Pablo Torre notes that the Aspiration cap circumvention investigation will likely reveal no classic “smoking gun” — no definitive written proof — but raises the question of how overwhelming the mountain of circumstantial evidence must become before it crosses into embarrassment for the league.
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Do we really need you to clip every minute of the podcast into a separate post?
Adam Silver on Pablo Torre’s video: “I didn’t see the podcast live and then I didn’t see the recording. […] I was busy with uh, y’know, getting the season ready. One of my assistants told me [Kawhi] might need to be suspended.”
It’s already embarassing fir the league and Adam Silver has only embarrassed it more
That’s a paddlin’
Pablo milking it now!!
At this rate in a couple of weeks Pablo will reveal a video of Ballmer, Kawhi and Uncle Dennis tattooing Cap circumvention on their forearms.
Meanwhile Windhorst on his podcast:
“Don’t know. You can’t really be sure”
“Maybe they just like the phrase”
“Could be any cap. Doesn’t say NBA”
“No smoking guns here”
As long as they have deniability, they’ll deny. Embarrassment means nothing if the league can argue against it.
>how overwhelming the mountain of circumstantial evidence must become before it crosses into embarrassment for the league.
The truly embarrassing part for the league would be to not do anything about it and not sanction the Clippers and Ballmer in any significant way. Which is sadly quite likely to happen.
It’s already crossed that threshold multiple times over imo. Almost everyone believes beyond a shadow of the doubt that Ballmer circumvented the cap for Kawhi, and if recent reports are to be trusted, that includes many people across the league from coaches, front office people, players, and more.
If the league doesn’t punish Ballmer or just let’s him off with a slap on the wrist, this will be even worse for the sport’s reputation than the crooked ref scandal.
The problem is:
Will this stop any normal viewer from watching the NBA?
And I’m not talking about you, the average Redditor. You’re a bubble and say anything you want for karma. I’m talking about the average Joe Schmo. Do they really give a flying shit was going on?
I don’t see how anyone can look in good faith at the documents Torre has released and conclude that it’s more likely than not that this wasn’t deliberate cap circumvention.
Even “actual” murders rarely have a smoking gun since the guilty know to dump that piece of evidence .
It’s primarily a collection of circumstantial evidence and motive that leads to the a conclusion.
This isn’t a felony-more a break in a company policy. The bar for that kind of stuff is really low. At your office , I suspect that you could get fired for taking bottles of wine as gifts from a vendor.
But ultimately, the wealthy – both Balmer and Kahwi – have different rules .
Remember DeLorean ?
Just watched the video posted today. The more I hear, the worse it gets. I don’t know to what level kawhi knew about all this, but if he knew enough to be complicit, I would be fine with a lifetime ban, and have Balmer sell the team. I know this would never happen but it’s so disappointing.
We all know the NBA is not a complete meritocracy, but this is so blatant and just a slap in the face of fans who pay, in part, for this.
It’s funny, the first Torre story came out on a Thursday.
Brian Windhorst’s “Hoop Collective” podcast comes out FIRST THING Friday morning as it’s uploaded in the Friday early AMs. It’s never not there when I get up around 6am (EST).
I had a sneaky suspicion the episode that Friday of the Hoops Collective podcast wouldn’t release on time because they would be figuring out to ESPN spin things and carry the Clippers’ water.
They had plenty of time to dissect and discuss Torre’s first podcast for their normal Friday release.
Silver will say he doesn’t know what a clipper is in next few weeks.
If the burden of proof the nba wants is higher than what Pablo has already presented, there basically isn’t a rule against cap circumvention anymore.
No one is going to write a check that says “for cap circumvention” in the memo line.
I’m sorry Pablo but your work doesn’t meet r/nba sweetheart Zach Lowe’s threshold of what a smoking gun is
So now we have the owner, a minority owner, and the CFO all representing the Clippers on paperwork sending payments to a miserably failing Aspiration. “Coincidentally” alot of these fundings just so happen to be just a week or so ahead of Kawhi’s no-show quarterly endorsement payments. This also caught Clippers lying in one of their PR statements about ending their relationship with Aspiration during the 22-23 season when they’re on paperwork sending money in 2022 and 2023. This is during a time where most is bailing on Aspiration inside and out. Dennis Wong funding 2 million when 17 other investment companies told Joe Sanberg to get lost when he asked for funding. You telling me the 8th richest person in the world in Steve Ballmer was consistently scammed by Joe Sanberg when every other rich person in town didn’t wanna be near him? Cmon lol
There might not be any “smoking gun” here but I’ve watched a lot crime dramas to know a good bit of evidence even without it can be enough to get you sent to prison.
If their smart they will finish the investigation before the season starts or it will be a talking point all season.
Pablo will be blackballed in the next few months
If this gets a slap on the wrist then you have created a blueprint for how to circumvent the salary cap using endorsement deals
I’m a very light casual and I just assumed this kind of stuff is/has been going on for a long time, it just seems so obvious and easy for anyone with the slightest amount of discretion.
I mean this sincerely: we are past the point of banana republic-ism in this country.
Some people will only accept a hand written note from the accused with them saying “I am doing a crime, this is the crime I am doing” signed, notarized in triplicate and blessed by a priest.
Other’s would even refuse to accept as long as the accused counters with “nu uh”.
This country is pathetic.
A lot of dummies in here said they are done with the NBA if nothing happens.
If you lived through Scott Foster but this is the hill you are willing to die on rofl.
It’s really absurd. As long as you don’t personally write a check and put “This money that I, the owner, am giving to the player is to circumvent the NBA salary cap rules” in the for line you’re good to go? Any owner can go find some local charity or business that would happily play middle man. Sooooo do they all really want to be participating in no limited auctioning for players?
Who cares. Release the Luka files…..
Most outrageous part of this saga is the almost universal lack of curiosity about it from the rest of the national media. Terrified of maybe Balmer, the League, or the Player Association?
Simmons dismisses it, “I know so much” bs.
Hoop Collective losers – 5-10 minutes always reminding us there isn’t concrete/smoking gun. By those standards they themselves shouldn’t ever report a thing.
Bobby Marks a complete joke.
SAS existence a stain on us so expect nothing else.
Zach Lowe acts as if it’s all too complicated to fully understand.
We are in a post shame era, especially from the ruling class. So unless this somehow has enough appearance of impropriety to affect the relationship with, say, betting partners, nothing substantial will happen.