Kawhi and his camp definitely made the demands (allegedly), but I don’t see how you avoid causing bigger problems without hitting the team. Players might think twice depending on how hard they hit him, but you’re still putting big bags of money in front of the face of guys with a finite amount of years in their profession.

Does it make sense to be able to punish Kawhi without punishing the Clippers? 

Kawhi didn’t give money to himself

If you punish Kawhi isn’t that an admission that something illegal happened? And in that case, how do you also not punish Ballmer/the Clippers. Makes no sense.

To punish both Kawhi and Ballmer, he will be forced to play on a vet min for the lakers

Pelinka about to fall ass backwards into another star after his contract is voided

I’m not familiar with Kawakami - reliable? Unreliable? Affiliation with NBA/teams/players?

I can’t imagine this Subreddit’s outrage if the Clippers don’t get stripped any picks and Kawhi’s only punishment is that he gets to sign with the Lakers or Warriors for the rest of the season.

It’s hard to take rumors about this seriously. The nba and the clippers have kept everything pretty in house this whole time

Death, Taxes and Billionaires getting away with whatever the fuck they want.

Silver will give Kawhi to the Lakers, isn’t he?

Takes two to tango, both the Clippers and Kawhi were responsible.

that is kinda in line with my assumption, it’s going to be easier to punish kawhi than ballmer

Sure, Kawhi made the ridiculous demands so he should face some consequences, but Ballmer and company gave in to his ridiculousness demands. Just another case of a two tiered justice system.

What a cop out. Don’t want to piss off the richest owner in the league 

Kawhi getting to choose his destination next isn’t really a punishment lmao

I hope the Union hammers them, the Clippers are equally to blame. 

They need to come down hard on both the player and the team. Anything less and teams will keep doing shit like this and learn how to hide it better.

E.g. Clippers lose their rights to first round draft picks of any sort for the next five years. Kawhi’s Clippers contract is invalidated and he forfeits his pay for the year plus a fine in the high six figures at least.

They’ll have to revoke all the championships the clippers won with Kawhi.

it feels like the league was moving towards more players’ empowerment up until this season, next CBA negotiations are gonna be a war

I’ll believe when I see it.

Rumors rumors rumors

ill believe it when I see it

Why would it be wrong for Kawhi to ask? Isn’t it on the team to say no? Can’t we all ask for more and different compensation?

I thought this was America!?! It would be like punishing the user and not the dealer…. O wait

Players union gonna be all over this if it’s “Kawhi-centric” and not “Ballmer / Clippers-centric.”

free kawhi

That unprotected pick swap next year looking real nice.

Kawhi should be banned for life IMO. If they ban players for gambling, this seems much worse. Clippers should also be punished. Would be an absolute joke if they are not considering they are repeat offenders. I think they should lose draft picks and keep Kawhi’s contract on the book despite him not being able to play.

Worst case scenario NBA should bar him from joining another team imo it’s bullshit if they cut ties with lac but he’s able to play elsewhere

Punish the clippers by making them sign Kawhi to a super max for 10 years with a player option for years 11 and 12.

Clippers need to take the lions share of the punishment. They’re the ones who paid the money and knowingly circumvented the cap. Players ask for stuff all the time. It’s ok the party cutting the check to know the rules.

Fitting punishment is the Clippers should be required to sign him new a new 5 year supermax contract, and he will spend that 5 years as the public relations and social outreach executive for the franchise.

Kawhi’s punishment is to host a radio talk show with Chris Paul.

Void the contract. Suspend Kawhi for like 40 games. Fine clippers 2 mil. Take their next available 3 first rounders

They’re gonna punish Kawhi for the asks and NOT punish the clippers for the answers

Kawhi will probably be suspended for the rest of next season and next? While his contract is still on the books for the clippers. Ballmer will probably also be fined.

Kawhi back on mle yessir

prediction: this will end up with the lakers getting both kawhi (and separately, luka) for pennies

All of the clippers picks should be split between the spurs and raptors. Unbiased opinion here

Kawhi you don’t even need to move dawg lol

Dude is gonna get the Kapernick treatment.

And probably some back-room conversation with Ballmer and the other owners about what is okay and what is not.

Silver saw NFL ratings and is going to unleash Kawhi free agent drama 

Terminating his contract and ending up on the Lakers mid season is just the type of drama the NBA needs

If they lowered Kawhi’s contract this would actually help the Clippers

Joe Smith penalty was voided Smith’s contracts, fined the team \(3.5 million, and stripped them of five first-round draft picks (two were later returned).)......I'd expect a similar penalty to Kawhi & the Clippers....\)3.5 million in todays money is about $6.6 million

If the clippers don’t get as penalized as Kawhi himself then Ballmer and the front office have the thinnest level of alibi possible and the league couldn’t find a way around it to “proof”.

Cuz even if it’s not totally true the Silver era reputation has been built entirely around being player first so I doubt he’d settle for slamming a player and not an owner if he could avoid it

So he’ll make the demands and get them from the team but the team will not be the focus?

Truly believe the reason Clips got rid of Harden and Zubac is because they know consequences are coming.

In a just world Kawhi should be banned from the league for this and the Clips should face huge consequences as well. This kind of shit cannot be allowed to go unpunished, if it’s not then the league is a total sham. 

I think Kawhi could get outright banned from three league. And the Clippers will get a fine and perhaps a pick removed.

Laker

If players think what Kawhi got is on the menu for everyone, the entire salary cap system crumbles. Teams can police themselves to a greater degree.

Void the contract

Spurs fans getting that pack ready… 🚬

APOLOGIZE TO JAMES HARDEN

No way. The Clippers circumvented the salary cap. How can the NBA just punish the player?

Who’s paying who here? What a joke lmao

Let Kawhi become a free agent that’ll show him!

Sure lets make the picks to OKC even more valuable.

Keep losing clips.

How is kawhi the responsible party here? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him taking an endorsement deal, and the amount of work he did is irrelevant too. The only thing that’s unethical here is the money coming from the clippers to pay for the contract. How can you hold Kawhi accountable for that? Even if the whole scam was his idea, which is not the case, the Clippers committed the crime.

If you want to come after Kawhi for knowing about it, you have to primarily punish the clippers for actually doing it.

Clippers keep cap hold, Leonard forcibly waived and picks destination.

I find it extremely hard to believe that Adam Silver unilaterally put Kawhi in the All-Star Game and then three weeks later is going to void his contract and/or suspend him

how is it going to be all on kawhi and not all on the clippers? kawhi can demand whatever the fuck he wants but its the clippers that broke the rules by circumventing the cap no?

What did kawhi do?

Im gonna have to make a Collage of my comments about him being suspended to close to a year in the NBA is what it will cost him because the Punishment has to be more severe than the amount of money he was paid under the table. So Mark my words 82 game SUSPENSION INC!

this is why Zubac and Harden left because they knew the punishment hammer was coming.

Leonard playing out of his mind because he also knows hes gonna be out for a year.

All I see is another Billionaire running away from his own problems that he created and having someone else take the fall for it. I’m sick of this game already 😒

Adam Silver is beholden to the owners. It’s no surprise that he would choose to penalize the player and not the owner.

Eat the rich, punish both sides… both are guilty

Whatttt the league would rather come down hard on one of the players instead of the richest owner in the sport?? I’m shocked

The Fall of Silver has started and it is already ugly

I get that superstar players are basically underpaid compared to the value they bring to organizations, but come on man. You’re signing a contract for hundreds of millions- on top of the hundreds of millions you already made- and you need a little extra on the side?

I think their is kawhi buzz because the clipps being hammered was a given. People just surprised kawhi gonna get filleted too.

This came across as pure speculation and just him riffing off what others have said. Even said “don’t aggregate this” like 2-3 times and that he doesn’t really know

Some other guy reported that the chatter during recess is that we’re getting the NBA HAMMER.

Now during lunch some other kids said we’re getting away with it.

There’s just no reason to live and die by every report.

Uncle Dennis about to be banned from all 30 Arenas

Kawhi didn’t negotiate his contract by himself. The Clippers owner should be held equally liable.

Void Kawhi’s contract, $20 million dollar fine to the clippers, and forfeiture of draft picks until a certain year?

Only thing is, Kawhis contract at a prorated forfeiture doesn’t really ding him too much- he can just sign with another team and probably has one more near max 3 year deal.

Kawhi might get stuck with a year ban

Need to hit them hard. Kawhi banned and clippers fined a bunch, lose a bunch of draft picks and have to keep kawhi’s salary on the books. His salary should go to me also imo.

Balmer “started it” so they should come down hardest on him. With elites like this, the minnow is only worth a couple hundred million and will be the guy that takes the fall.

So be it !!! We want consequences!!

I swear to god the LA team is about to get a slap on the wrist while the Timberwolves were put in basketball purgatory. I hate this.

He couldn’t plant one tree a month and tweet!?

Hopefully the players union pressures the league into holding the owner equally, if not more, responsible.

There’s also the potential for Kawhi to disclose other things the Clippers did that the league isn’t aware of yet.

Punish the player but not the owner? This won’t end well.

Everyone called me a shill when I predicted this very thing at the beginning. There is ample proof Kawhi found a way to circumvent the salary cap. The evidence against Ballmer isn’t reliable. Low level employees “saying” it had to be about the NBA salary cap doesn’t mean shit. They either know it or they don’t. You need actual evidence to punish Ballmer or he will take it to court and simply win an easy court case.

Kawhi accepting an endorsement contract for basically zero work is itself a smoking gun against him.

If they void his contract I doubt that means he can sign with any teams 

Prob means he is suspended till the end of the contract which I would highly doubt that Silver has the guts to do 

I’m firmly a believer that the Clippers should be punished at the highest level possible. But it seems every team is doing this and they don’t want to open that bag of worms.

It seems logically impossible to punish Kawhi but not the Clippers. Kawhi didn’t get the money from himself nor did he victimize the team.