{"id":356500,"date":"2025-10-21T16:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/356500\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T16:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:58:10","slug":"nbas-investigation-into-l-a-clippers-scandal-will-take-some-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/356500\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA\u2019s investigation into L.A. Clippers scandal will \u2018take some time\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league\u2019s investigation<\/a> into alleged cap circumvention by the Clippers will \u201ctake some time, just based on past experience,\u201d according to Chris Mannix of SI. Clippers F Kawhi Leonard is alleged to have received $28M for a no-show endorsement with a tree company called Aspiration that received funds from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. Silver mentioned from the reporting so far, \u201cmany of the sources are anonymous, but there are several of them.\u201d He said, \u201cThere\u2019s a fair amount of evidence for us to look at. The stakes are very high.\u201d In determining if the Clippers cheated, Silver added \u201cif circumstantial evidence is enough, and just as in a court of law, sometimes there\u2019s direct evidence and sometimes there\u2019s circumstantial evidence.\u201d Silver: \u201cAnd certainly, circumstantial evidence alone doesn\u2019t prevent findings for one particular side. But then, even in the case of circumstantial evidence, you look at the totality of the circumstances. So it\u2019s not formulaic\u201d (SI, 10\/20<\/a>).<\/p>\n

DISCIPLINE NEEDED: BLOOMBERG NEWS\u2019 Ira Boudway wrote Silver works for the owners and they selected him for his post and \u201ccan remove him anytime through a three-fourths majority vote.\u201d It is an \u201cawkward part of the job\u201d for Silver and other U.S. sports commissioners as when it comes to \u201cdisciplining owners, they\u2019re like teachers who can be fired by their students.\u201d Silver rightly \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to rush to judgment and needs to tread carefully to maintain good relations with his bosses.\u201d The league\u2019s 29 other owners are \u201cpulled in different directions by their relationships\u201d with Clipper owner Steve Ballmer. Boudway: \u201cThey\u2019re his rivals, who want to beat him on the court, and his partners, who share an interest in the collective business of the league. As the former, they\u2019d likely want Ballmer to face harsh consequences if he\u2019s shown to have cheated. As the latter, they might not like the precedent of Silver taking a heavy hand. It\u2019s a delicate situation that will call on all of Silver\u2019s considerable managerial skills\u201d (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 10\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n

GUILTY PLEA: ESPN.com\u2019s Baxter Holmes reported Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg formally \u201cpled guilty to two counts of wire fraud\u201d in federal court in downtown L.A. yesterday. Each count carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2026, at 11am PT at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in L.A. Yesterday\u2019s hearing was a \u201cformality, as Sanberg had previously agreed to plead guilty to his role in a scheme that defrauded investors\u201d out of $248M (ESPN.com, 10\/20<\/a>).<\/p>\n

HOW IT WENT DOWN: The WALL STREET JOURNAL\u2019s O\u2019Connell & Ryan noted that in December 2021, Sanberg told a high-ranking Aspiration executive that the Clippers had \u201capproached him about doing a deal\u201d with Leonard. The executive recalled Sanberg saying: \u201cThis is important to the Clippers.\u201d Aspiration executives learned that Sanberg was \u201cadvocating\u201d for a four-year, $48M deal with Leonard. Sanberg did not control such agreements, but as the largest stockholder and a board member, his \u201cpreferences carried weight.\u201d The deal Sanberg brought the company called for Leonard to receive $20M in Aspiration stock on top of $28M in cash, but the company \u201cbalked at handing over that much equity.\u201d Sanberg then \u201cagreed to give Leonard shares from his own holdings.\u201d Former top executives at Aspiration said that although people inside Aspiration \u201chad concerns about the deal, there had never been any discussion or speculation by senior executives that it might be a vehicle for Leonard and the Clippers to circumvent the salary cap\u201d (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10\/19<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league\u2019s investigation into alleged cap circumvention by the Clippers will \u201ctake some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,4034,192,4032,10880,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-356500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-clippers","12":"tag-laclippers","13":"tag-legal","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesclippers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115413222067183348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}