NBA: League fines Heat owner following lockout tweet

The National Basketball Association (NBA) said on Tuesday that Miami Heat owner Micky Arison has been fined following reports that he used his Twitter account to comment on the league's four-month-old lockout.

The NBA, which confirmed the fine in an email to Reuters, did not issue an official statement on the matter and would not say the amount or reason for the fine but several media reports said Arison was fined $500,000 for his comments.

The Heat declined to comment.

Arison made several comments on his Twitter account on Friday after a posting to him read, "Fans provide all the money you're fighting over you greedy (expletive) pigs."

The Heat owner, who Florida media say is pushing for the resumption of play, responded, "Honestly u r barking at the wrong owner."

The comments were made, on Friday, after the NBA cancelled another two weeks of the regular season and conceded it was too late to save the entire 82-game season now that the first month of games has been wiped out.

NBA Commissioner David Stern told team and league personnel before the lockout began on July 1 that they were prohibited from commenting on the dispute other than in league-approved media sessions.