Did Steve Balmer pay Kawhi Leonard under the table?

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blazerfan11

blazerfan11

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https://sports.yahoo.com/article/alleged-kawhi-leonard-clippers-scheme-142640804.html (article link)

Alleged Kawhi Leonard / Clippers scheme could put the team into the dark ages

The Clippers are about to be in very, very hot water — assuming new allegations against the organization are true. Investigative reporter Pablo Torre claims the team has been involved in a shell corporation scheme which has been paying superstar Kawhi Leonard under the table, and more importantly off of the salary cap for years.
 
All he had to do was make a couple appearances or posts and couldn’t even do that.
My peeps in Toronto told me all this shit they did for him that he required if they expected him to re-sign. Hired his brother and cousin to simply travel with him on the team plane and hang with him. When no other non team personal could. Whole bunch of other shit too.
 
Honestly, I miss our Microsoft billionaire who would try anything and everything to get around the NBA salary cap during the Trader Bob years.

RIP Mr Allen.
 
A tree company paying 7 million endorsement? I tend to think it might have been more of an oversight than actually trying to fraudulently go around the cap.

Kawhi career NBA earnings (without endorsements) are 426 million.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Honestly, I miss our Microsoft billionaire who would try anything and everything to get around the NBA salary cap during the Trader Bob years.

RIP Mr Allen.
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Thus no all star game for portland.....
 
Not that Kawhi Leonard hasn't been entirely overrated from the moment he joined the league. He just picked up that protective coating of Spurs/Pops dust that couldn't last forever........stumbling into a ring with Toronto only prolonged the delusion. A physically and emotionally fragile guy who could never deliver on what his obvious talent promised. I can't say that I am the least bit surprised......
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Honestly, I miss our Microsoft billionaire who would try anything and everything to get around the NBA salary cap during the Trader Bob years.

RIP Mr Allen.
Click to expand...
Wasn't Uncle Paul a big reason they adopted the cap?
 
If this happened, the penalties should be very very severe, both for Balmer and Leonard.

You've got and owner and a player who are effectively saying " screw the salary cap. "
 
What are the odds that the employee who admitted that they intentionally tried to circumvent the salary cap will get a big raise and change his story? I bet they give Balmer a slap on the wrist and tighten the rule up a bit. It is absolutely ridiculous that a player receives money from any of an owner's investments, other than just his salary.
 
Wouldn't be first time Adam Silver's hammer came down on Clippers head.
 
I’m sure every owner does this but he just happen to be caught
 
blazerfan11 said:
If this happened, the penalties should be very very severe, both for Balmer and Leonard.

You've got and owner and a player who are effectively saying " screw the salary cap. "
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I don't think the player needs any penalty. How would he know who owns various endorsement companies? Legally he's just a vendor and in an agreement with that company. Many players have little business or legal acumen. As individuals they don't need to do that due diligence.

It should 100% be a massive penalty against the Clippers though. Balmer as an owner is required to validate entities he controls don't pay players outside the salary cap. The Clippers have plenty of attorneys and accountants to ensure this doesn't happen.

Does make me wonder how many other times something similar has happened? Let's say it's an investment in Russia or China - I don't think this would ever get leaked or reported. Could easily have two shell companies with an owner and player sending massive cash or assets one way.

If this reporting is true it's almost more surprising there wasn't more done to conceal the activities or have it go through another intermediary before getting to Kawhi. It's such a blatant circumvention of the cap.
 
It will surprise me if the NBA does anything about this. It opens them to investigations (potentially) of all the other times this kind of shit has happened. And you can't tell me it hasn't happened before.

like with Luka taking a pay cut to play in LA...
 
I wonder how often this happens.

I mean Dame was a Biofreeze spokesman suddenly and Biofreeze logos ended up on the jerseys and the court.
 
julius said:
It will surprise me if the NBA does anything about this. It opens them to investigations (potentially) of all the other times this kind of shit has happened. And you can't tell me it hasn't happened before.

like with Luka taking a pay cut to play in LA...
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I'd be shocked if the NBA doesn't do something. When the TWolves got caught they lost a bunch of picks.

The reporting seems crazy if true though. Id have thought Balmer would setup something much more elaborate with multiple businesses and shell companies so at the least they could claim it was a mistake. We'll have to see what the final reports on this show.
 
We live in a multi-tier'ed system of rules. One set of rules for us plebs, another, far less stringent set of rules for the millionaires, and practically no rules for the billionaires. I doubt the Clippers themselves will see any repercussions, as I'm sure every team in the league has side deals like this with players and coaches and don't want that can of worms opened. Leonard may see some financial hits, but probably only couch-change levels for his income bracket.
 
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