NBA Reportedly Bans Apps That Auto-Delete Communication Amid Tampering Crackdown

The NBA is reportedly going to even greater lengths to ensure that teams won't tamper with players and their agents.

According to Pete Thamel, Seerat Sohi and Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports on Tuesday, an NBA memo sent to teams said they are not permitted to use apps that "auto-delete relevant communication."

The reported mandate is another step in the NBA's efforts to make teams' communication with prospective free agents more transparent. It could conceivably also help the NBA crack down on illegal communication in its annual audits of five random teams.

Talk of the NBA taking measures to combat tampering first surfaced in July, when ESPN's Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst reported that the league was investigating how and why some players were able to sign so quickly during the offseason.

Lowe and Windhorst also reported that several potential solutions were brought up during the NBA Board of Governors meeting, including moving up the free-agency timeline.

In September, Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported that the NBA sent a memo to teams detailing some of the changes that would be made in hopes of preventing tampering.

Along with the annual random audits, the NBA called for a "lead team ops member [to] certify annually that it didn't engage in impermissible free-agency talks."

Since stars such as Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, DeMar DeRozan and others could be available on the free-agent market at the conclusion of the 2019-20 season, the NBA is seemingly taking a proactive approach to prevent teams from gaining an unfair advantage.