By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The National Basketball Association (NBA) just fined Los Angeles Clippers’ forward PJ Tucker with $75,000 after making several public trade desires.
Last February 16, 2024, the NBA announced its full press release on Tucker’s final verdict: “The NBA announced today that LA Clippers forward P.J. Tucker has been fined $75,000 by the NBA for public comments reported during the week of February 5 expressing a desire to be traded to another team.”
Before the NBA trade deadline, Tucker made this comment to Andscape’s Marc Spears: “I want to be somewhere where I’m needed, wanted and can do it all.”
Tucker, who became a part of the James Harden trade package from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Clippers, received his usual minutes under head coach Tyrone Lue but was only effective for the first 12 games.
After that span, Tucker was relegated to the bench and saw his playing time decline with the insertion of Amir Coffey and Terence Mann into the rotation.
A month after that, Tucker was relegated to the bench and didn’t receive any active playing minutes including some blowout games.
Tucker is averaging one of his worst career stats in the ongoing NBA season with 2.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per contest.
His $75,000 fine is the largest monetary fine ever slapped on an NBA player by the committee in the ongoing season.
As of this writing, Tucker still has an “injured” status under the Clippers rotation report and no hints of a buyout or post All-Star break trade are being made.
