BREAKING: LA Clippers ACCUSED Of Cheating!!

BREAKING: LA Clippers ACCUSED Of Cheating!!

On today’s show, an absolute bombshell dropped on the NBA world as our LA Clipper Clippers are being accused of cheating. Going to be talking about it all with a special guest on today’s Locked On Clippers. [Music] You are Locked On Clippers, your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Yes sir, you are locking in with the clips. Thank you for making Locked on Clippers the first listen of your day. Your team every day. My name is Darian Vizeri. I’ve been a Clipper fan for 20 years. Been covering the team for five on my own YouTube channel, Dimeropper. three right here on the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell on the road to 8,000 subscribers and listen wherever you get your podcast. This episode today is brought to you by FanDuel. Actually, no, it’s not brought to you by anything. So, today we have a crazy episode. Crazy episode. I woke up this morning, my phone was blowing up. According to an episode of the Pablo Tori finds out podcast from Pablo Tori alleg apparently is an works with the athletic is has found a a bunch of documents or something that says that Steve Balmer invested in a company known as Aspiration, an environmental startup, funded $50 million into it. Kawhi Leonard had received $28 million in 2022 with, you know, signing with this company or being sponsored by this company or whatever, endorsing this company and it was a fraudulent company. And to break all this down because there’s so much to get through and there’s so much I don’t even understand about it. We have a very special guest from the athletic, perfect person to have on Law Murray, your own Clipper beat rider. Law, I don’t even know. I feel like I’m not even saying the right things right now. I mean, give us give us a little summary of what is going on right now with this whole story. First of all, good to see you, man. Uh happy belated birthday. Hope you had a better birthday than uh what it’s about to be this month uh uh for the Clippers. Uh so, long story short, Pablo Tori, shout out to him. uh especially now that just this month he is he’s with us now at the athletic and uh or at least his podcast is and he had this investigation uh looked into aspiration and what he found was a paper trail basically um suggesting that Kawhi Leonard had an endorsement deal with the company and Aspiration was going to be a sponsor with the Clippers starting in 2021. Um I had a front row seat to Bomber and one of their co-founders, uh Joe Samberg. Um 2021 media day actually. So I’m familiar with Aspiration. And long story short, they’re saying that Kauaii’s agreement with Aspiration was something to circumvent the salary cap, which is a big no no. Can’t do that. Um, and so we’re going to basically find out or the the league is going to have to find out like how much this paper trail can be circle back to Balmer and Kawawaii and the Clippers here and what consequences need to be assessed as a result. So in 2021 it’s so this by the way so for people that don’t know what Aspiration is. It was a green bank that promised to supply carbon credits and plant trees to offset its clients carbon emissions. It filed for bankruptcy protection in March after its co-founder Joe Sandberg who law just referenced was arrested on charges of wire fraud. and Sanberg pleaded guilty last month to defrauding investors of $248 million. So I looked up on Wikipedia the as you know Aspiration Inc. and it said that it was founded in 2013 and it was open for business in February 2015 and as of May 2020 it had raised over $250 million in funding. Now, in 2021, it says Oak Tree Capital Management and investment affiliates of billionaire Steve Balmer committed $350 million in additional financing to Aspiration. So, was this a real company? Were they actually planting trees? Because I remember the Clippers used to post, you know, retweet every time they hit a three, right? Right. And you know what’s funny about that? That’s the year that they changed the basketball, right? like they switched out Spalding and and put on Wilson and those dudes were terrible from three for the first month of the year and like yo we y’all ain’t playing a damn thing this this like they like Eric Bledo in particular like Eric Eric did not shoot that that new ball right um yeah I think if you paid attention to the Clippers um you know their their social media right they would put out like this reference to three-pointers and and and uh you know planting trees, right? But that all ended after two seasons. The only other thing that they would really do like every time someone had a birthday like it would be like hey happy birthday to so and so like you know um in honor of them like you can retweet this post and like we’ll plant some trees or whatever. Um, there were times there were community events like the Clippers had at least one notable community event with Craig Smith. Uh, shout out to the Rhino. Uh, where they would go out and they would lick, they would plant trees like they had at least one community event that I can recall. So, uh, this was a thing for two years and this was a part of Balmer, you know, anyone who is familiar with Steve Balmer, especially in his time as the chairman of the Clippers, you know, he has the in he has great intentions. He is very socially conscious. He tries to do the right thing and and uh he tries to lead that way. Uh this was another example of that. They knew they were building this big arena in Englewood and they wanted to have a company that could help them say, “Hey, this is we’re going to be building a sustainable building, right?” And Aspiration was going to be a partner in that effort. And so they were going to be front and center. you there was a row of chairs at Crypto.com Arena, formerly known and betterly known as Staple Center and like literally it was like aspiration row like I remember in Vince Zubots before he learned how to actually throw short row passes would send multiple passes into that row. So, like, you know, they were this was not an anonymous sponsor. Like, they they they were front and center. And then 2023, they all they they disappeared. Ironically, the last tweet that referenced the Clippers and aspiration was Kawhai’s birthday in 2023. H. So, the part that is the part that’s fraudulent that they didn’t plant as many trees as they said they would because it says that they claim to have planted 35 million trees, but it was apparently only 12 million. Like, what part of it is is the fraudulent part? I mean, the fraudulent part is when you don’t have the money, man. Like, when you scheming, you stealing, that’s fraud, you know? Um, and and and so that’s that’s that’s uh that’s pretty much what it is. It’s like Joseph Samberg was charged with two counts of wire fraud. You know, those are felonies. You you go to jail for for for something like that. If the feds is owning you, like that’s a problem. So, I mean, that’s that’s pretty much what it came down to. So, coming up, we’re going to be talking about Kawi Leonard and his involvement in all this and the potential penalties if the Clippers actually did this. What are the What is the likelihood that the Clippers actually paid Kawhi Leonard under the table? 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So, if you want to go bet on everything NFL related, whether it be the first game, uh, Cowboys and Eagles on Thursday night or the Super Bowl, just head on over to FanDuel. Are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com to get started. That’s fuel.com to place your first $5 bet. All right, back here talking about the talk of the NBA world, the LA Clippers, and a little bit of a scandal right now. Let’s talk about Kawawaii and his involvement in all this. So, if Bulmer started in, you know, invested in 2021, this is right around the time that we resigned Kawaii uh to that max contract, correct? Right. And then Kawaii apparently was, you know, had that there was the KL, what was it? KL something, uh, LLC. KL2 KL to Aspire. KL to Aspire LLC. And the partnership was $28 million organic marketing sponsorship deal with Kawaii. Now, on the podcast, he said that he didn’t find any promotion from Kawi or anything like that. But of course, as you mentioned kind of earlier, we did have the, you know, Clippers social media, you know, with posting Kawawaii every time he hits a three or was it his birth? It was his birthday. His birthday. Yeah, his birthday post. Cuz you you remember Kawawaii didn’t play at all in the 2122 season. That was the first season. Not only did he not play, you got to remember the the the scope of the world at this time. Uh, it was the co what I refer to as the COVID drip season, like the year where arenas were filled, but COVID was still in the air. New variants every three months it felt like. Yeah. And you had a record number of NBA players participating because the NBA was like, “We’re not going to jack up the schedule any more than we need to. We’re going to play 82 games and if someone tests positive for COVID, we’re going to stick them in health and safety protocols.” So, not only was Kawawaii not healthy to play, he wasn’t even around like the team like that, especially on the road. He I think made two there were two road trips that he was on that I can recall that he made. One in December uh right before Paul Paul’s elbow completely gave way. And then one in Dallas in February, the one where Norman Pal wind up breaking a bone in his foot after being with the team for less than two weeks. Um, Kawawaii wasn’t around. So there and Kawawaii also wasn’t on social media. He wasn’t on Instagram. He wasn’t on Twitter. And social media wasn’t in such a broken state that you’d have a blue sky or threads or anything like that. Right. Kawi didn’t start using social media until uh fall of 2022 when he started his Instagram account and got back on. So, um, yeah, there were no there were no social media, uh, posts from him, but there also wasn’t anything where he would post on social media, right? And and so, but with New Balance, for example, we see all the ads, we see the promotion. So, I guess that’s obviously a different scenario, right? We need I guess we need to see him promoting this aspiration company. I mean, shoot, the contract, the way Pablo kind of kind of laid it out. Kawawaii, there was a lot of outs to this contract. It’s like the kind of contract that you signed, it’s like, we’ll pay you and you need to do this, but if you don’t do this, it’s whatever. That’s that’s that’s what the contract looked like. It looked like it looked like a phony contract. So, $28 million coming to Kawaii and they’re and they’re saying it’s coming from Balmer under the table essentially. I mean, that’s that’s what the that’s what the allegations are and that’s what the NBA is going to have to find out uh exactly how legit it is cuz as it was put in the in in in Pablo’s investigation that money making a round trip that’s not you’re not supposed to do that. you’re not supposed to basically give players extra benefits, you know, for being on your team. And it’s not a new allegation as far as the Clippers and specifically Steve Bummer is concerned. Like both with Kawawaii, we we saw this in 2019. There were investigations. Uh the league basically said that they didn’t find anything, but if they ever did, they would reopen the case. Um, and and they would they would go in. Um, and also 10 years ago, I I know everyone got a good laugh out of Emoji Gate, the anniversary, especially with Chris Paul coming back, but the Clippers were fined in 2015 for everything that went down with DeAndre Jordan. Um, like that was that was a lot of money. uh that was $250,000 that the Clippers were fined um in terms of their pursuit to resign him. You know, they try to give him endorsement um third party endorsement opportunities and it’s like again you’re not allowed to do that because there is a c there’s a salary cap. If everyone was allowed to do this, Darian, then you know things would be a lot different as far as free agency, who can get what, who can sign who, especially you got hes and have nots when it comes to owners. The owners have a absolute have as far as Steve Balmer and what he’s able to offer versus, you know, anybody else in their respective wealth. So, let me just ask you this honestly. I mean, Steve Balmer is, you know, a guy that’s a hero in Clipper land. We obviously look at him as the guy that’s taken our franchise from the depths of hell into this incredible, you know, what is it, 14 straight years of winning basketball in this amazing arena. Do you really think he did something like this? What the what I can say is it looks like at the very least the they were negligent. they’re negligent. Like this was not a company that you attached this level of resources to, you know, you just don’t you shouldn’t do that. Um, and as far as like like I can I can say Steve Balmer his mark as a chairman of the Clippers is to basically leave no stone unturned to try and get the very most out of the basketball product. And you see where that’s gone. Um, the interesting thing for me is to see if they do something as far as void Kawhi Leonard’s contract Joe Smith style. You’re historian in the game, Don. You know what happened 25 years ago with Minnesota and how that affected that franchise both in the short term and for years to come. Talk talk about that for the people who don’t know. What are the what were the consequences for Minnesota doing the same thing with Joe Smith and what could happen? So So no one likes Glenn Taylor. uh or if they do, I don’t know who they are. Um I’m sure people like him, but as far as his for those that don’t know, that’s the Timber Rules owner that Kevin Garnett despises, by the way. And it’s part of the reason he hasn’t had his number retired, right? The now former Timber owner as well, because now Alex Rodriguez and his business partner have taken over officially uh as the governors of that franchise. Um, back in back in 2000, right around this time, right before the start of the season, the NBA stripped um the Timberwolves of five first round draft picks, they wound up finding the Timberwolves a ridiculous amount of money for the year 2000. Uh because what happened was after the 98 lockout, 98.99 lockout, they signed Joe Smith to a contract. Um, it was a one-year contract. Offseason 1999, he signs another one-year contract with the Timberwolves. Offseason 2000, he signs another one-year contract with the Timberwolves. It later came back to the league that Joe Smith was, by the way, signing these undermarket value contracts with the Timberwolves, but also basically being promised, it was so that he could get his bird rights and so he would be promised a big extension what he would have been available for back in the 1998 off season. Um, and and basically it was a hush hush wink wink kind of deal. They wound up voiding Joe Smith’s contract. Joe goes to Detroit for a year and ironically winds up finding himself back in Minnesota in 2001. But that deal wound up with those the fines that I told you about, the loss of draft picks, the void of Joe Smith’s contract. This is all Kevin Garnett’s prime. You can also argue that Kevin Garnett contract caused the 98 lock in the first place, but that’s another show for you, Don. Um, but it also resulted in the suspension of Glenn Taylor for a year and Kevin McCale, who apparently had very little to do with the contract portion of any of this, but he was the lead personnel executive of the Minnesota Timber. He took a leave of absence that basically took him out for the 20201 season as well. uh nothing happened to Flip Saunders, the head coach. And obviously the Timberwolves, they made the playoffs as they did for eight straight years or something like that while not winning a single playoff series. So um that was that that was highly damaging to the Timberwolves. It was a hammer from David Stern and his office and it’s basically was like don’t do this. Don’t ever do this. This is what will happen. Now, you know, Adam Silver, one of his c seinal moments as commissioner was when he dropped the hammer on Donald Sterling. That ushered in this era of Steve C. Bomber becoming the chairman in the first place. It’ll be interesting to see if Adam Silver needs to apply a similar hammer, which will feel like a boomerang um if these punishments are any kind of correlated um here in 2025. So when the Clippers ended the partnership, it says, “So this is the Clippers communications team sent the following statement to the Athletic saying, neither Mr. Bomber nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false. The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago during the 2022 23 season when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. bomber was aware of any improper activity by aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation, the team and Mr. Bomber stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can. So that’s essentially saying that once we found out they weren’t doing what they were, you know, holding up their end of the bargain, we stopped the partnership. How much do you put into, you know, that statement? Obviously, the Clippers going to have to defend their tracks here. Bombers going to have to get uh what’s it called? There’s going to be legal stuff going on. Yeah, I mean, and you know what, there the Clippers are no strangers to any of that. Like I said, there was, you know, the investigation from 2019. There was what happened with Johnny Wilks and and Jerry West and, you know, similar conversations that came out in um 2020. Uh that didn’t didn’t lead to much, but obviously that was pretty uncomfortable. You know, just last year, Kawhai’s former trainer got um went and sued the Clippers. The Clippers have been tied up in litigation for a variety of things over o over over the years with Kawaii on the team. Um, and so all I all I could say is this is probably the beginning more than the end. Um, I think that it it sounds like the NBA was not really ready for something like this to drop. And there are some things where the NBA drags their feet when it comes to investigations. Again, we don’t need to talk about those specifically right now, but we know how the NBA can get as far as taking a long time for certain investigations. This is one that they’re probably going to have a similar high level of urgency, but a much more truncated timeline of getting a resolution out. Like, this is their league. These are their roles. And the other part is the feds and what they might be interested in since this is kind of an active case. So, you know, um it’s just at the very least it’s it’s a bad it’s a bad look and at the very most it’s going to be highly damaging for the Clippers in the short and long term. Well, coming up going to be talking about the potential penalties, how this well, how this did this have anything to do with Kawhi Leonard’s arrival and what it could mean for other teams as well. Going to be talking about that coming up. All right, LA. Unpacking this whole thing. I want to ask about you mentioned the potential penalties, potential loss of draft picks. I mean, here’s the question, though. What draft picks we have to lose? What draft picks, man? See, the thought was that the worst thing that the Clippers would have to do in 2025 is all the slander from Shay, Jose Alexander, and Oklahoma City Thunder winning a chip after the trade in 2019 that basically led to Kawaii coming here in the first place. Like all season was going great for the Clippers, relatively speaking, all things considered. Uh, but the train is never late when it comes to the Clippers dealing with, you know, some scandal or some difficulty, some difficult moments right before their season gets going. I mean, even this time last year, you know, like Kawhai’s the state of Kawawaii’s me. Um, and so when it comes to penalties, man, I mean, you if there are first round picks to lose, like they’re going to find them. Like this ain’t like a trade, you know what I’m saying? or you can only trade like seven years in the f it’s like whatever you have they’ll they’ll find a way to take it. Now the thing is the Clippers aren’t going to be hurt by loss of draft picks. We’ve already seen that. I mean it’ll it’ll it’ll hurt but the Clippers obviously have deemphasized the draft for most of the last decade, right? Fines like we just talked about the wealth of of of the ownership group here. Like a fine is a slap in the wrist. like people are angry and upset about this and be and and partly because the Clippers are are you know I don’t know if repeat offender is the right way to put it but this is not the first time that things like this have come up and at the very least they’re going to want the NBA to go through a thorough process of understanding what has and hasn’t happened what Kawawaii was you know gifted and what he wasn’t. This is a whole another CBA to go dime. So this isn’t like the Joe Smith thing where it’s like hey you know all these things happen relatively short term. It’s like this was another contract to go for Kawhai. You know this is another era of basketball as far as you know the players association is concerned. The players association is going to fight for Kawhai and make sure Kawhai doesn’t lose too much here. the owners. Maybe the owners are going to want to come down on Steve Balmer, but the but just like we learned about what that happened with Donald Stern. There’s going to be some owners out there like Slippery Slope. You know, we don’t want y’all to go and look at our contracts. There’s some guys out there on some undermarket deals, you know, in some big markets. Y’all can y’all can go ahead and look and be like, “Oh, I wonder how y’all put that together.” So, owners is going to be like a 50-50 kind of thing. Um, I worry about the front office. you know, the front office is going to have to speak on this. These are the contracts that it’s like if you don’t know about them, why? And if you do know about them, what the heck is going on? And and like that’s going to be a situation where it’s like what’s the consequence for the front office? There’s a chance that nothing happens with Kawhai. He’s allowed to play basketball. He goes about Terron Lou. Like I’m sure nothing’s going to affect him at all here. you know, this is a if if if Kawawaii is able to play, Terron’s going to be able to coach, right? Um the business operations, it’s like, hey, into a dome is going to be at the center of the NBA world in the middle of February for All-Star weekend. That is a big thing. I don’t think the NBA is trying to uproot that process. They gave the Clippers that platform before Into a Dome even completed um construction. That’s never happened before. I don’t think the Clippers I don’t think the NBA wants to go there, but the front office I don’t think anything’s protecting the front office here and I wonder how that’s going to go. Yeah, I mean one of the questions I was going to ask and you already kind of touched on it is other teams. You know, how many other teams are potentially doing similar things? You know, everyone’s talking about Jaylen Brunson and the pay cut that he took. Is there anything that New York did to kind of, you know, give him uh some compensation or whatever it may be? Um how many do you think that some some owners don’t want to, you know, penalize the Clippers because they’re they did the same things? Yeah, and you know that brings me once again going back to what happened in 2000 with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Kevin McCale winds up taking a leave of absence, winds up distancing himself from the team for a year. Self-imposed kind of what you see in college sometimes, right? Like coaches be like, “Yeah, I’m going to we’re we’re going to take this, you know, um self-imposed suspension or whatever. take wins that we had off of our official record, whatever you want to call it, right? And it’s like Kevin McCuel said at the time, you know, there are eight to 10 teams in a 2019 league at the time that do this. And it just so happens that we suck at it. So he got caught and penalized and and made an example of I’m sure that there are if you if if if Pablo wanted to go through every team in the league like he will fulfill his contract at the Athletic and doing so you can find dirt. But that’s not the point, Don. The point is this subject is about this team. You don’t want to deflect and be like, “Oh, I’m sure everybody does it. I’m sure that’s the case.” y’all are the subject right now and and and they’re gonna have to be held accountable for it and it will be a case where it’s like either y’all didn’t do anything that they can put the hammer down on or they will and they will gleefully do it just so that they can tell all the other teams not do it. just Philadelphia 76ers. You saw they got doc draft picks because they had James Harden and James Harden decided he was going to take less money to help the Sixers sign guys like PJ Tucker and Daniel House Jr. and those guys got nice contracts. James signed a sacrifice contract and the NBA didn’t like that. They said tampering, you guys are going to lose draft picks. The next year, the Clipper the the Sixers front office was so spooked that they didn’t communicate anything with James and James winds up uh basically having a huge falling out with Daryl my James Harden plays for the LA Clippers today. T taking pay cuts though like that is considered tampering. I mean, shoot. It’s it’s it’s what was tampering was the fact that the Sisters knew that they were going to sign the guys that they were trying to sign and they had impermissible conversations with James, a free a pending free agent about about, you know, what he was going to do, right? And so the NBA had to look at James Harden’s deal, look at Tucker’s deal, look at PE uh look at Daniel House’s deal, and they basically were like, “All right, um what can we find here?” That’s what that’s where the tampering comes in cuz Harden plays for the Sixers and Tucker plays for the Miami Heat and Daniel House is under contract with another team. It’s like, how are you getting these guys on your team basically, you know, uh while you’re getting them on your team? Uh because you’re having conversations. You knew exactly what you wanted to do and how you wanted to do it. It it it’s it lined up too perfectly. You know, teams have been stripped of draft picks for, you know, lesser lesser things like the Milwaukee Bucks. Okay, Bogdan Mcdanovich, current LA Clipper, a guy who I thought this week, you know, maybe that’s the biggest issue that the Clippers had this because of his hamstring injury that we still don’t know the severity of. Um, like that dude was going to the Milwaukee Bucks, but the Bucks were they they basically couldn’t complete the trade. They were stripped of a second round pick. Um, Bogey went back to the Kings, eventually got got uh was allowed to sign with the Atlanta Hawks. That cost Bogey a chance at a championship right there. Uh, the Bucks again, only losing a second round pick, only getting fined. It’s like, that’s that’s, you know, the NBA takes even things like that seriously enough where it’s like, what can we find you? What can we punish you? Don’t do this. And if you’re going to be dumb enough to get caught, we’re we’re we’re going we’re we’re just going to come at you here. Yeah. Here’s my last question. So, people are saying that, you know, obviously a lot of the Clipper haters are saying that this is why Kawaii signed with the Clippers in the first place. We paid him under the table and it was an agreement. Although this the stuff with aspiration comes after 2021. Does that have any legitimacy that we like because there was, as you said, accusations about, you know, the 2019 report that Uncle Dennis was asked for, you know, extra stuff like improper benefits and stuff like that. Does this have anything to do with when we signed Kawaii or this really just after, you know, this 2021 extension? No, I mean look, 2019 the Clippers, they did a whole lot of stuff to, you know, secure that relationship with Kawhai, but this particular thing with aspiration has nothing to do with what happened in 2019. Similar theme, you know, I mean, you know, just another case in point, Kawawaii was in Toronto 201819 season. I remember there was a co kine and dine initiative that whole year. It’s like hey kawaii sign with us you can eat anywhere in in in Toronto. Like there was like what I don’t know how many restaurants were a part of that where it’s like hey Kawaii you can eat for free and that was before they even secured the championship you know. Um that’s the issue here. Kawawaii has a history of this and it goes beyond the Clippers and the Clippers and Kawhai have a history of certain things like this and it goes beyond aspiration. It’s just too much of a we we’ve got prior instances here, you know, right? And it makes it so that the league has one or two pass that they can take. they can find a way to look in the other direction and give slaps on the wrist and that will just lead to outrage and keep the eye open while the Clippers are trying to find the next star for their next era. That’s all we’ve been talking about the last two offseasons. Hey, look up the flexibility that the Clippers have so that they can get guys in 2026 and 2027. You know what I mean? Well, I guarantee you the league is going to be like, at the very least, we’re not going to do anything to y’all, but I wish y’all would find somebody in 2026, 2027 with some shady techniques. At the very most, they’re not going to wait for 2026 or 2027. They’re going to hit the Clippers right here in 2025 based off of again a very thorough investigation on um Paulo Tori’s part. And why 2021 though, if you’re the Clippers, do you know he’s already resigning? He’s not going anywhere just to get Yeah. What was interesting to me about 2021, we knew that he was in, you know, could opt out of his deal and how critical even that postseason run was when the Clippers were down 2 against the Mavericks after losing the first two home own games. It was like, what is the fallout going to be this time after what happened in the bubble in 2020? Now, Paul George has signed his extension before the 2021 season. that extension was going to give him a an out in 2024, you know, potentially. You saw how that worked out, right? Uh with Kawawaii, we all thought he was going to sign on plus one, you know, sign for a year, get your 10 years of service, I believe, right? Um and then like you’re able to opt out and max out. Kawawaii though suffered a severe knee injury. I think Hawaii might have considered that, but he was like, “No, I’m gonna sign a deal to line up with Paul.” So, that was what was interesting. Yeah, there’s probably a lot of you didn’t have to do this, you didn’t have to do that. But, if there’s one thing that Kawawaii and his team have have shown in multiple stops, it’s that they’re trying to get every benefit that they can and secure those benefits uh and and and go from there, whether it’s the NBA or outside the NBA. New Balance. Like you look at his history with Nike. Kawawaii was a Nike athlete for a while and then Nike kept things from Kawhai uh and including his logo. Kawhai had one of the best logos ever. Kawawaii he doesn’t have that logo. It’s like WWE like you you you in WWE and you have this great character and this great name, this great but if you leave WWE, you can’t use that. WWE owns that. So, everyone has a history as and now a it’s like a confluence with this all coming together in this particular investigation. Yeah. I just really hope that the bomber covered his tracks because it just feels so unnecessary to, you know, we already given him so much money paying him under the table. So much is unnecessary. I know it’s unnecessary when we, you know, he tore his ACL and I don’t think he was going anywhere. You know, we gave him the max. I don’t think he was going anywhere. Um, so this is going to be something that I really hope doesn’t hurt us. But I I don’t know. It’s It’s going to look bad on Bomber. That’s all I can say is it’s going to look bad on Balmer. Yeah. Uh I mean, if if there’s no penalties, if there’s the max penalties, it’s a terrible look for the franchise. You know, a franchise that has I I I referenced sometime this year that the Clippers are still paying for the fact that Donald Sterling was in ownership with this franchise for more than three decades, right? And people were confused by that. Why? Why would you say that? Because there’s a stigma. There’s a stigma of no matter how many games the Clippers win, they haven’t won at the highest level and they’re looked at as the red-headed stepchild, you know, in their own market, right? And it’s stuff like this where it’s like you try and separate that. They’ve done so much. They’ve won games. They’ve secured star players. They have this amazing arena. They have for the most part kept their nose clean about certain things, but it’s anytime there’s a scandal, whether it’s basketball related or whether it’s something like this, it comes back and everyone ties it to some that happened four decades ago. It has nothing to do with anyone who works or plays for that team now. But it’s it’s it’s like if you keep adding to your legacy, that’s what winds up happening. People connected. Yeah. I mean, I said before this we sold our souls for Kawhi Leonard with the draft fix, but I didn’t know it was this much of selling our souls for him. So, um, hopefully I don’t know, all you can do is pray at this point, Clipper Nation. Uh, L, thank you so much for joining me. Made a lot more sense out of all this. Let people know where they can find you. Yeah. Uh, shout out to the Athletic, uh, especially on a day like today. Uh, we got more coming. Um, and we’re going to have to stay on top of this for months to come. As far as me, uh, my social is not that hard to find. So y’all can follow me on that and and yeah, fair enough. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime Drop Dimeropper Pod and subscribe to my own YouTube channel, Dime Dropper, for even more. The age-old proverb continues. Go Clippers.

Bombshell allegations rock the Los Angeles Clippers. Did Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard orchestrate a $50 million salary cap circumvention scheme?

Die hard LA Clippers Fan and Host Darian Vaziri and The Athletic’s Clippers beat writer Law Murray dissect the explosive report linking Ballmer’s investment in Aspiration to Leonard’s alleged $28 million payout. They analyze potential NBA penalties, drawing parallels to past scandals like the Timberwolves’ Joe Smith case. The discussion covers how draft pick losses and fines could impact the Clippers’ future, including star acquisitions and front office shake-ups.

Was this high-stakes gamble necessary for a team that already had Leonard locked up? Tune in for an in-depth breakdown of the allegations that could reshape the NBA landscape and tarnish the Clippers’ hard-earned reputation.

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