Can a newspaper be charged with tampering?

As I write this, the Cleveland Cavaliers are still in the NBA playoffs, but the New York Daily News can't make July 1 come soon enough to suit them. The tabloid is putting on a full court press, after a fashion, trying to convince Cavaliers superstar LeBron James to sign with the New York Knicks. They've gone so far as to recruit former Knicks like Willis Reed, and one of the team's biggest celebrity fans, filmmaker Spike Lee, whose screen alter-ego of Mars Blackmon made those legendary commercials for Nike with Michael Jordan back in the day. Nike, coincidentally, also has an endorsement contract with James. It's also well known that James is a fan of the New York Yankees, and got in hot water with his own hometown fans 3 years ago when he attended a playoff game between the Yankees & Indians wearing a Yankee cap.

It's also well known that the Knicks haven't fielded a playoff team in years, and are desperate for a spark of some kind to become a contender again. The tabloids have made note of James' pending free agency for the last two years, but what makes them think that James would actually agree to come to New York at any price?

In fact-----and I didn't watch the game tonight----, what if Cleveland gets past Boston, goes all the way to the Finals, and wins the championship? Cavalier ownership would break the bank to retain James, because letting him walk, after all they've done for him, including signing Shaquille O'Neal prior to this season, would be a devastating blow to the morale of the city, never mind the team, killing all the momentum from a possible title victory.

We know how they're obsessed with championships in New York. The tabloid press fans the flames by over-analyzing every minute detail to the point of annoyance. But as of now, LeBron James is still a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Knicks would be accused of tampering if they spoke openly about acquiring him, but does that give the tabloids the right to do the tampering for them? Absolutely not! There's no guarantee that James will even sign with the Knicks. If he was to leave Cleveland (and I doubt it), he'd more than likely end up in Los Angeles, Boston, or Chicago.

Knicks owner James Dolan, a part-time rock musician in his spare time, has gotten nothing but scorn from those same tabloids for his poor management of the Knicks & the NHL's Rangers, and forcing announcers on the MSG Network to be "homers", trying to dress up even the worst defeats by finding a sliver of a silver lining in the clouds. If Dolan had any real business sense, he'd be scouting for the best possible player in next month's draft, and not trying to put all of his eggs in one big basket in pursuit of LeBron James. Who knows? Maybe the Knicks won't need "King James" after all if they're suddenly contending at this time next year.