Caps and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis has been fined $100,000 by the NBA for his comments about potential changes to the league's salary cap, which he said he expected to soon become like the NHL's hard cap structure. From the Wizards Insider:

At a breakfast with local business leaders at George Mason University on Wednesday, Leonsis said that he expects the NBA to soon have a salary cap structure similar to the NHL, according to an AP report.

"In a salary cap era -- and soon a hard salary cap in the NBA like it's in the NHL -- if everyone can pay the same amount to the same amount of players, its the small nuanced differences that matter," said Leonsis, who also owns the NHL's Capitals.

The comments come at a sensitive time, with the next NBA collective bargaining agreement set to expire on June 30, 2011 and the threat of a lockout looming over this season. The NBA and the players' union had what they called a "cordial and constructive" three-hour meeting last week, hoping to avoid a work stoppage.

This isn't the first time Leonsis has spoken publicly about his desire for the NBA to move to the NHL's model, as Michael Lee notes over at Wizards Insider. In May, Leonsis said the NHL was "stronger than the NBA, clearly because it has a CBA in place that protect owners from taking stupid pills."