Sixers president Daryl Morey is once again being reprimanded for his social media activity.
The former Houston Rockets general manager, who famously touched off an international incident with a tweet in support of protesters in Hong Kong, was fined $50,000 by the NBA for tampering on Monday.
The penalty comes after Morey recently published a tweet celebrating the one-year anniversary of Rockets star James Harden breaking Houston's franchise record for career assists.
Morey said the tweet automatically published after he had pre-scheduled it while he was still with the Rockets organization. It was deleted soon after it published.
Whether the tweet was a mistake or something more nefarious is hard to tell, but surely the timing couldn't have helped Morey's case.
Harden has been the subject of trade rumors for weeks following the teardown of the Rockets team that Morey himself assembled over the past several years. The executive's departure from Houston, and arrival in Philly soon after, has fueled speculation about a potential reunion with Harden on the Sixers.
A Harden deal was yet to materialize after the regular season tipped off in late December, though reportedly not for lack of trying. The Sixers, one of several teams reported to be interested in prying Harden away, appeared unwilling to part with Ben Simmons.
Morey joined the Sixers after 13 years at the helm in Houston. His final year was racked with controversy over his Hong Kong tweet, as well as disappointing on-court results, most notably the failed experiment of pairing Harden with Russell Westbrook in the backcourt.
The tweet caused a rift between the NBA and China, where millions of fans of eagerly consume basketball in the league's largest overseas market. Games were blacked out in China for most of last season, with signs of only a minor thaw reported later this year. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver conceded the row had cost the league hundreds of millions in revenues.