Wikipedia:WikiProject Sports/Handling sports transactions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Many popular sports, especially at the professional level, receive extensive news coverage. Wikipedia is not a newspaper. However, transactions involving hirings/signings, trades, and firings/releases are often considered encyclopedic for articles on a season for a league/team, or biographies of athletes and other key personnel.

When extensive coverage exists, reliable sources may report breaking news on a transaction based on anonymous sources. Indications that news is speculative include phrases such as "a person with knowledge of the negotiations says", "spoke on condition of anonymity", "has not yet signed a contract",[1] "are expected to acquire",[2] "cannot become official until",[3] and "still trying to confirm details".[4] Titles of publications generally won't state it as a fact in their own voice, but rather attribute to "reports" or "sources". Deals that are pending and not completed might avoid the past tense, e.g. "are trading".[5]

When editors present unconfirmed transaction rumors as factual statements, it violates the biography of living persons policy, particularly WP:BLPGOSSIP:

Avoid repeating gossip. Ask yourself…whether the material is being presented as true…Be wary of relying on sources that use weasel words and that attribute material to anonymous sources.

Some sports leagues have periods where negotiations can take place, but a deal cannot become official until a future date e.g. the July moratorium in the National Basketball Association (NBA) or the start of the new league year in the National Football League (NFL).[3] In these cases, the transaction should not be presented as having been completed, and infoboxes should not be updated.

In the past, some unofficial transactions were not consummated due to reasons including players reneging on verbal agreements,[A] vetoes by the league,[B] complications with no-trade clauses,[C] or a different transaction materializing altogether.[D] If anything is to be presented at all, it should be limited to prose attributed to the source that is reporting the transaction. For example, "On March 5, 2013, ACME News reported that John Doe will sign with XYZ." It would be inappropriate original research and future speculation to present this as "On March 5, 2013, John Doe signed with XYZ."

A transaction can be considered official if sources report it as completed and attribute it to a named, reputable league or team official.[12] Sometimes players that are free agents may announce their agreement to a contract before the team confirms a contract has been signed and completed. Consensus at Wikipedia articles may determine that the player should be reflected in the article as being a member of the team, even prior to an official announcement by the team.[E] Otherwise, it may be a lengthy discussion on the distinction between an "official signing" and a player's publicly announced agreement to sign.[15]

Examples of deals that fell through or where reports were plain wrong

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by editing the page to add missing items, with references to reliable sources.

Below are some transactions that were reported as completed, but then fell through after the initial reports:

See also

Notes

  1. [A]
    In the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 2015, DeAndre Jordan re-signed with the Los Angeles Clippers after originally reaching an agreement to join the Dallas Mavericks.[6]
  2. [B]
    In the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 2011, Chris Paul was allegedly traded to the Los Angeles Lakers until the league rejected the trade.[7] An earlier report by the Los Angeles Times had conditional phrases such as "The Lakers are expected to acquire..." and "Paul, 26, would replace ..." (underlining added for emphasis).[2]
  3. [C]
    In Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2012, Ryan Dempster was allegedly traded to the Atlanta Braves until the deal fell through. An initial report said the deal was "confirmed" while the reporter was also "still trying to confirm details".[4][8] Dempster was deciding whether to waive his no-trade clause, but the Braves moved on after their self-imposed deadline passed.[9]
  4. [D]
    In the National Basketball Association in 2014, Travis Outlaw was reported to be released according to a "source with direct knowledge of the situation",[10] but he was later traded.[11]
  5. [E]
    In the NBA in 2014, Chris Bosh's July 12 post on Twitter was interpreted by the media as affirmation of his intention to re-sign with the Miami Heat.[13] However, his signing was not officially announced by the Heat until July 30.[14]

References

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