Looking to put a damper on the league's worst-kept secret, the NBA reportedly will vote Friday on stiffer penalties for tampering.

The specific targets: player-to-player and team-to-player recruiting efforts that land, for instance, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George with the same team.

Team owners will vote on a series of new rules Friday in New York at the Board of Governors meeting, with specific changes designed to prevent tampering and salary cap circumvention, The Athletic reported. 

Per ESPN.com: "In conversations with numerous league officials, team owners, general managers and agents, some uncertainty was expressed about the means the NBA might use to investigate alleged rules violations. Atop those concerns for team officials is what league sources insist was commissioner Adam Silver's toughest decision in bringing new rules to a vote: an annual, random auditing of five teams' communications with rival front offices and player agents."

Further proposed rules, in addition to the random annual team communication audits:

• Double current fines for tampering with team or player personnel, from $5 million to $10 million.

• Raise fines for unauthorized agreements to $6 million for a team and $250,000 for a player. 

• Increase enforcement of the existing rule prohibiting player-to-player tampering.

• Require certification from team governors that no unauthorized benefits were offered/provided.

The proposed crackdown comes as a backlash to a 2019 offseason that's been described as "the summer of tampering."

The forbidden practice has long been committed under the radar but became much talked about in a wild NBA offseason. In addition to Leonard persuading George, who was under contract with the Thunder, to help to engineer a deal with the Clippers, Anthony Davis joining LeBron James (and Klutch Sports' involvement) drew attention.

When a number of major, complicated free-agent contracts were announced only minutes after the league-mandated start of free agency, it apparently became too much for Silver and the owners, who aired their grievances in what ESPN.com described at the time as a "tense" meeting in Las Vegas where it became clear that "frustrations were simmering below the surface."

"It's pointless at the end of the day to have rules that we can't enforce," Silver said in July. "I think it hurts the perception of integrity around the league if people say, 'Well, you have that rule and it's obvious that teams aren't fully complying, so why do you have it?'"

The goal, he added: Create a level playing field among the teams so they all have confidence that their competitors are obeying the same set of rules.

The proposed anti-tampering rules would require 23 yes votes from 30 teams, though the NBA rarely brings proposals to a vote unless it is confident of approval. That confidence, entering Friday, likely springs from small-market teams, fearing the attraction large-market teams might have for free agents, lining up with teams angered by recent potentially tampering-based moves.

Those who vote against the proposals risk appearing as if they condone cheating, even if other reasons — say, concern for privacy in the face of increased scrutiny of communication — affected their vote.