ORLANDO, Fla. — The NBA fined the Orlando Magic $25,000 on Thursday for violating league injury reporting rules before Monday night’s home game against the Detroit Pistons.
What You Need To Know
The Magic were assessed a $25,000 fine for a violation of NBA league injury reporting rules
The fine came after Orlando initially reported Anthony Black as “out” Monday but he played that night
The guard had missed the previous 16 games with a left lateral abdominal strain
He scored 14 points and added two assists and two steals in 15 minutes in the game against the Detroit Pistons
The Magic reported guard Anthony Black as “out” on its injury report about midday Monday and updated his status multiple times during the day to “available” less than two hours before game time.
After missing 16 games with a left lateral abdominal strain, Black returned and scored 14 points with two assists and two steals in 15 minutes for Orlando in its 123-107 victory against Detroit.
Under the terms of the NBA’s injury reporting rules, teams are required to submit their initial injury reports by 5 p.m. the day before their games unless they are playing a back-to-back, which the Magic were after winning Sunday against the Pelicans in New Orleans. For the second game of a back-to-back, teams must report the injury status and identify the injury by no later than 1 p.m. on game day. Injury reports must be updated every 15 minutes.
In announcing the fine, the NBA said the Magic failed to accurately disclose Black’s game availability status.
Orlando is in a tight race to climb the Eastern Conference standings before the end of the NBA regular season on Sunday, April 12. Before Thursday night’s games, the Magic were in seventh place, the top play-in spot. But there is only a 1.5-game difference in the standings between sixth, the final guaranteed playoff spot, and ninth, which requires winning in the play-in tournament to advance to the playoffs.
Black, a third-year player from Arkansas, is averaging 15.1 points and 3.8 assists in 62 games, including 40 starts.