Costly Tweet

Today, David Stern and the NBA announced that the Miami Heat's owner, Micky Arison, will be fined $500,ooo......for his recent tweets!

Maybe it's just me, but what horrendous thing could be written and put on the Internet that warrants a fine of that magnitude?

Owners and league executives are under a strict code not to discuss the lockout, and Arison appeared to violate that code on multiple occasions, so I can see the possibility of a small fine to get a point across to owners...but $500,000?! That's insane!

In what is considered the most questionable tweet by Arison, he responds to a fan that asks: "How's it feel to be apart of ruining the best game in the world? NBA owners/players don't give a damn about fans & guess what? Fans provide all the money you're fighting over&you greedy (expletive) pigs." In response, Arison wrote, "You are barking at the wrong owner."

Now let's take a timeout and talk this over. What is so outrageous about this simple tweet? I have no idea. It's clear that Arison is on the side with the big-market owners, and he is not in the same type of conflict other owners are in who have smaller market teams. Arison is simply saying that he should not be taking blame from the fans for the current lockout. Arison wants basketball to get going, and he would be one of the first owners to get basketball started for a 2011-2012 season. I know that David Stern doesn't want owners and executives discussing the lockout through media outlets such as Twitter, but if you're going to fine someone, do it right.

According to ESPN, this is the third time that an owner has been fined when discussing the NBA Lockout in the past year, as Wizards owner Ted Leonsis was fined $100,000 for comments about the need for a hard salary cap. In addition, Bobcats owner Michael Jordan was fined $100,000 within the last month.

So how do the comments made by Arison deserve a $500,000 fine? The answer: They don't. Stern overreacted, and will hear it from NBA owners and maybe even players because a little tweet like that doesn't deserve a fine of half a million dollars.

-David Otero

Follow David on Twitter @David_ODog, or listen to him every Tuesday on the Sportswire from 6-7 pm on 88.1 FM and wcwpsports.org!