NBA Fines Minnesota Timberwolves' Kahn for Marijuana Comments on Beasley

Minnesota Timberwolves General Manager David Kahn was fined $50,000 by the National Basketball Association for comments about marijuana use by recently acquired forward Michael Beasley.

The franchise also was fined $50,000, the NBA said today in a news release.

Beasley’s past off-the-court problems included being kicked out of the NBA’s rookie symposium in 2008 after security found signs of marijuana use. He was sent to Minnesota from Miami on July 12 for two second-round draft picks and cash as the Heat freed salary-cap space to sign free agents LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Kahn said in a radio interview with 1500 ESPN Twin Cities that Beasley, 21, is a “very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he’s not smoking anymore,” according to ESPN.com.

An e-mail asking NBA spokesman Tim Frank whether Kahn’s comments violated the league’s collective-bargaining agreement with its players wasn’t immediately returned.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net