Did Steve Balmer pay Kawhi Leonard under the table?

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If the NBA doesn't punish the Clippers, I might be done.

This is such a blatant violation of the CBA and the salary cap. What is even the point of following the NBA if super wealthy owners can just do whatever the hell they want?
 
I look forward to Sharpe and Camara signing for the vet minimums.

I also look forward to Sharpe and Camara being each signed for $100 million as national spokespeople for Panda Express.

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I think the league will come down on the Clippers and more so on Clippers ownership pretty hard.

Something like the Clippers losing their FRPs in 2030, 2031 and 2032. They don't have any of their picks before then free and clear. Ballmer and the other owner that facilitated this being suspended for a year and probably fined in the neighborhood of 20M. Sadly I think there will be a beneficial "punitive" action taken and that's the rest of Kawhi's contract being voided.

I think the league has to put any trades involving the Clippers on hold until they conclude the investigation. I'll be very upset if the Clippers are allowed to trade a future FRP or Kawhi between now and when the league makes an announcement regarding their findings in this matter.
 
I just don't think Silver will do anything. maybe a "questions remain around integrity but no smoking guns..." No way billionaires are ever going to take a hit. nfw.
 
Cugel said:
I just don't think Silver will do anything. maybe a "questions remain around integrity but no smoking guns..." No way billionaires are ever going to take a hit. nfw.
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This take goes against precedent. There is only one example of this very thing (salary cap evading) in the modern NBA, Joe Smith and the Timberwolves. The league took 5 FRPs from them, fined the team several million dollars and suspended both the owner and the GM for a year. This Kawhi situation is easily worse than the Joe Smith violation.
 
blazerkor said:
This take goes against precedent. There is only one example of this very thing (salary cap evading) in the modern NBA, Joe Smith and the Timberwolves. The league took 5 FRPs from them, fined the team several million dollars and suspended both the owner and the GM for a year. This Kawhi situation is easily worse than the Joe Smith violation.
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I agree.
 
wizenheimer said:
generally, I can barely tolerate 10 minute videos, let alone one like this over an hour long...but....

I gave this a couple of minutes; then I gave it a couple more; then I pretty much watched the entire video/podcast. To start with, when this story broke I had never heard of Pablo Torre. The bones of the initial reporting was certainly interesting. But watching this it sure seems to me Torre is very credible. More than that is he's articulate and entertaining. It was a good show, and he's certainly constructed a very believable outline of a scandal

the circumstantial evidence presented in this podcast is compelling. More than that, the money trail timelines have way too many coincidences to actually be coincidences.

I'm cynical. It's always been a case in this country that the wealthy, connected, and powerful could usually dodge accountability for violating ethics, standards, rules and the law. But in MAGA world, there has never been a time when wealth and power have been less accountable. That has been super-charged so I'm expecting nothing but wrist-slaps for Ballmer, the Clippers, and Kawhi
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IMO, it's very suspicious how Mark Cuban is trying to explain this away and give Ballmer a pass. Makes me think this is more commonplace in the NBA than fans realize. And it sucks, because I like Mark Cuban as an owner/former owner. I felt he was good for the NBA and the fans.
 
blazerkor said:
This take goes against precedent. There is only one example of this very thing (salary cap evading) in the modern NBA, Joe Smith and the Timberwolves. The league took 5 FRPs from them, fined the team several million dollars and suspended both the owner and the GM for a year. This Kawhi situation is easily worse than the Joe Smith violation.
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Not to mention Stern basically blacked balled Portland for (alleged cap circumvent) with Dudleys deal and Sportsaction. In gaining an All Star Game.
 
blazerkor said:
I think the league will come down on the Clippers and more so on Clippers ownership pretty hard.

Something like the Clippers losing their FRPs in 2030, 2031 and 2032. They don't have any of their picks before then free and clear. Ballmer and the other owner that facilitated this being suspended for a year and probably fined in the neighborhood of 20M. Sadly I think there will be a beneficial "punitive" action taken and that's the rest of Kawhi's contract being voided.

I think the league has to put any trades involving the Clippers on hold until they conclude the investigation. I'll be very upset if the Clippers are allowed to trade a future FRP or Kawhi between now and when the league makes an announcement regarding their findings in this matter.
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The Clippers have multiple picks before then. Some of them are after swaps. The NBA could let the other team swap then just remove whatever resulting pick the Clippers have.
 
Cugel said:
I just don't think Silver will do anything. maybe a "questions remain around integrity but no smoking guns..." No way billionaires are ever going to take a hit. nfw.
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I'm not buying that. Many of the NBA owners are super jealous of Ballmer and will be happy to see him punished.

However they won't want something to set a precedent that could come back and hurt themselves. So they will want to do a punishment that can solely be applied to the Clippers but not to all the teams that give their stars private jets to use and vacation house, or plush jobs to their parents/family/friends/etc.

Can't imagine the Blazers letting a star's cousin have a job with the team he clearly doesn't deserve.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
The Clippers have multiple picks before then. Some of them are after swaps. The NBA could let the other team swap then just remove whatever resulting pick the Clippers have.
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That's a good point the league can do that and if they use the Wolves/Smith situation as precedent then they'll probably take those two picks that have swaps on them and the picks in 2030-32.

Also regarding your post above. This Clippers situation goes way beyond perks, seemingly. It's not employing a family member or letting a player use jets or beach houses, it was reportedly straight up paying the guy in cold hard cash with the cash of one of the owners laundered through a fraudulent company. That's as bad as this stuff could be.
 
blazerkor said:
This Clippers situation goes way beyond perks, seemingly. It's not employing a family member or letting a player use jets or beach houses, it was reportedly straight up paying the guy in cold hard cash with the cash of one of the owners laundered through a fraudulent company. That's as bad as this stuff could be.
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I don't disagree that the Clippers violation appears much worse.

Still I think you either have rules and enforce them or don't have these things against the rules. Giving a bunch of perks to stars is a blatant violation of the current CBA cap rules. There probably have been so many teams violating these that I'm not as worried about investigating all of those prior violations. But they should make very clear rules and expectations going forward - then go ahead with heavily punishments for all future violations.
 
THE HCP said:
Won’t be a decision til after the all star game? Word on street.
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SlyPokerDog said:
Because Clippers are hosting the ASG.
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THE HCP said:
Wow, didn’t even think of that.
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I'm not sure this is the best approach by the NBA if its true. If they just go ahead and get the investigation done within the next month, before the season starts send out the news release on a Friday at 8pm of the penalties, this will become totally old news and old history completely out of the news cycle once we get to February.

Having an ongoing investigation with unknown pending consequences will be a black cloud over the Clipper and the all-star game for the entire season. That will keep it heavily discussed with tons of allegations from favoritism to a wide ranging conspiracy.
 
The only penalties I see would be a large mega fine, and Leonard's contract voided after this year and becomes a free agent. Possibly two first and second round picks taken or flipped to other team automatically.
 
Yeah I like the idea of voiding Leonard contract after the season. Also no bird rights so they can't get value by trading him. Should be something done to the player to discourage and prevent that behavior. They voided Joe Smith deal so there is a precedent for doing that.
 
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