Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by NBA contributing writer Tom Haberstroh to discuss the latest news regarding the Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration scandal and lay out how the NBA might punish Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
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Video Transcript
What constitutes the NBA dropping the hammer on the Clippers?
A forced sale would be quite the dramatic move by Adam Silver.
I don’t suspect that is, is gonna happen because Steve Ballmer is the richest owner in sports, and he’s one of the richest owners in America.
He just hosted the All-Star Game, for- and one of, one of, Adam Silver’s allies in the f- in the league office.
I would be very surprised if they forced the sale.
Now, r- remember, they didn’t force the sale of, Robert Sarver with the Phoenix Suns.
The investigation, the league investigation, uncovered a lot of, l- workplace violations and harassment issues with, with, regards to Robert Sarver.
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But ultimately, that was not a case where they said, “You have to sell the team.”
He sold the team at his own volition, and so, maybe it’s a case where Adam Silver levies some sort of punishments, whether it’s forcing, Kawhi Leonard’s contract to be, i- i- invalidated.
And I think that would be one of the things that is on the table because that’s what David Stern did with the Joe Smith cap circumvention, scandal with the Minnesota Timberwolves decades ago.
But the interesting thing on that is it pr- it provides a, a conundrum where I think if Kawhi Leonard is, is now a free agent, you’re gonna see a frenzy for his services with the likes of the Lakers, with the likes of the Golden State Warriors or, or the New York Knicks.
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They would try to go get Kawhi Leonard at this stage as a free agent.
That actually, I think, would create more hysteria and chaos around the league than actually forcing the Clippers’ hand.
So I think losing picks, I think v- invalidating, Kawhi Leonard’s contract is on the table, and also banning Steve Ballmer from the arena, I think would be the most, the most hurtful in terms of punishing Steve Ballmer-