[Amick] In the weeks leading up to Ballmer’s big bash, there was a significant upswing in league-wide speculation that the NBA’s hammer is likely to fall on the Clippers.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7057133/2026/02/19/nba-intel-tanking-giannis-clippers-lebron/
In the weeks leading up to Ballmer’s big bash, there was a significant upswing in league-wide speculation that the NBA’s hammer is likely to fall on the Clippers. This was a noticeable shift from earlier in the season, when so many seemed to believe that the Leonard/Aspiration scandal might come and go without any substantive punishment being handed down. #
That last part about the timing of it all is worth unpacking, as there has been chatter among rival teams for months now that the league was delaying its announcement for the sake of salvaging All-Star Weekend.