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Are teams tampering with Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin?

Maybe! But unfortunately, we'll never be able to prove it.

By Jake Whitacre

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Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Tampering with free agents is a lot like organized crime: You can see it going on all around you, but it's hard to prove anyone is doing it until someone drops the ball and says something in public. Even then, it's hard to get a conviction without piles of evidence to go along with the accusation.

That said, we wanted to take a look at a few recent quotes involving Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin, who are both set to hit free agency on July 1st. Are they being tampered with?

Case 1

First, let's take a look at recent comments Trevor Booker made at his basketball camp in South Carolina:

Booker is now going through free agency for the first time and is an unrestricted free agent. He is excited about the process and looking forward to seeing what happens next.

"It's the first time so my agent is talking me through it, letting me know every step. A lot of teams are calling right now that are interested," he said. "We're in negotiations with a few different teams, so I guess we'll just see how the summer pans out."

Is that tampering? Of course! Booker not only said teams are talking to him, but that they're negotiating with him. It couldn't be more clear it was tampering if it was written into an affidavit.

Can the Wizards do anything about it? Highly unlikely, unless Trevor Booker voluntarily tells the Wizards which teams were calling him and provide documentation. Somehow, I can't see Booker being forthcoming about such information as he looks to secure a new contract.

Case 2

Kevin Seraphin, sent out this fairly innocent tweet Sunday night (well at least as innocent as any tweet about Snapchat can be on a Sunday evening):

Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban jumped on that tweet with a reply that simultaneously opened himself up to tampering allegations AND promoted his newest product:

Is it tampering? It could be! But it could also be completely innocent. For all we know, he could just be trying to make a discreet offer for an ownership stake in Seraphin's Thorolgraffix app, or he could be asking him for some World Cup predictions.

Can the Wizards do anything about it? Definitely not. Whatever Mark Cuban has planned, he's making sure he won't leave a virtual breadcrumb trail for the Wizards to follow. Check out the product description for Cuban's Cyber Dust app:

Cyber Dust is simply a more natural way to message. Don't leave a trail of everything you say. Messages disappear forever after 30 seconds and cannot be traced. Stay in control of your messages!

It's almost like Mark Cuban designed an app specifically so he could tamper with Kevin Seraphin before he hit free agency. And if he did, all we can do is shake our fist and suggest Ted Leonsis invest in Gilbert Arenas' Invisible Text app so he can fight fire with fire.