I would image small violations happen pretty frequently. I think what’s happening with the Clippers right now is a one of one as far as the dollar amount, the shell company, etc…

I think it happens, but I also think it’s a lot more of the “here’s a shiny new car”, “here’s a 300K house for your parents/siblings/relatives”, “oh your relatives have bills or debts to pay? Well they don’t anymore.” Basically, the value of the perks would be more in the under 500K range, or under a million maximum.

E: I’d expect those kind of non-cash perks to be way more common than direct money transfers, as well.

That’s what makes Kawhi’s cap circumvention so notable, this isn’t some (relatively) small perk to make the player and his family happy, this is 48 million dollars paid directly to Kawhi, and more specifically, this is money that would/should have gone to the other owners via the Luxury Tax system that the non-Luxury Tax owners were cheated out of.

Just got shouted down in another thread for saying this. Yes, I think it goes on. Investigate Mark Cuban’s deals with Dirk ASAP. 

Jalen Brunson to the Knicks

I think that there are events which fall into cap circumvention that are ignored, like players getting invited onto the owner’s private plane or family members getting hired by the team as assistants instead of other equally qualified people. I think that what Kawhi and the Clippers are accused of is not common practice.

It’s standard practice clippers just stupid enough to get caught.

It’s usually Nike shoe contracts that subsidize the salary of a lot of star players.

Yeah I think it happens for sure. For a long ass time. In all sports. For good players, bad players, and everything in between

Kawhi’s certainly not the first instance but I think it’s pretty rare

The entire history of major North American sports is mostly owners not wanting to spend a penny more than they absolutely have to

Yes.

But I think it’s things like houses to live in, women, expensive dinners, sponsorships that are mutually beneficial (ie I’ll encourage this company to sign you for a legitimate (but generous) marketing deal). You can buy into a business at a smaller stake than we’d normally let you (for the going rate). If you’re interested, you can get a job with the org after retiring… It”ll pay well, but you will be expected to work (shoot arounds, mentor young guys, watch tape with them, workout with them, relay coach messages in player speak, help keep guys out of trouble)

I think the above is pretty common/expected, but blowing magnitudes past is the issue.

Example:

Boss doesn’t mind when people don’t clock out to use the bathroom. Boss gets royally pissed when Steve takes a 2 hour dump every afternoon.

I absolutely think cap circumvention has been happening for decades.

I think nobody cares enough to stop it. As long as low revenue teams get their paycheck, they’re happy. High revenue teams obviously, won’t expose the cap circumvention. The NBA itself doesn’t want to cause problems where none exists.

i’d be willing to bet it’s relatively common for lower tier players, particularly vets that are trying to get on a playoff team that “only has a minimum salary to offer”.

I don’t think it’s widespread but I do think it’s a possibility. But teams aren’t looking to pay their guys more, so it’s not like they can make these deals all around. I’d look at stars that took way below market value. Brunson comes to mind as does Dirk back in the day. Duncan maybe but he also probably just did the loyalty thing anyway.

I would’ve said Miami with Lebron, Wade and Bosh, then I remembered Wade left in 16’ cuz he wasn’t getting paid enough. Pat Riley wasn’t with the shit. 😂

There has been a lot of talk on recent podcasts where people in the business say things like “this isn’t typical perks like using the company jet or free luxury apartments….” It seems there is a lot of stuff that easily falls under cap circumvention and is so common people just casually chat about it as though it’s nothing. So yes, it seems like it’s probably very common.

It feels a lot like getting caught was the crime, so to speak.

I believe it happens all the time on a small scale, and its why all the other owners are so mad at Ballmer for doing such a large amount and making it so obvious that it happens.

Like owners definitely give their players and the players’ family benefits - free tickets, free food, jobs within the organization or at companies they have business ties to. Nobody really cares because it’s probably a few million here or there and wouldn’t ever get exposed.

But giving $28M for a no-show job at a scam company when all the documents come out in court is a terrible look.

An analogous situation is the Tim Donaghy situation where everyone knew it was probably happening here and there, Donaghy got reckless, and the officials needed on person to take all the blame and everyone pretended it was in a vacuum. This type of behavior is rarely in a vacuum and is much indicative of the general culture

Big three heat. I love Lebron, but I would start here. They all took a discount

Brunson, anyone who gives a team friendly deal.

Definitely Cuban.

Daryl Morey

Does it happen? Sure but I don’t believe it’s as rampant as some may believe. Truth likely lies somewhere in the middle.

Do some teams do it? Probably but not as many as you would think.

Why do ppl keep bringing up Cuban and dirk. Neither are in the league anymore. Pick something current

Some of the talking heads have talked about it before.  There are private jet trips provided to star players and even promises of sponsorship deals in certain cities.

The two things that are unusual and egregious about the Kawhi are the scale of the deal($48 million is a LOT of money, even for NBA owners) and the fact that the sponsorship deal was a no-show deal without even plausible deniability.  I really doubt that many of these NBA players are getting things that can be measured in tens of millions of dollars.  

I don’t think it happens this way very often. I think it often happens where a player does something team friendly for a promise of back end years on another deal, or some kind of post retirement job with the team.

I don’t think the vast majority of owners have any interest in paying players off the books, out of their own pockets. I think people also underestimate how pissed the other owners probably are about this, because of that.

I think small violations happen, but I really don’t think there’s so extensive history of corruption going on. There may be some stuff that’s in a grey area or technically ok but feels wrong.

To anybody that says “this happens all the time” in relation to this level of cap circumvention is just insanely pessimistic. I can’t say for sure there are wrong, but it would be shocking.

Is the Brunson contract suspect? Yes. Was Dirk suspect? Yes.

I would say I think cap circumvention happens exactly as often as I think it does

Who willingly signs to play for the Hornets? I mean Ik the area is nice if you have money but still

I don’t know if it happens, but from my totally unbiased perspective, I think the Celtics should be investigated. Please ignore my flair.

I think the NBA should just have 1 player on each team who is exempt from the cap. So they can pay the best player what they are worth while still having to manage a cap

I mean, of course. Lol.

And if Kawhi had delivered a title to the Clippers, we’d NEVER be hearing about this.