Did Steve Balmer pay Kawhi Leonard under the table?

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We should start a GoFundMe for Kawhi not to play this season.
 
Apparently a lot of other teams are watching this closely. If there is no "real" penalty (significant fines, multiple FRP losses), other teams may use this as a way to circumvent the salary cap as well.

Look! Sharpe just signed a five year/50 million contract. Behind the scenes, he is also collecting money elsewhere. Salary cap problems? Not here!

Either Silver has a backbone or he is a symbolic patsy with no guts and no vision.
 
GrandpaBlaze said:
Apparently a lot of other teams are watching this closely. If there is no "real" penalty (significant fines, multiple FRP losses), other teams may use this as a way to circumvent the salary cap as well.

Look! Sharpe just signed a five year/50 million contract. Behind the scenes, he is also collecting money elsewhere. Salary cap problems? Not here!

Either Silver has a backbone or he is a symbolic patsy with no guts and no vision.
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You might be right but I sure hope we don't try some shit. A lot of times the first person to break a rule doesn't get caught or if they do doesn't get punished but if the NBA doesn't find anything actionable. I would feel safer assuming that they'll be watching close enough to get the next team than thinking they just don't have a spine.
 
Bill Simmons with an interesting theory, what if Kawhi never knew about this?

The idea is it was 100% setup from his side only with his uncle Dennis. That explains why it was so critical it was a completely no show deal instead of some thing he does a 1hour TV ad or takes some pictures or whatever.
 
GrandpaBlaze said:
Apparently a lot of other teams are watching this closely. If there is no "real" penalty (significant fines, multiple FRP losses), other teams may use this as a way to circumvent the salary cap as well.

Look! Sharpe just signed a five year/50 million contract. Behind the scenes, he is also collecting money elsewhere. Salary cap problems? Not here!

Either Silver has a backbone or he is a symbolic patsy with no guts and no vision.
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Silver doesn't have or not have a backbone, his role is a spokesperson for the owners.

So whatever punishment does or does not happens will not be something the owners are sitting back and taking note of. It will be whatever the owners decide they want to have happen.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Bill Simmons with an interesting theory, what if Kawhi never knew about this?

The idea is it was 100% setup from his side only with his uncle Dennis. That explains why it was so critical it was a completely no show deal instead of some thing he does a 1hour TV ad or takes some pictures or whatever.
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Do you not subscribe to the numbers of how many games he missed when his payments were late?
 
Natebishop3 said:
Do you not subscribe to the numbers of how many games he missed when his payments were late?
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I don't subscribe to any of these, theyre all a bunch of possibly true possibly false theories. Maybe Kawhi didn't know about any of it or maybe he setup the whole thing, I don't know.

Kawhi missing a bunch of games isn't some unusual event. The guy has missed massive games every season and most playoffs back to his final Spurs days.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Bill Simmons with an interesting theory, what if Kawhi never knew about this?

The idea is it was 100% setup from his side only with his uncle Dennis. That explains why it was so critical it was a completely no show deal instead of some thing he does a 1hour TV ad or takes some pictures or whatever.
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lol...Kawhi never noticed being paid 28M dollars?
 
BIG Q said:
Didn't he set up an LLC to receive the payments? If so, he knew. But of course he knew, what, he thought $28 mil was manna from the sky?
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He might have owned the LLC but that doesn't mean he set it up. People create LLC for other owners all the time.

Even if he setup the LLC or knew of it doesn't mean he knew about this contract with it either. Dennis or whoever could have had authority to enter all those agreements with the LLC.
 
wizenheimer said:
lol...Kawhi never noticed being paid 28M dollars?
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Do we even know any of that money ultimately went to Kawhi personally? The entity that had an agreement with Aspiration was "KL2 Aspire LLC" of which it was reported, yes Kawhi was reported as an owner but that doesn't mean he saw or noticed the money moving around.

Ultimately I believe Kawhi is responsible for the actions of his reps including uncle Dennis. So he should be on the hot seat regardless. I'm not saying for sure Kawhi didn't know - just that it is an interesting theory and would explain some of the oddities with this situation as well as the history of violations his uncle Dennis took.
 
Here's the filing with CA SOS - so they did it on legal zoom

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Looks like they got a new registered agent this year;

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SharpesTriumph said:
He might have owned the LLC but that doesn't mean he set it up. People create LLC for other owners all the time.

Even if he setup the LLC or knew of it doesn't mean he knew about this contract with it either. Dennis or whoever could have had authority to enter all those agreements with the LLC.
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I'm curious how one sets up an LLC for another person that benefits the other person without the other person's knowledge?
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Do we even know any of that money ultimately went to Kawhi personally? The entity that had an agreement with Aspiration was "KL2 Aspire LLC" of which it was reported, yes Kawhi was reported as an owner but that doesn't mean he saw or noticed the money moving around.

Ultimately I believe Kawhi is responsible for the actions of his reps including uncle Dennis. So he should be on the hot seat regardless. I'm not saying for sure Kawhi didn't know - just that it is an interesting theory and would explain some of the oddities with this situation as well as the history of violations his uncle Dennis took.
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I don't care. Seriously. I don't care. This sets such a horrible precedent that everyone involved should be buried so that nobody ever even thinks about doing this again. Otherwise what's the point? This could kill the league.

Ban Kawhi.
Decimate the Clippers.
 
Then there was this filing last month.

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SharpesTriumph said:
The simplest legal way would be if Dennis or reps had a POA from Kawhi.
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Even so, you cannot convince me that anyone, no matter how wealthy, is not kept apprised of what their money manager is doing with their money, especially when a mysterious 28 million dollars shows up out of nowhere.
 
Natebishop3 said:
I don't care. Seriously. I don't care. This sets such a horrible precedent that everyone involved should be buried so that nobody ever even thinks about doing this again. Otherwise what's the point? This could kill the league.

Ban Kawhi.
Decimate the Clippers.
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The money had to go somewhere and there should be records of that so if I'm the league thats one of the first things I look deeply into. Follow the money.
 
BBert said:
Even so, you cannot convince me that anyone, no matter how wealthy, is not kept apprised of what their money manager is doing with their money, especially when a mysterious 28 million dollars shows up out of nowhere.
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Plenty of wealthy people trust their wife or family or such to manage their money. Does Kawhi have his uncle Dennis do that? I have no idea.

Kawhi has $426 million of NBA earnings - not counting this $28 million or other endorsements. So yes $28 million is a ton - but maybe its just over in a big bucket of other investments that Dennis or others closely manage and Kawhi doesn't closely follow.
 
BBert said:
Even so, you cannot convince me that anyone, no matter how wealthy, is not kept apprised of what their money manager is doing with their money, especially when a mysterious 28 million dollars shows up out of nowhere.
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The thing is if the money just stayed in KL2 Asppire LLC or went to other investments then Kawhi might never have seen any of it. He wouldn't have noticed it showed up.

As long as Dennis wasn't stealing the money or such technically he may not have even done anything wrong (from a legal criminal perspective). Obviously this is all an NBA cap violation.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Plenty of wealthy people trust their wife or family or such to manage their money. Does Kawhi have his uncle Dennis do that? I have no idea.

Kawhi has $426 million of NBA earnings - not counting this $28 million or other endorsements. So yes $28 million is a ton - but maybe its just over in a big bucket of other investments that Dennis or others closely manage and Kawhi doesn't closely follow.
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This argument doesn't work in a court of law. The "I didn't know what my underlings were doing" excuse doesn't play. They need to know. That's on them. He's the boss. I also don't buy it anyway, but regardless..... I don't believe that Kawhi was in the dark here. Especially because he was asking the Raptors for the same kind of deal.
 
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