giving more compensation to the player than what the salary cap allows for.

And why should the fine be different based upon someone's salary? That does not make sense for me. How about you do not fine a player but suspend them instead? I think that would be more effective. (and implicitly when you suspend a player you are docking their pay an amount that is based upon their salary)

Talking about paying a coaches fine, not a players but I get what you're saying. Surely there are ways around this rule. Stern might have mentioned that Hibbert isn't allowed to pay Stephenson's fine but everybody knows they went around it if that's the case. Since we're talking about a coach, I'm not sure you really want him to be suspended for a game. I'm not really sure how you can take someone's money though. Maybe it's part of the contract they agree to because otherwise it seems like it should be illegal. I don't know... I'm just saying that if it's believed Drew speaking out against the refs would bring awareness and help them down the stretch, surely the owner should cover it(even if it's under the table). I have to believe an owner can take a coach or his players on a trip somewhere and party it up if they want to. Or take them out for an expensive dinner. And so on... if they can do that, I'm sure the owner or someone in his company(outside of the NBA) could slip the coach 25 grand and the NBA would never know or care. I just don't know why it should be on the coach to speak out and throw his money away when he has far less of it than the guy paying him. I'm not sure who the owner is and maybe he's not the type to do it but he could always speak out Mark Cuban style so the fine is on him and he's not going under the table to cover it.

[AHF]

There is a very, very easy way around the rule preventing ownership paying for the fines for Drew. He is either resigning this offseason with the Hawks or leaving the team.

If he resigns, add whatever the fine cost to the signing bonus for his new contract.

If he is let go, then pay him some money in excess of the fine exchange for a release against claims by Drew.

[Guest]

Talking about paying a coaches fine, not a players but I get what you're saying. Surely there are ways around this rule. Stern might have mentioned that Hibbert isn't allowed to pay Stephenson's fine but everybody knows they went around it if that's the case.

I was really responding to your Hibbert-Stephenson situation and where you said "It might not be the owners job to pay fines for the coach and players". Coaches do not collectively bargain with the NBA as far as I know, so there is no salary cap or restraints with the owner paying a coach's fine. Hibbert is also well within his right to pay Stephenson's fine, there is not restriction between what players do with their earnings in relation to other players. It is the problem of an owner giving a player more compensation than what the salary cap allows. This has a slippery slope because what would stop an owner from signing Lebron to a contract and then saying "oh yeah by the way, I will pay you $15 million extra dollars to uhhh...cut my grass". The NBA takes this stuff very seriously because the owners want to keep costs down.

[AHF]

I was really responding to your Hibbert-Stephenson situation and where you said "It might not be the owners job to pay fines for the coach and players". Coaches do not collectively bargain with the NBA as far as I know, so there is no salary cap or restraints with the owner paying a coach's fine. Hibbert is also well within his right to pay Stephenson's fine, there is not restriction between what players do with their earnings in relation to other players. It is the problem of an owner giving a player more compensation than what the salary cap allows. This has a slippery slope because what would stop an owner from signing Lebron to a contract and then saying "oh yeah by the way, I will pay you $15 million extra dollars to uhhh...cut my grass". The NBA takes this stuff very seriously because the owners want to keep costs down.

Agreed. They would get hammered for paying for a player's fine.