Miami Heat owner fined $500,000 for a single tweet

“Shaquille O’Neal, Pat Riley and Micky Arison at the White House” by Heatwhitehouse.jpg: Original uploader was Zorro37 at en.wikipedia
derivative work: Ladislav Faigl (talk) – Heatwhitehouse.jpg. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

We know that employees can be disciplined — and even lose their jobs — based on their use of social media. But even business owners can face backlash for what they say online.

Earlier this week the NBA fined Miami Heat owner, Micky Arison, $500,000 based on the following Twitter exchange:

Disgruntled fan: “How’s it feel to be apart of ruining the best game in the world? NBA owners/players don’t give a damn about fans&and guess what? Fans provide all the money you’re fighting over&you greedy (expletive) pigs.

Arison: “You are barking at the wrong owner.”

It turns out that the NBA has a strict gag order against speaking about the current labor dispute. Who knew? Oh, wait, Arison did. The $500,000 fine, first reported by Yahoo! Sports, is five times the amount other owners have previously been fined for public comments about the ongoing labor situation.

Must be nice to have that kind of money to spend on a tweet…