Source: https://hoopswire.com/nba-rumors-news-clippers-investigation/
The NBA is digging into Kawhi Leonard’s endorsement deal with Aspiration, and longtime insider Marc Stein says the reaction of other owners may determine just how far the probe goes.
“The league investigated in 2019 and found no rules were broken, but they said if further evidence compels us to look at this again, we will,” Stein said on the ALL NBA Podcast. “That’s obviously going to happen now. And like I said, I really think how the other teams react to this is going to drive it. Adam Silver ultimately has to answer to the other owners.”
For Ballmer, the scrutiny is magnified because of his stature among owners.
“Steve Ballmer is already known as the richest owner in the NBA, as an owner who has resources that no one else has,” Stein said. “You saw the building that they’ve built. The Intuit Dome is the fanciest building on the NBA map. You see the system that the NBA now operates in — those aprons.
“I mean, how many times… there aren’t many All-NBA shows that I come on that we don’t have to talk about the aprons. It’s a part of our daily vocabulary. That’s a lot because of Steve Ballmer.”
36 comments
It’s so blatant that journalists that we’ve known to actually be viable sources of information are talking about the inner politics of the NBA and how that would affect punishments. Meanwhile ESPN is talking about burden of proof hurdles that are all bunk…
Wasn’t the 2nd apron to prevent 3 max contracts from teaming up? Aka no more super teams with super friends
The problem is these cheap owners benefit from getting money from the richer owners through the luxury tax. They probably are only upset that they aren’t getting any luxury tax revenue from the $50 million he paid Kawhi.
If the league says everything here is halal than I expect other owners to start doing this as well. When Currys deal is up they could just funnel the money through La Azul Taqueria for a fake endorsement deal worth $60 million a year. Why not.
He’s going to be removed
[ Removed by Reddit ]
When you charge a parent a dollar a minute extra at the daycare, the rich parents see it as a license to pick em up whenever.
When you stop the kid from coming to daycare, the behavior shifts.
Perfect time to relocate the team.
The Commish will not be doing anything about this because it wouldn’t be shocking most if not all teams skirt the salary cap through questionable means.
Also…the owners all revenue share…it’s in their best interest to stick together and not harm other teams
As a Wolves fan I really hope that Silver goes for the throat.
Stern effectively took prime KG from us over the Joe Smith thing. IMO this seems much worse.
If it was up to Silver he would do nothing
If they want to penalize the clippers, since they can’t take away that many picks they should prevent them from signing free agents and extending contracts. Seems appropriate considering the offense, and it will seriously hurt them.
The owners are a lot more aligned than you guys think. Since he came they have an awesome new stadium and a team contributing more to the revenue split and they just signed a monster tv deal.
Don’t expect them to derail everything
Is what Balner did bad enough for Silver to force the sale of the Clips?
Maybe evidence matters too? Call me crazy.
Its going to be interesting to see what punishment gets dealt out.
On one hand you can’t just fine Ballmer, because any reasonable number is going to be pocket change for him. Idk about FRPs since Clips don’t own any for the rest of the decade and idk if Silver is willing to hamstring a franchise for the 2030s. Not that having picks has been an issue for them since being in LA has its benefits when it comes to attracting talent.
On the other hand, I highly doubt they’d force him to sell since the NBA is a business after all and having one of the richest people in the world investing in your league is extraordinarily nice to have.
If its up to the other owners, I’m willing to bet they just make Ballmer pay them some number and call it good, maybe voiding Kawhi’s contract in some form. This is setting a new precedence and if they are super harsh on him, then anyone else getting caught in the future would have to follow that. Don’t know if owners want to play that.
Not one thing will happen to Ballmer. At most maybe a fine, but the owners will protect each other. Why? Because they all do shady business dealings. It’s why Ballmer thought, “oh this is ok, bet..”
I don’t think Ballmer’s stature means much. It comes down to whether they circumvented the cap. Yes or no. Even if you do it by $1, Silver will throw the book at you.
Because this isn’t the justice system, punishment can be determined in whatever way they see fit.
I think banning Balmer from games for 3 years would be an effective deterrent if they still want him as an owner.
Silver could also say he reserves the right to force sales in the future for similar infractions.
Even if other owners scream inequality he could maybe suffer through it since some owners he may want out.
Force him to sell.
Right and this may be complete fraud.
It is also POSSIBLE there could be a business plan for a [protein drink] sponsored by KL which they sold to Balmer in part because he knew much of the money would go to Kawhi.
The investigation getting the facts should help. Balmer could have done this far more cleanly offshore to offshore or a conveyance. As a former auditor this feels like a couple of schemes colliding and a resulting mess.
Rich owners already have so many advantages they can throw at their players. State of the art stadium, gym, training facilities, best doctors, decked out planes, locker rooms, on and on. But straight up cash under the table is what the big dogs want lol
Worth mentioning that despite the riches of the owner and the nice stadium, the clippers perennially kind of suck at basketball
Adam Silver is part of the problem.
This entire episode strikes me as money laundering. What occurred here is fraud. It’s not the league to be worried about, but the FBI. Then again, the ultrarich is never punished.
Ballmer should buy a baseball team, maybe we can finally get a cap over there too.
This is a fucked up thing to say. If rules were broken, punishments need to be handed out. The fact the NBA could just wait and see if owners bitch is absolutely insane. Rules are there for a reason, shouldn’t matter what the other owners think, to enforce them.
I think this is the correct take. Will they see Steve as a valuable ally that they need to do damage control for? Or will they sell him as an overpowered competitor that is an impediment to their own goals? And will they be willing to fight him in court? Or burn a potential bridge to lucrative opportunities?
I suspect they’ll punish him in a way that feels satisfactory to fans that he can also live with. Maybe bar uncle Dennis from acting as kawhi’s rep.
Silver has no backbone whatsoever. He’s gonna bend the knee to Ballmer
Out w them both, Silver and Ballmer
Clippers should lose more than 5 first round picks but if Ballmer sells majority stake in Clippers then it gets reduced.
Kawhi’s contract should be voided while his salary is still on the books for the Clippers.
Kawhi must also sit out this season in order to stop a random teams scooping him up for pennys on the dollar.
If you want to flex your billions in sports, then buy into a sport without a salary cap. Bottom line. This whole thing bums me out.
And of course simply doing what’s right doesn’t factor into it whatsoever
If the punishment is minimal, it won’t be because Silver chickened out. It will be because the other owners collectively realize most of them have similar skeletons they’d rather not come out of the closet. Given many owners have business deals with the same companies their players do, I doubt every one of them are completely above board.
Does Mark Cuban really want the NBA to scrutinize all the money he paid for the Dirk documentary? Does James Dolan want them to look into how he got Brunson? All these guys cheat on some level. That’s why you have articles like [this](https://www.theringer.com/2019/09/20/nba/nba-tampering-free-agency-kyrie-irving-adam-silver) about former Lakers GM, Mitch Kupchak.
>If the opening of the NBA’s 2019 free agency season seemed ridiculous to you, that’s because it was. The number of stars who changed teams was eye-popping, even in an era of accelerated player movement. Far wilder, though, was seeing deals reported as signed, sealed, and delivered *hours* before the official kickoff of the period in which teams and players’ representatives are allowed to begin negotiating said agreements.
>We’ve long known that such conversations often begin well before July 1. Back [in 2017](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18641743/los-angeles-lakers-owners-front-office-grappling-next-steps-franchise), then–Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak’s unwillingness to jump the gun—“He’s the only GM in the league who won’t engage at all before 9:01 p.m. [PT] on the first night of free agency”—was held up as proof that he wasn’t moving at the speed of the modern NBA. This adherence to “the rules” was even cited as evidence in support of Jeanie Buss’s decision to fire him and hand the reins of the organization over to Magic Johnson. (That worked out, um, [weird](https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/4/10/18304196/magic-johnson-steps-down-los-angeles-lakers).) ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst [wrote back in July](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27243621/inside-tense-nba-owners-meeting-change-free-agency) that “team executives and agents report that free agency now unofficially begins at the draft combine in May,” nearly two months before free agency opens.
Silver has tried to crack down on this, but let’s be real, it’s hard to call out cheating if everyone does it. I suspect the same with this case. Ballmer will argue plausible deniability, and he’ll escape with a slap on the wrist for PR reasons. Kawhi will miss 45 games regardless.
The league must react, of course, but there’s a real risk that the league will uncover many more irregularities elsewhere if it digs too deep. It’s a bit like opening Pandora’s box, with all the risks that entail for the NBA.
Is Adam Silver willing to take the risk of uncovering more by digging too deep?
Im not really sure the other owners are going to say something. Balmer networth is bigger than all the NBA..combined.
Thats power
Ballmer has enough to buy every other team in the NBA. You can make the argument that if he meant to do it his team would have structured it in a much better and quiet way
It’s more about opportunistic shadiness – Kawhi signing a contract too good to turn down with a company that turned out to be a scam
The NBA wants such owners, people who have so much wealth and are willing to spend around the teams as Ballmer has. I think they’ll chalk it up to new owner syndrome