INGLEWOOD \u2014 NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke for about 30 minutes during Saturday\u2019s All-Star Weekend media day, addressing potential league expansion, the NBA\u2019s tanking problem, the WNBA\u2019s collective bargaining agreement negotiations and more.<\/p>\n
But here in Southern California, the topic of a potential NBA salary cap scandal involving a reportedly secret $28 million endorsement deal between Clippers star Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration, a company tied to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, has been percolating since first reported by podcaster Pablo Torre in September.<\/p>\n
Torre\u2019s investigation suggested the arrangement, which allegedly involved \u201chush money\u201d for no-show endorsement deals via now-bankrupt Aspiration, was means for the Clippers to circumvent league rules.<\/p>\n
When asked about the league probe as to whether the Clippers illegally skirted the salary cap, Silver deflected the question, saying the league had yet to come to a decision on potential punishment, if any, on the Clippers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t come to any decisions whatsoever yet on the Clippers matter,\u201d Silver said. \u201cFrom everything I\u2019ve been told, the Clippers have been fully cooperative. But as I said, I\u2019m not involved day to day of the investigation, and I think, as I\u2019ve said before, it\u2019s enormously complex.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver firmly stated that the investigation and its findings were not purposely delayed while the Clippers host this All-Star Weekend. Wachtell Lipton, the white-shoe Manhattan law firm conducting the investigation, has no deadline from the league to produce its findings.<\/p>\n
Silver continued later in his press conference, when asked about punishment for salary cap circumvention:<\/p>\n
\u201cI am completely beholden to the (league) constitution and the CBA. I believe in the rule of law. You know, I have broad powers in certain areas, but those are broad powers that are granted to me by those very documents. And I think it\u2019s in a way, I think it\u2019s what makes sports so special that you establish these rules and people are and teams are required to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
EXPANSION<\/p>\n
Silver said although he did not want to string along cities such as Seattle or Las Vegas and act as if he\u2019s making promises for the cities\u2019 respective expansion franchise hopes, he did believe the league is currently on the path toward adding teams in the near future.<\/p>\n
He said the NBA wanted to get through securing the new collective bargaining agreement, which was agreed to during the offseason, and that now the league can turn its focus to expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sense is at the March board of governors meeting, we\u2019ll be having further discussions around expansion process,\u201d Silver said. \u201cWe won\u2019t be voting at the March meeting, but we will likely come out of those meetings ready, prepared to take a next step in terms of potentially talking to interested parties. \u2026 It doesn\u2019t have to be a two-team expansion, frankly, doesn\u2019t have to be any number of teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver added that current NBA franchises relocating would not be on the table.<\/p>\n
TANKING<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the NBA fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and fined the Indiana Pacers $100,000 for roster-related decisions that the league deemed detrimental to winning. Silver said everything is on the table when it comes to finding a way to have fair competition season-long without the product on the court regressing, even agreeing to use the term \u201ctanking\u201d during his press conference.<\/p>\n
He added that the competition committee would view the draft lottery process as an opportunity to change the incentive structure of the league and how to reward winning and losing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we\u2019ve seen in recent memory?\u201d Silver said. \u201cYes, is my view, and which was what led to those, to those fines, and not just those fines, but to my statement that we\u2019re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams behavior and very intentionally, wanted teams to be on notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
PREDICTION MARKETS<\/p>\n
The NBA is \u201cpaying an enormous amount of attention\u201d to the rise of prediction markets, particularly after Milwaukee superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo sparked concern with his investment in Kalshi. Silver didn\u2019t find fault with Antetokounmpo \u2013 whose shares are a \u201cminuscule\u201d position, according to Silver \u2013 but he acknowledged the looming specter of the gambling industry without suggesting a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt concerns me in the totality of all this betting that we need a better handle, no pun intended, on all the different activity that\u2019s happening out there,\u201d Silver said.<\/p>\n
Silver also admitted the overwhelming size of this task, given that roughly 80 countries allow betting on the NBA while billions more are wagered illegally.<\/p>\n
WNBA<\/p>\n
Silver said collective bargaining agreement negotiations with the WNBA player\u2019s association has reached an \u201cunfortunate\u201d stalemate between the teams and the players, especially considering how the ongoing commercial and public profile of women\u2019s basketball continues to rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been through so many cycles of collective bargaining, and often things tend to get done at the 11th hour,\u201d Silver said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting awfully close to the 11th hour when it comes to bargaining. I\u2019m encouraged. There has been more back and forth over the past few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
News services contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD \u2014 NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke for about 30 minutes during Saturday\u2019s All-Star Weekend media day, addressing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,11029,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,66,458],"class_list":{"0":"post-604260","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-intuit-dome","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-clippers","13":"tag-laclippers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesclippers","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116073710702479559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604260","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=604260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}