d3pthchar93 | Supersonics

1562 | 8 hours ago

If the investigation appears to be working for Ballmer, the only conclusion is that Ballmer (the wealthiest owner) essentially owns the NBA.

crocofour | 76ers

422 | 8 hours ago

I mean yea he owns 1/30th of the nba

Pickleskennedy1

707 | 8 hours ago

But he’s also about as wealthy as the other 29 owners combined. He seems to have correctly guessed that he’s above the rules

natigin | Bulls

465 | 8 hours ago

And still can’t win. It’s pretty hilarious.

Pickleskennedy1

387 | 8 hours ago

That’s easily the funniest part. They went so far out of their way to cheat so blatantly, and not only did they not win, they weren’t all that close

DazzlingAd1922

216 | 8 hours ago

I mean Ballmer is responsible for at least one championship…in OKC

Gristle__McThornbody | Lakers

29 | 5 hours ago

And he essentially owns the NBA so he basically has one championship.

West_Walrus_3602 | Thunder

11 | 5 hours ago

Wow turns out Aspiration did nothing wrong when you you put it like that

DazzlingAd1922

10 | 4 hours ago

Planting championship trees in the Oklahoma desert.

Nihilist_Nautilus | Bucks

26 | 8 hours ago

I believe in sports curses & karma

Ittenvoid | Spurs

14 | 5 hours ago

Okc wouldn’t have a championship if karma was real without Seattle getting the sonics back first

Nihilist_Nautilus | Bucks

4 | 4 hours ago

They had KD and watched him join a dynasty

fisheggsoup | Jazz

7 | 4 hours ago

But in the end, they won before Seattle even got its team back.

Str82daDOME25 | Warriors

25 | 7 hours ago

Is it so blatantly? Had the company used as the middleman not been a total scam going through lawsuits would any of this be known?

Pickleskennedy1

33 | 7 hours ago

That’s a fair point. Blatantly is probably the wrong word, but from some of Pablo’s other reporting they’ve been paying Kawhi indirectly starting in 2017 at the latest

fairlife42g

20 | 7 hours ago

Ballmer was caught tampering before with Deandre Jordan, and they sent the GM to attend Raptors games. That’s pretty blatant.

bwrca

4 | 6 hours ago

If I were him I’d tell the OKC owners: straight team swap plus I add 3B on top. You sign that deal before even the papers settle on the table.

EastonMetsGuy | Charlotte Bobcats

20 | 7 hours ago

All this cheating to not even make a finals is hilarious

welmoe | Lakers

7 | 6 hours ago

Just Clipper things

mug3n | Raptors

14 | 7 hours ago

1 WCF in the entire Kawhi/PG13 era. Big oof.

ZieMac7 | Raptors

3 | 3 hours ago

1 WCF in the entire history of the franchise

Fixed for ya. Absolute poverty franchise

North_Atlantic_Sea

28 | 7 hours ago

He’s about the size of the 15 smallest owners. A lot, but nowhere near the other 29 combined.

marineman43

2 | 3 hours ago

Ballmer isn’t even that fat /s

crocofour | 76ers

13 | 8 hours ago

Oh for sure but I think pretty much any owner is above the rules so long as it doesn’t upset other owners and star players. I could have missed it but I haven’t seen any players and or owners talk about this scandal and I think it goes to show 1. Owners don’t want their richest partner ousted from the league and 2. Players don’t really care and would probably agree to the same deal as kawhi if given the opportunity

Pickleskennedy1

19 | 8 hours ago

Different commissioner, but the NBA came down hard on the Wolves for less significant infractions when KG was playing. If it were a smaller market and a less wealthy and influential owner I don’t think the NBA would find it nearly as difficult to make an example out of it

yeyiyeyiyo | Pacers

20 | 8 hours ago

Absolutely shocking that money makes people immune from consequences. Not here in the United States, that would never happen here, with our rule of law and freedom and whatnot.

Ok_Hornet_714

4 | 7 hours ago

Part of the reason the NBA came down so hard on the Joe Smith deal is because the agreement was written down; there was no way to argue that it wasn’t anything other than a way to circumvent the cap.

Up until yesterday, you could try to argue (as Mark Cuban tried) that the payments lining up how that did due to circumstances because that is how quarterly payments line up, or that it being known in the office as a way to circumvent the way was just office gossip.

However with it explicitly listed as part of a federal whistleblower case it becomes much harder to argue that it was anything other than what Pablo has been saying for a year. Now we have even more documentary evidence to support this claim.

afrothundah11

4 | 6 hours ago

That was when we had a real commissioner, the head of gambling doesn’t have time in his day to uphold integrity of the league or improve fan experience.

crocofour | 76ers

3 | 8 hours ago

You might be right and I think it’s hard to compare. The political, economic, and legal climates are so twisted now that it wouldn’t surprise me to see the same lack of punishment with a smaller team/owner. Maybe I was just young and ignorant back then but I have zero trust in the nba to do the right thing

PonchoHung | Rockets

10 | 6 hours ago

The original fact is that he’s rich enough to own all the other teams combined, which has often been misinterpreted into what you’re saying.

DyslexicAutronomer | Supersonics

5 | 7 hours ago

No doubt Ballmer gets special treatment compared to any other owner.

We are taught to worship the wealthy here in the US.

That’s why no one is expecting this rigged nba system to fix itself.

tangential_quip | Lakers

3 | 3 hours ago

What do you think his money buys? The NBA make 11-12 billion annually. What ever happens to the Clippers, the NBA will be ok.

Miserable_Archer_769

26 | 8 hours ago

Yeah but actually Ballmer essentially has more money than all the owners combined almost which is insane.

North_Atlantic_Sea

7 | 7 hours ago

No he doesn’t, the next 5 largest owners have more than him combined.

He’s about the lowest 15 owners combined

Miserable_Archer_769

17 | 7 hours ago

Lol based on what he has over 130 billion and the second place is Dan Gilbert on any research and he has about 20 billion

paddiction | SAS

66 | 7 hours ago

Just FYI, Ballmer is paying for this investigation himself. So the lawyers investigating Ballmer are working for him.

TotalEmployment9996 | Raptors

15 | 6 hours ago

Wait what? That’s wild. Source?

RansomGoddard | NBA

35 | 6 hours ago

The source is that Ballmer is the chairman of the NBA’s audit committee which deals with league finances. He’s not actually literally paying Wachtell out of his own pocket.

lifeguarder09

46 | 6 hours ago

Correction, if you watch the episode David mentioned that it’s standard procedure that any team, wheither its the nba, nfl, mlb, that’s being investigated, foots the bill for the investigation. It’s literally written in the agreement of being a part of a major league team.

RansomGoddard | NBA

7 | 5 hours ago

The accusation as I understood it comes from Ballmer being on the audit committee.

Fee allocation agreements aren’t uncommon but this really isn’t the same thing as someone paying for an investigation so as to create a conflict of interest in the investigation as people are insinuating.

With that said, I can’t find anything in the NBA Constitution and By-Laws that states members who are being investigated have to foot the bill. Anything like that, if it exists, would probably be stated in the Wachtell engagement letter.

jason2354

5 | 6 hours ago

I’m sure he’s not leading the audit committee on this specific issue.

JoeBiden2020FTW | Lakers

7 | 4 hours ago

He’s literally paying Wachtell out of his own pocket

Source: 31:25 min mark

JoeBiden2020FTW | Lakers

31 | 4 hours ago

Source: 31:25 min mark

They seem to be insinuating that Ballmer is tacitly letting Wachtell bill unlimited hours. So they know that if they don’t piss him off, they can basically make millions of extra dollars.

ObviousAnswerGuy | NYK

9 | 3 hours ago

what a scam lol

BillyBean11111 | San Francisco Warriors

6 | 5 hours ago

Think about the corruption that’s happening at the government levels, now imagine what’s happening behind the scenes in a sports league.

cleo22270 | Heat

814 | 8 hours ago

These sources tell me that it feels like the NBA is “Paying to borrow someone else’s letterhead”

Not_Different | Hornets

508 | 8 hours ago

Same thing they do with Ernst & Young “certifying the lottery”

This shit is all fake af

Catch11

103 | 8 hours ago

lol I’m glad you know this. It’s shocking when you find out how corrupt Ernst & Young is

Darnell2070 | United States

57 | 5 hours ago

“I’m glad you know this thing that totally isn’t just my opinion and not fact and I have absolutely no proof of”

paddiction | SAS

90 | 7 hours ago

If the lottery is fake, why do teams tank?

longagofaraway | Celtics

106 | 5 hours ago

there’s a difference between - every single out come is scripted (wwe) and we tip the scales at key moments (nba)

Spare-Friendship-917 | Spurs

34 | 5 hours ago

My question to you then is how? I looked into it and it would be pretty hard/risky to do it in today’s day and age but if you have an oceans 11 plan you’d like to share I’d love to hear it

SipJaint | United States

32 | 4 hours ago

These people are idiots. The Mavs lost a 3 point game to the bulls that prevented them from making the play-in and got them into the lottery. The Mavs had a 13 point lead at halftime.

So we think the league shadow collective called down at halftime and told them to ease up to ensure a lottery chance? Dumb.

mangabalanga | Thunder

18 | 3 hours ago

No. This is just as dumb a counter argument as pretending the league injured Kyrie, or that they orchestrated the Luka deal in the first place. The conspiracy is that once the Mavs were in the lottery, the league saw what was happening to one of their upper-echelon market teams (namely fans turning on ownership, canceling season tickets, actively protesting outside and inside the arena) and then rigged it for them to keep the team afloat. I’m sure there are people that believe there was some “Now You See Me” style mishegas, but like that movie, those people are dumb.

Spare-Friendship-917 | Spurs

13 | 4 hours ago

Not just that but that gave them the chance at the coin flip to get flagg. If Giddey doesn’t sink that half court game winner against the Lakers Flagg is a bull rn

thisisjustascreename | Bulls

6 | 4 hours ago

Worth it for the look on LeBron’s face.

Only somewhat /s

Kdog122025 | Warriors

4 | 3 hours ago

No one said it had to be this past first overall pick that the Mavericks got. It just happened to be.

Thasauce7777

15 | 4 hours ago

I think it’s very unlikely the lottery is rigged in any way. However, if the people that put the systems in place are the same ones saying they’re invulnerable to tampering, they are either fools, trying to make a sale, or full of shit. There is no system created by people that is impervious to being gamed, and to a greater extent, being tampered with. This includes systems that have apparent degrees of separation between the human inputs and random outcomes.

To reiterate, I don’t think the lottery is rigged, but I also don’t trust how confident they are in a system until they acknowledge that system’s weaknesses. This acknowledgement may exist, but I’ve never seen the it, and I get why they wouldn’t go that route even though I think they crossed the line of needing to address the systems vulnerabilities a long time ago.

All that being said, if nothing happens with the Clippers investigation, I don’t see how we could take the Ernst & Young audit on the lottery at face value AT ALL. Even if it’s just the perspective that the NBA is too full hardy to understand their lottery system is more vulnerable than they think.

I obviously don’t work in the NBA, but I often work with very secure systems that have very clear degrees of separation that I mention above, and engineering principles are really the same across all industries in the sense of assessing how the system could be broken is critical part of engineering the system. Much more than one person will be aware of that knowledge.

attainwealthswiftly

9 | 3 hours ago

I dunno, but getting 3 top 4 picks 3 years in a row is pretty crazy.

Then-Gur-4519 | Bulls

5 | 4 hours ago

Even if you have the worst record and get “unlucky,” the 5th pick is a lot better than the 14th

bronet

2 | 4 hours ago

Because the teams are smarter than random r/nba conspiracy theorists

KontraEpsilon

89 | 8 hours ago

And here is where it goes off the rails - you can literally watch the lottery, for yourself. And every team has representatives watching it, too. And reporters are also in there.

StatusVoice2634 | Knicks

32 | 6 hours ago

Holy shit this has to be astro turfed. Or has society become so brain rotted that people actually think the lottery was rigged

Spike_der_Spiegel | Raptors

46 | 6 hours ago

there’s a certain sort of person for whom reflexive, maximalist cynicism is an appropriate substitute for actual knowledge or thoughtful conssideration

xXEliteEater500Xx

16 | 5 hours ago

Too many users on here are willing to jump to rigged and conspiracy nonsense.

SugarFreeCummiBears

12 | 5 hours ago

Crazy how Mavs planned on Kyrie tearing his ACL, so that they could qualify for a lottery pick, so the NBA could give them #1.

Ferngulley26

8 | 4 hours ago

If you play back the tear, you can see Nico actually shoot Kyrie in the leg

letters165 | Spurs

7 | 3 hours ago

People A) don’t understand statistics and B) want something to blame other than bad luck for their troubles.

1850ChoochGator | Trail Blazers

15 | 6 hours ago

You guys are actually fucking stupid if you believe that the draft lottery is rigged. The whole process is filmed and posted. The balls and machines are provided by the same company that does powerball. E&Y is only there to verify things, they don’t actually run the process.

Alarmed-Cucumber-858 | San Diego Rockets

1 | an hour ago

I wonder how all the people who like to hide behind the respectability of EY when they defend the draft will respond to this

Delanorix | Knicks

1 | an hour ago

Ernst and Young is world renowned.

They wouldn’t destroy their reputation for the NBA lottery.

CrasVox

1 | 25 minutes ago

The lottery just has way too many unlikely outcomes to not be rigged. 1st pick to the Bulls right after MJ, 1st Pick to the Bulls for D Rose, 1st Pick to the Cavs for LeBron or right after he leaves, the Mavs….this shit happens too often.

Alarmed-Cucumber-858 | San Diego Rockets

2 | an hour ago

People claimed it was a legitimate investigation because of the prestige of the law firm.

As if they have any ethics anyway

fordat1

1 | 3 hours ago

Thats basically what happens in all corporate investigations

refreshing_yogurt

665 | 8 hours ago

Elhassan, Pablo’s cohost and former Suns employee, said on a previous podcast that he refused to talk this law firm for the Sarver investigation. Something about not wanting to talk to lawyers and wanting to see what they would get wrong in the final report.

Feels like this is building up to be something where Pablo and these sources are going to wait for the the law firm’s report to drop, and if it exonerates Ballmer as they expect, they’ll spend the next cycle of reporting trying to debunk the report and the story will continue to go on.

AdInfinite5171

410 | 8 hours ago

Or he has legit evidence against Ballmer and he is waiting for the leagues investigation to exonerate Ballmer. Then Pablo drops the hammer.

Neckrolls4life | Spurs

185 | 7 hours ago

How many more hammers does he need?

DMking | Wizards

123 | 7 hours ago

Dunno but I enjoy seeing them. The theatrics are fun st least and hopefully there is some punishment for thr Clippers

myassholealt | Knicks

39 | 5 hours ago

To get the NBA to actually do something? Even Thor’s hammer isn’t enough. The NBA doesn’t care. This the same league that only just reacted to intentional tanking because sports betting complained it was harming their business. The years of fans complaining meant nothing.

And fans are not going to stop going to/watching games. And players certainly aren’t protesting cause they all want the opportunity for their own aspirations deal. So why do they need to do anything. Time for people to forget is all they need. Release the report in the off season so people have a couple months to react then forget about it as they get hyped for the approaching new season.

sourdieselfuel | Bucks

17 | 5 hours ago

Fans really do need to realize that this is barely basketball anymore and stop going to games.

This is a shell game to make rich pieces of shit even richer, with a facade of ugly ass basketball painted on the outside.

ripkin05 | CHA

9 | 5 hours ago

gonna be real depressing when they show a video of Ballmer literary saying they did this to cheat and nothing still gets done about it.

Neckrolls4life | Spurs

5 | 5 hours ago

All this reminds me of that Chappelle Show sketch where he was saying all the things he would need to see to belive R Kelly was guilty.

jason2354

76 | 6 hours ago

This summarizes our society in a nutshell.

“Yeah, he’s already released hard evidence that clearly points to shady dealings, but I’m sure he’s holding onto the video confession that Balmer filmed for no reason!!”

Spoiler alert, the same people who have excused everything else away would 100% wave away video evidence as not enough or meaningless. We see it daily at the highest level of our society.

Klutzy-Magician4881

14 | 6 hours ago

He already has a tranche of legit evidence

braddeus | Heat

3 | 6 hours ago

Figuring out what Pablo has left is probably a significant part of the “investigation.”

smalls_1804 | Knicks

40 | 6 hours ago

I’m 100% convinced Torre has the smokiest of smoking guns in his back pocket and is holding to until the league exonerates Balmer to produce

mathmat | Warriors

7 | 3 hours ago

He basically threatened as much. At the end of the episode he revealed that the people sitting on seats K2 and L2 had something unreleased, “all the proof you’d ever need.”

He’s clearly holding that over the investigation. Like “it’d be a shame if your very professional investigation didn’t find everything”

GreatCaesarGhost | Bucks

23 | 7 hours ago

If that’s the strategy, then I don’t know what they hope to accomplish. If it’s not in the report, the NBA isn’t going to pay it any mind. Pablo talking about it on a podcast is meaningless. And it will be a knock on the witness’ credibility that they refused to cooperate.

Pickleskennedy1

65 | 7 hours ago

Five witnesses from Aspiration have said they weren’t asked about Ballmer at all, it’s why they’re not cooperating

braddeus | Heat

17 | 6 hours ago

“Who was responsible for this and why was it Uncle Dennis?”

refreshing_yogurt

28 | 6 hours ago

The goal of Pablo’s reporting is not specifically to get the NBA to punish anybody, it’s to expose corruption. If the way this process plays out gives an opportunity to show this law firm is also corrupt, then Pablo seems pretty happy to keep embarrassing all the parties involved.

LegitimateMoney00 | Knicks

462 | 8 hours ago

This is Adam Silver’s NBA folks. The dude has been an embarrassment as commissioner.

tandtz | Hornets

147 | 7 hours ago

He’s done his job perfectly, he just doesn’t work for the fans. The owners and the gambling companies couldn’t be happier

North_Atlantic_Sea

31 | 7 hours ago

Yeah, people whine on Reddit, but the owners absolutely love him.

Same with Goodell in the NFL

porkave | Celtics

6 | 6 hours ago

A lot of people just assume the NBA is somehow an independent body free of purview from the owners, I have no idea where the assumption came from

maiL_spelled_bckwrds | 76ers

3 | 6 hours ago

Are the gambling companies happy? I thought they are mad about tanking?

packim0p | 76ers

2 | 6 hours ago

Nah he fucked the sixers for no reason.

MatCauthonsHat | 76ers

4 | 6 hours ago

He have fucked over the front office and the resulting on court product, but franchise value still increased dramatically. So from Josh Harris’ perspective, no harm done.

Snapphane88

97 | 7 hours ago

It’s entirely in line with the NBA for the past half-century. Remember when the Tim Donaghy scandal happened and Stern supposedly leaked the investigation to the public, slowing down and pulling the rug out from under the FBI?

They’re all one big happy family, playing for the same team. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is very prevalent throughout the entire league, at least for the large market teams. The other big markets or wealthy owners do not want an angry Ballmer going on a crusade, it opens up a whole can of worms. They just want this to go away. It’s the same with PEDs, NBA does not want a MLB type scandal where its shown that the entire league is juiced, which is why they don’t actually test properly.

sharklavapit | Bucks

2 | 3 hours ago

same with PEDs

same with PDF files also, seems like noone is getting serious charges or investigations on Epstein’s leaked shit

victorspoilz | Celtics

1 | 3 hours ago

Rich people do love dodging taxes. What they hate is people stealing money, especially handouts like revenue from tax paying teams, so given the amount that Ballmer stole from them, the fact that they seemingly, largely don’t care means that they want it that way.

ElectronicReport4113 | Thunder

51 | 7 hours ago

Adam Silver is an employee to the owners. And he will remain in his position because he is running the NBA exactly as the collective ownership wants him to run it.

LegitimateMoney00 | Knicks

15 | 7 hours ago

And the fans will continue to treat him like shit because of it. I don’t see what the issue is?

ElectronicReport4113 | Thunder

13 | 7 hours ago

I’m on your side. Fuck Adam Silver. I’m just pointing out that our misery will continue, because Adam Silver is nothing more than a puppet to the 30 rich dudes who continue to RAKE in cash flow from this corrupt league

StatusVoice2634 | Knicks

5 | 6 hours ago

League has grown and co tracts are bigger. Sorry the 1% commenter disagrees

PsychoticSoul | SEA

4 | 6 hours ago

Remember that Ballmer is Silver’s boss, not the other way around, silver doesnt have the real power to do otherwise.

airmigos | BOS

3 | 7 hours ago

Don’t tell that to clippers fans. They think “Chablo” is a hack stretching out a nothingburger

Academic_War_7485 | Clippers

1 | 5 hours ago

Not all of us.

BigDull8251 | Pacers

212 | 8 hours ago

Another fine to a tanking team coming soon

aimee829 | Pacers

34 | 7 hours ago

almost a guarantee that the Pacers’s draft pick would be out of the top 4 despite having the 2nd worst record

Seqarian | Raptors

25 | 6 hours ago

I mean if you stay second place the odds of dropping out of the top four are still nearly ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ so that wouldn’t mean much

ImperatorJCaesar | Lakers

17 | 5 hours ago

No no if they fall out of the top 4 it’s definitely rigged. Of course the NBA knows the Pacers are going to be good next season anyway, they don’t need a top pick. Plus they’re such a small market team.

If they do get a top pick it’s rigged because of course everybody feels bad for the Pacers after that finals appearance and Achilles tear, and the NBA is clearly trying to pump up Haliburton as a superstar.

The NBA is so predictably rigged lol.

Cletus_Starfish | POR

2 | 3 hours ago

Half of this sub is comprised of garden variety conspiracy theorists lol. The Aspiration stuff is believable because there’s a litany of circumstantial evidence that’s difficult to explain away. Conversely, just to use a popular example, the notion that the Mavs were the beneficiaries of a rigged draft as some kind of compensation for the Luka trade has zero corroborating evidence; it just has people who don’t understand probability (a 1.8% chance is low, but not infinitesimally small) claiming that because the NBA has a motive to do so, that therefore means it happened.

HeyItsChase | Pacers

1 | 4 hours ago

It’s a Flagg-like moment. A true Flagg is the team murders themselves and the league steps in to help the market. This is a Flagg-like the league cutting their knees out (by the teams own doing) and the league stepping in to save that market.

Me_975 | Celtics

3 | 5 hours ago

Can i bet on which team via kalashi?

Miserable_Lead_9828

206 | 8 hours ago

So this corruption has seeped its way in literally every part of our society, huh?

Heroic_Ones

99 | 8 hours ago

It always has been, the problem nowadays is that the checks and balances that usually punish corruption is starting to dissappear

NotUpForDebate11 | Lakers

35 | 6 hours ago

I think its more that we have more information and knowledge which has shown way more corruption but also theres millions or billions of bootlickers out there that literally dont care

Successful-Sky4411

1 | 5 hours ago

my friend, if you’re watching basketball in any form, you probably don’t care

JoJonesy | Celtics

13 | 6 hours ago

they don’t even bother to hide shit anymore, they just lie to our faces and get away with it

axecalibur | CHI

12 | 7 hours ago

WTF are you talking about? The corruption has always been there.

Miserable_Lead_9828

22 | 6 hours ago

Oh im sorry *blatant unapologetic corruption. I didn’t think I had to specify.

JohnFish2734

2 | 4 hours ago

Sports are a microcosm of society. When there’s blatant corruptions in society the sport world will corruption

isackjohnson | MIN

1 | 6 hours ago

Late stage capitalism, baby

JamUpGuy1989

109 | 8 hours ago

Let’s face it folks, this is like our current political situation.

Nothing will happen until you, yes YOU the consumer, do something about this. Usually means do not spend money or watch the product en mass.

FredFredBurger42069 | Warriors

49 | 7 hours ago

and just like our current political situation, there are plenty that back the billionaire and hope he gets away with it.

Soylent_Milk2021 | Nuggets

10 | 5 hours ago

That’s the problem. People willing to look the other way

axecalibur | CHI

23 | 7 hours ago

As long as dumbfucks gamble their rent on games it doesn’t matter what the average consumer does.

JamUpGuy1989

7 | 7 hours ago

I witnessed one year Snickers almost back out as the sole sponsor of Wrestlemania. Why? Cause WWE tried to name a battle royale match off of a literal pimp. Enough people complained to Snickers, as a company, that they’ll stop buying their product if they didn’t get that name off the match (It’s Fabulous Moolah FYI if you wanna see an Epstein-lite figure.)

Guess what? Snickers raise a stink at Vince McMahon and he stopped referencing the sex offender on the match.

Shit like this CAN be done if we actually try as a group. We just don’t because we have users like yourself telling us not to bother. Use that energy for something better, I beg you.

xX_WeedGang_Xx | USA

1 | 34 minutes ago

It also is like our current political situation in that people who can actually influence things, like these “key sources”, think everything is stacked against them so they don’t even try and help. This is like if I didn’t vote in the upcoming mid terms because Trump was just going to “steal them anyway”. Like yeah he might try, but resigning yourself to doing nothing will almost certainly attain the outcome you think it will. Even if these sources think that the investigation is 90% a sham, not giving information that they might need makes it 100% a sham.

amofai | Spurs

100 | 8 hours ago

And somehow the Mavs lucking into Flagg is legitimate because it’s “audited”. Gtfo.

Vegetable-Tooth8463 | Hornets

142 | 8 hours ago

Lmao, dogging the Mavs when ya’ll literally lucked into Wemby, Castle, and Harper in a row.

amofai | Spurs

59 | 8 hours ago

Wemby was probably rigged, too. I’m fine admitting that.

lialialia20 | Timberwolves

6 | 8 hours ago

why would they not give the generational talent to the small market team?

amofai | Spurs

17 | 8 hours ago

Who knows what happens behind closed doors and why those decisions are made. Could be a lot of reasons.

The most common suspicion is that the Spurs have a history of developing generational big men into their full potential. A fully realized Wemby is great for the league in a way that he wouldn’t be if sent to some mismanaged team.

lialialia20 | Timberwolves

16 | 8 hours ago

makes total sense, nothing more profitable for the league than another dinasty setting record low viewerships in the playoffs

mug3n | Raptors

6 | 7 hours ago

sent to some mismanaged team

Charlotte in shambles?

amofai | Spurs

5 | 7 hours ago

All credit to their current run, but historically yeah. They’ve had three playoff appearances in 20 years. Silver would rather cut off his leg than choose sending Wemby to the Hornets over the Spurs.

DankMemesNQuickNuts | Charlotte Bobcats

2 | 6 hours ago

Not anymore! 🥹

ThinReply2047

2 | 6 hours ago

Woah woah woah Charlotte is on the come-up

kwilly15bb | Timberwolves

2 | 8 hours ago

They also have been good with developing international players and have had a few French greats.

Vegetable-Tooth8463 | Hornets

5 | 7 hours ago

Respect

Alexcox95 | Heat

39 | 8 hours ago

You’re forgetting the other half of the Mavs story that involved trading their generational player to the most popular team at the time who was headed for the play in yet again before the trade

Least_Platform_487

10 | 7 hours ago

You’re forgetting the part of the story where the mavericks wouldn’t have even been in the lottery if AD wouldn’t have gotten hurt and if Kyrie hadn’t of torn his acl. Do you think those injuries were faked so that Flagg could go to Dallas?

Exzqairi | Pistons

17 | 8 hours ago

Not a Spurs fan complaining

You owe us, the Wizards and Hornets some franchise players if you want to take away luck

amofai | Spurs

14 | 8 hours ago

Yeah that’s fine with me. My team benefitting from rigging doesn’t make the league any less rigged

Rymasq

1 | 6 hours ago

You really shouldn’t complain because Cade Cunningham’s career is almost as good as having Wemby

freezedriedbigmac | Knicks

6 | 6 hours ago

Why does everyone bring up the Mavs lottery win when in 2024 the hawks won with very similar odds lmao. If you wanna talk unfair, see how the spurs went #1, #4, #2 in three straight drafts

BritzBeef

3 | 3 hours ago

Or the Pelicans win Zion when the Lakers and Knicks were there, or all of the Timberwolves, Cavs, and Magic wins.

BritzBeef

2 | 3 hours ago

Why would the league rig it for the Mavericks? You can come up with post-justification for calling any lottery rigged, it doesn’t mean anything. There is video of the drawing, reporters and all 30 teams are there, a third party accounting firm with no vested interest in the result certifies results. Besides wanting to believe it’s rigged, what reason do you have to believe it?

Gordo-- | Warriors

1 | 6 hours ago

Hey, can you give us a theory on how it’s rigged? They’ve even posted a video of the draw itself so you can point it all out to us how it’s done.

I legitimately would love to hear a theory on how they rigged it.

amofai | Spurs

5 | 6 hours ago

I have no idea how it’s done mechanically, but lottery balls have been fixed plenty of times throughout history. Here’s an example from 1980:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Pennsylvania_Lottery_scandal

It’s totally plausible to assume that a multibillion dollar sports league has access to technology to rig lottery balls.

I mean, look at Chauncey Billups. He got pinched for using x ray tables at celebrity poker games. You don’t think think the NBA has more advanced technology than Chauncey Billups?

DankMemesNQuickNuts | Charlotte Bobcats

80 | 7 hours ago

It is fucking insane that Pablo Torre, a sports reporter and just fan of the league, is orders of magnitude more concerned about the integrity of the league than THE ACTUAL LEAGUE ITSELF. Adam Silver needs to be fired into the sun bro

defeated_engineer

6 | 3 hours ago

League is a business, Its only concern is to make more money this year than the last year.

Longjumping_Loan6330

1 | 4 hours ago

Yes. People seem to overlook that this story has HUGE implications for the integrity of the game. Which should be priority one for the league and Adam Silver over everything else, including the money.

legacybandit39

1 | an hour ago

Sliver and all major sports commissioners are scapegoats. Spineless fucks are designed to take all the blame. But also, FUCK DAVID STERN and MARK CUBAN.

OnLevel100 | Supersonics

1 | 37 minutes ago

That’s because integrity does not maximize revenue, an power for the wealthiest

Cooleh18

59 | 8 hours ago

That’s a PROBLEM, NBA!!

LoFi_Funk | Pistons

14 | 8 hours ago

The league can’t push too hard or the owners might tell the public that the refs rig games, whether it’s outcome or the spread.

NoWayJefe

42 | 7 hours ago

I remember when the talking heads said they would have a decision made by the all-star game. Then a week after the all-star game. Madam Silver going to bury this in the offseason. Give out some fines and take second rounders.

Pickleskennedy1

38 | 8 hours ago

New evidence/whistleblower letter summarized: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7095329/2026/03/06/nba-clippers-kawhi-leonard-aspiration-investigation-whistleblower/

SMOKE2JJ | NBA

8 | 7 hours ago

Thanks for this. I really wish someone would do a full timeline but the latest podcast and this Athletic reporting are the best I have seen so far. I’m off to plant a tree now in Kawhi’s name.

youreyeslikespiders | Mavericks

5 | 4 hours ago

good on you bro it’s a tough job planting trees and somebody gotta do it since Kawaii ain’t gonna do it

BigDull8251 | Pacers

25 | 8 hours ago

Loser ass clippers fans are going to call this a nothing burger and all the NBA shows are going to talk about tanking again this week. Silver has got to go

FredFredBurger42069 | Warriors

24 | 7 hours ago

The league exists to further enrich billionaires.

CalmMinimum1179 | Cavaliers

25 | 7 hours ago

Welcome to America! Everything is to cater and enrich billionaires 🤣

Knowledge_Haver_17

21 | 8 hours ago

If I’m an NBA owner I’m all for ballmer/clippers getting fucked. Sets the precedent that I don’t have to pay money under the table to players. And makes it more competitive for those owners who can’t afford to/dont want to. They’re prolly just all scared they’re gonna get busted too cuz I guess they’ve all done it.

One_Tumbleweed_1

17 | 7 hours ago

All this cheating and the team still sucks ass lol

Witty_Target5780

2 | 3 hours ago

That’s the funniest part of all of this lol not to mention even building a brand new stadium and you still suck

sfsalad | Lakers

7 | 7 hours ago

Ballmer: “my best friend is safe for being in the Epstein files, you’re not touching me”

pr1ncejeffie | Knicks

7 | 7 hours ago

What should be the punishment in your opinions? This is more than the Joe Smith shenanigans in the 90s. I do believe there should be a significant punishment but I don’t even know what that is at this point.

MayflowerMovers | Pacers

12 | 5 hours ago

Lifetime ban from the NBA for Leonard, Ballmer, and the GM.

pr1ncejeffie | Knicks

2 | 4 hours ago

possibly ban his agent or whoever helped with these contracts?

EverybodyBuddy | Lakers

11 | 6 hours ago

Next five years worth of clippers picks that they control forfeited. Kawhi’s contract voided.

Soylent_Milk2021 | Nuggets

7 | 6 hours ago

It would suck that Kawhi would then eligible to sign somewhere else. He was totally complicit in this scheme. Sure he loses some money, but he’d be able to recoup some of it. I wonder what his free agent market price would be?

Durantye | Hawks

6 | 6 hours ago

Doesn’t really matter, the real issue is allowing external money at all. If Kawhi had just shown up for a single commercial he’d be untouchable, which shows its all a farce anyways.

EverybodyBuddy | Lakers

6 | 6 hours ago

Whitewash and Lipton LLP has no interest in finding out the truth here.

Frosty-Language-3335

5 | 4 hours ago

I can’t but stop and wonder why Pablo is the only person doing any journalism. There is an independent NBA media ecosystem with tons of access but suddenly has zero sources, zero intel, and nothing to say about any of this particular issue.

monkeypiratebutt | Supersonics

3 | 5 hours ago

This league is a joke, country’s a joke. Nothing will come from this… did anything even happen to the Grizzlies owner with the whole selling to Russia thing?

MrMeeseeks33 | Lakers

3 | 5 hours ago

Adam silver is being made out to be so fucking weak this entire investigation. He is telling other owners to break the rules if a harsh judgment isn’t thrown at Balmer. Idk how much evidence there needs to be.

Aurion7 | Hornets

3 | 5 hours ago

They have no interest in finding out ‘what really happened’, the league wants to know how they can find a way to divert all this onto a convenient scapegoat.

Or, ideally, the league would like for people to stop talking about it entirely.

The concepts of accountability and trust got thrown to the wayside quite a while ago.

Alchion

3 | 3 hours ago

at some point in the last century rich fucks jsut decided that rules don‘t apply to them and nobody has the balls to dtand up to them anymore

It‘s apparent in all aspects lf life wether nba politics etc

Ecstatic-Coach | Nets

3 | 3 hours ago

This is the exact reason Stern sold the Warriors to Lacob even though Ellison wanted to buy it. Stern understood he wouldn’t have any power over a person who could buy the entire league.

igby1

3 | 3 hours ago

Kudos for Pablo for staying on this. Obviously this type of thing is his job. But to keep at it knowing the NBA, Ballmer, etc. really want him to shut up is impressive.

Imaginary-Ebb-1724

2 | 7 hours ago

Adam…did you see the NFL ratings this year?

A mid season Kawhi Leonard Free agency is what we need.

TargetGuyJohn | Grizzlies

2 | 7 hours ago

*Ostensibly

shantm79 | Knicks

2 | 4 hours ago

We should just accept the fact that major sports leagues lack integrity.

comradesaid | Trail Blazers

2 | 4 hours ago

Corrupt as fuck

tiggs | 76ers

2 | 4 hours ago

Come on now, this is fucking stupid. These are key sources that the entire thing relies on, but they’re choosing to not take place in the investigation because they think it’s a sham? Even if it is a sham investigation, they still need to tell their stories.

If they don’t take part in it, then there’s a 100% chance that nothing significant will come from this. If they do take part in it, there’s at least a chance.

Crambulance | Nuggets

2 | 3 hours ago

Silver is cheeks

BatuhanLM

2 | an hour ago

Someone understood the assignment.

dogoodsilence1

2 | an hour ago

NBA has no credibility with sending their own thugs to interview witnesses. This needs to be handled by proper legal authorities and not people who are paid by the NBA and they call “investigators” lol

FakeNewsBlows

2 | an hour ago

Who will the sources speak to then? The NBA CANNOT make any decision on punishment unless they hear from those making the allegations, agreed? They send investigators and the sources say I’m not speaking to you. Case closed without resolution then, right?

MrMeritocracy

1 | 5 hours ago

Accountability is needed if they want people to trust the league in five years, especially with the sports betting bullshit

Affectionate_Reply78

1 | 5 hours ago

But tanking is the distraction motif. Focus on that vs the cheating and gambling issues, or the inconsistent refereeing.

fatemaazizlozt

1 | 4 hours ago

Just fine them and move on. What are people expecting a guillotine

RequirementLeading12 | Lakers

1 | 2 hours ago

I feel no one cares about this story but reddit 😂

Sooooooooooooomebody

1 | an hour ago

OK, so we need to clarify exactly what the “NBA” actually is: it is a body of lawyers and lobbyists representing the interests of team owners. That’s the purpose of the NBA, and anything else it does is ancillary.

They aren’t obligated to ‘investigate’ anything an owner does, unless they’re doing it in the interests of the other owners.

Torre: Key sources in Clippers investigation refused to talk to NBA investigators they see as working for Steve Ballmer