Chris Paul deciding to join the Houston Rockets two days before the start of free agency via an opt-in and trade deal with the Los Angeles Clippers led the Los Angeles Times to pose the tampering question to a number of NBA executives.

“I don’t want to use the ‘T’ word — tampering — but we all don’t play by the rules when it comes to making deals,” one Eastern Conference executive said. “Besides, nobody is going to rat anybody out. That’s how this league works.”

James Harden was recruiting Paul for several weeks and there have been no reports of any contact between Paul and any members of the Houston front office. An executive from another team said Harden had already told a fellow NBA player that Paul joining the Rockets was a done deal.

“Every team is looking for an advantage,” one executive said. “The deal got done way too fast for somebody not to be talking already. That happened real quick. But hey, that’s how it goes in this league.”

The Clippers have not complained to the league about a possible tampering violation on Paul, according to an NBA official.

“Everybody uses agents to do their dirty work or they have a star player talk to another player on another team,” one team executive said. “Then it doesn’t affect the [general manager].”