Stern to James, Wade: No summit

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

There will be no free agency summit.

So says NBA commissioner David Stern, claiming he’s been assured at the “highest level” that there will be no sitdown among LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the other superstars who could hit the market on July 1.

And that was the players’ choice, not an order from him.

“I would expect our players to talk to one another, and we don’t have any problem with that,” Stern said Thursday during his annual NBA finals press conference. “If some kind of tampering is implicated, I will have a later and different view, but we’re not expecting that.”

The idea of the get-together among the free agents grew after Wade said the players would talk to each other at some point, though he never said they would all gather in one place to have an official discussion.

And though some fans wondered if that would constitute tampering, Stern wouldn’t have tried to stop it.

“They can have it,” he said. “I was wondering whether they would get together, eight players and they’ll all look at D-Wade’s ring? They’d be better off watching these finals to see how you construct a team and how you play and the like. There’s not going to be a summit.”

Stern did have to do rule enforcing, confirming the league had told Lakers coach Phil Jackson to stop rewarding players with $50 for taking charges.

The league has been busy lately handing out fines, penalizing Dallas owner Mark Cuban $100,000 and docking two others lesser amounts for comments about James. Teams aren’t allowed to talk about players under contract with another team until free agency opens July 1.

“You really don’t want to be a complete spoilsport, but you work hard and you say, ’OK, this crosses the line,’ and you fine somebody,” Stern said. “It’s no fun, and it’s not necessarily a productive use of our time. But our teams who have these players under contract are easily offended, and appropriately offended when inappropriate statements are made about players already under contract, and that’s what we do.”

Stern said a new collective bargaining agreement to replace the one that expires next summer is “No. 1” on his agenda.