Adam Silver Mulling Even Stricter Penalties for Tampering Ahead of 2019-20 NBA Season

At long last, the NBA's Board of Governors assembled to vote on a profusion of rule changes that will influence the upcoming season. In case you were wondering, the voting results were unanimous.

The most significant of these changes surrounded the ever-controversial predicament of tampering, a topic that was promulgated most recently when LeBron James commented on the potential of the Los Angeles Lakers acquiring fellow superstar Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans.

Well, the Association brought down the hammer on Friday. Per insider Adrian Wojnarowski, teams, executives, and players who partake in such antics could be subjected to fines of up to $10 million, the loss of draft picks, nullified contracts, and even suspension.

The league also reportedly proposed a permanent ban on players conversing with one another to request a trade from their current team in order to join up elsewhere. This was evidently a nod to Kawhi Leonard reportedly approaching Paul George to persuade him to engineer a move to the Los Angeles Clippers in the offseason.

Of course, small-market teams who wouldn't otherwise have a chance at landing such an imposing duo find this to be a clear-cut encroachment and violation of ethics, if not league rules overall.

This new precedent does have, however, a few obstacles to overcome, like the fact that Adam Silver has to make up his mind about confiscating players' "communication devices," which would obviously serve as concrete evidence to determine a potential tampering act.

There is still work to be done, but Silver and Co. have definitely taken a step in the right direction with these new proposed standards.