The NBA can fine players a lot of money, with the detailed rule book including lots of things that players can do to earn fines from the league.
Who is the most fined NBA player? Ben Simmons is the most fined NBA player in terms of the largest amount of money. Simmons lost around $17 million through team fines due to missing games in the 2021-22 season. This is still under dispute due to his health status at the time.
In the 2021-22 season, the most fined player in the NBA was technically Ben Simmons. Despite Ben Simmons never touching an NBA court in the 2021-22 season, he was still the player who was penalised the most financially.
This is because Simmons refused to play for the Philadelphia 76ers and made it clear that he wanted to be traded. It began with Simmons missing the training camp of the Sixers after a controversial end to the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Simmons did finally return to the team before the season started.
But tension quickly began to boil over with Simmons being kicked out of practice by head coach Doc Rivers after refusing to sub into drills. It led to Simmons taking a break from the team which he put down to mental health issues.
After Simmons continued to refuse to cooperate, the team began to fine him. The fines for missing games continued to stack up and despite being traded in February, Simmons reportedly became the most fined player in league history as well as the most fined player in 2021-22.
In total, Ben Simmons was fined $17,163,948 for missing the first four months of the season and that makes him the most fined player in the history of the NBA. This was despite the Sixers beginning to reduce the fines before trading him as Simmons began attending team meetings and counselling sessions.
In terms of being fined by the league, Simmons does not fall into this category as it was the Sixers who were fining him for missing games. In the 2021-22 NBA season, the player who was fined the most by the league was Didi Louzada.
It would not be ridiculous if you had not heard of Didi Louzada. The Brazilian-born guard was a second-round pick in 2019 to the Atlanta Hawks before being traded to the Pelicans in 2021. This season, Luozada was suspended for 25 games for violating the league’s PED policy.
Louzada tested positive for the steroid drostanolone and testosterone and it came with a hefty fine. Missing those 25 games meant Louzada was also fined $406,109. The fines that he got were very different to the millions of dollars that Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving left on the table because they did not play large parts of the season.
Who is the most fined NBA coach of all time?
It may not surprise you to hear that Phil Jackson is the most fined NBA coach of all time. While the exact figure is not known, it is estimated that Jackson paid around $380,000 in fines during his NBA career.
In total, Phil Jackson won 11 titles and is considered one of the best coaches in the history of the NBA. But this did not mean that Jackson didn’t have his issues with referees during his NBA career.
In that time, Jackson mainly accumulated fines for coming out publicly to criticise referees. His last fine in the NBA as a head coach was $35,000 for criticising the officials after his Los Angeles Lakers had lost in the regular season to the San Antonio Spurs. Coaches and players alike enjoy criticising officials and the NBA wants to protect their officials.
Who is the most fined NBA owner?
You might be surprised to hear that NBA team owners can be fined just the same as a coach or a player. What should not surprise you is that the Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is the most fined NBA owner in the history of the league.
In total, it is estimated that Cuban has paid more than $3 million in fines to the NBA. In 2000, Cuban bought a majority stake in the Mavericks and has been trouble to the NBA ever since.
The issue for the details is that the NBA does not disclose all of the fines that they put out. But we do know that these fines began very quickly after Cuban purchased a stake in the Mavericks. In his very first season as an NBA owner, Cuban received three fines in eight days, with all of these fines being for criticising or confronting referees.
The fines continued to ramp up quickly and Cuban even got hit with a $500,000 fine for again criticising referees in 2002. Cuban continued to ramp up the fines despite having a few years in the 2000s without any.
Cuban’s biggest fine was in 2018, when he suggested that he thought the Mavericks should tank the rest of their reason in order to get a better draft pick. While Cuban is continuing to ignore NBA rules, he does make a donation to a charity for the amount of each fine every time he is punished by the NBA.
Who has the most technical fouls in NBA history?
Karl Malone is the player who leads the history of the NBA in technical fouls. The former Jazz forward amassed a whopping 332 technical fouls in his career. Malone was the 13th overall pick to the Utah Jazz all the way back in 1985, finishing his career with two MVP awards but no title.
Malone was never really the first person you think of who would be leading the league in technical fouls. It might have made more sense if it was Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman. Malone was an incredibly physical NBA player and his elbows would often get him into trouble with the officials.
Another reason for Malone being top of this is longevity. Malone has a twenty year career and played a whopping 1476 regular season games in his very long career. His trash talking was another big contributor to Malone racking up so many technical fouls. Malone just seemed to attract fouls as he is also second all time in personal fouls.