I’ve already had people that said “I’ve seen enough for them [the NBA] to do something to the Clippers.”
I’ll read the text I got from a league executive: “Most people I’ve talked to think the Clippers need to explain this now. They have the job to prove their innocence at this point. The NBA doesn’t need a [smoking gun] text message or an email. It’s now on the Clippers and Kawhi to explain this way more than ‘We didn’t know’ and ‘these are bad guys [regarding Aspiration]’.”
31 comments
The NBA wouldnt know how to look anyways
Even if it was a legit company, you shouldn’t be able to have an owner invest in a business and have a player be a key receiver of the money
Their explanation is going to be:
“ I don’t know. They (Aspiration) were dumb. They loved to give people free money. That’s why they went bankrupt”
Samson said on the Le Batard reaction pod that Silver and Ballmer would be negotiating between themselves how to proceed
Amick brought up how Silver came up in the shadow of Stern, and how Stern might’ve handled this — and given the Clippers were the org that Silver built his initial reputation on, theres a lot riding on how Silver determines this
The way i see it is that if the NBA decides this is all absolutely okay then they might as well just remove the salary cap completely. Every team will have a step by step blueprint for an NBA approved cap circumventing system.
This isn’t a criminal court. It isn’t even a civil court. It is obvious what happened and that is all the NBA owners need. Ballmer is breaking rules designed to save the owners a huge amount of money with limitations on their players salaries … Ballmer is incredibly powerful even among the NBA brass, but pissing off most of the other owners actually puts him a position where he could be held accountable.
What other evidence is needed? Ballmer paid them $50M and then they immediately gave $28M to Kawhi to do nothing + $20M worth of equity.
I know Shams wants people to believe we need a video of Ballmer handing Kawhi cash under the table as evidence, but what has been presented is more than enough to prove they violated CBA.
The CBA also has a sprit of the rules clause, so the NBA doesn’t even need proof to the standard of legal system.
Pablo’s paper trail and the source from the company are damning enough
You’d have to be the biggest sucker to think its a coincidence
As for Cuban defending Balmer – the more Cuban talks the more of a clown he reveals himself to be. He’s on his PR tour to gaslight people into absolving him of his role in the Mavs mess. Not to mention even when he was running the team, the Mavs front office had its share of problems.
League needs to take 6-7 picks away, void Kawhi’s contract, and suspend Balmer at least a season.
That’ll end up crippling the Clippers for a decade and Balmer may never end up seeing them as a contender, but that’s too bad.
I can’t imagine that the half assed explanation that they’ve presented so far will sit well with small market teams.
Dosent fall on Kawhi Leonard but im just tired of the dude. Anyone would take free money but this dude is exhausting. Dosent really give a shit about the fans or the game lol. I dont think he will be missed at all once he retires
Lol kawhi ain’t saying shit.
The integrity of the game has taken such a hit during Adam Silver’s tenure.. Not even just this
The best ancillary byproduct of this clusterf’k is that we can see which analysts/reporters are carrying water for teams (most of them) and which are legit (the one’s who aren’t rushing to defend Ballmer).
Not too many surprises
The board of governors has a big question in front of them: Are we going to allow this to happen and effectively kill the salary cap OR are we going to have some integrity and penalize people. Suspend Kawhi for the rest of his contract (or void it), make the Clippers repay the $28MM back to the league, fine Balmer $10MM and, idk, 3 1sts?
The small time owners are not going to let this go.
If it is this easy to make the salary cap pointless, then there’s no legit way the smaller markets can keep up.
Took too long to find another high-profile sports journo who isn’t awkwardly covering for the Clippers with sweat pouring down their face.
No surprise it’s Lowe, which helps explain why ESPN canned him so they could shovel more money into Stephen A Smith.
In Zach’s podcast he cites the relevant clause in the CBA related to cap circumvention, and it specifically states that circumstantial evidence, such a contract that makes no sense other than for purposes of circumventing the cap, is enough to prove the crime for purposes of allowing the Commissioner to punish the Clippers.
So we’re already there just based on the information that Pablo shared about Kawhi’s insane contract for 28 million dollars to do nothing but be a Clipper.
People who demand smoking guns are either running interference for those being held to account or are wholly ignorant of how the justice system actually works. I know our brains have been rotted by culture’s attempt to eradicate critical thinking but cases are built on evidence, different pieces with which a picture is painted, not one single simple admission of how the crime was committed.
“What had happened was…”
“Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I’ve worked in a lot of offices and I tell you people do that all the time.” – Steve Ballmer
This wasn’t some random company. This was a founding sponsor for the Clippers that their owner was invested in.
Wow he might face repercussions
Kawhi went to the Lakers to basically ask for a bribe off the books. This is clear as day. He needs to be suspended and so does the owner of the clippers. The fine should be 28 million.
MFW r/nba realizes this is a thing. Want to know why no one is coming out and saying anything? Because they are all doing it when needed. And if they aren’t doing that they are doing shit like overpaying buddies (Jeremi Grant), nepo signings (Thanasis), and family charity signings (Blevins).
per the CBA, circumstantial evidence is enough. You don’t an email from Ballmer saying “i’m going to invest $50M in Aspiration, so you need to to pay Kawhi $28M”
The fact that Ballmer gave Aspiration $50M, who then gave Kawhi $28M to do nothing, is pretty solid circumstantial evidence for circumventing the salary cap.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/ueGzdhQ3Es
Silver sucks and so does this stupid fucking league.
The game could be so much better than what we get
The NBA ain’t a court of a law. The burden of proof is whatever they want it to be.
This podcast is the most informative podcast I’ve seen on this topic. Obviously, outside Pablo’s initial bombshell. Lowe gets into the charter and the league’s bar of evidence and Silver’s powers. If the league wants to do something, the bar as been already cleared with the evidence currently public.
To me it’s just a question of how hard they come down on the NBA richest and thus most powerful owner.
I’ve seen a few people say this, and I agree completely, that if the league let this slide, then they might as well just ditch the charade of the salary cap completely. I imagine this sort of thing is going on more than we know, but this is as getting caught red handed as it gets. Drag them over the coals as an example and then at least all the other teams doing it will have to get smarter about it.
Ballmer is going to pay some Clippers exec to take the fall
The Kawhi signing, the Brunson signing, the Luka trade and subsequent Cooper Flagg draft for Dallas…it’s finally starting to click for everyone how rigged the league is sometimes