PTFO: We Followed Kawhi Leonard’s Money Trail After Aspiration
Aspiration investigation not being completed till the 2030s.
They finally give the conclusion to the aspiration investigation on the night Kawhi is inducted into the Hall of Fame
I didn’t do it, but if I did, here’s how I would have - Kawhi J Simpson
“It was AC”
He’s gonna blame it on the raptor in Toronto.
Can’t see the glove fitting Kawhi’s mits
During Kawhi’s induction speech
Silver: Kawhi, I’mma let you finish, but the Aspiration investigation finally ended.
Adam Silver is gonna confess on his deathbed like Olenna Tyrell.
“Tell Pablo it was me”
Pablo: “no shit”
https://imgur.com/a/tIejg1T
It was reported recently that the investigation is done and they are discussing the punishment between the league and union, with the union saying they are going to fight any punishment to Kawhi.
Is the NBPA really obligated to back Kawhi no matter what? He obviously violated bunch of things that the union bargained for with the league.
Pablo did an episode a week or so ago with DeMaurice Smith. He said the union is required to back him. He talked about when the Saints Bountygate was going on, they had a team of lawyers working on behalf of the saints that were walled off from another team working on behalf of the rest of the teams. Said this situation is the same. Not only do they have to work in the best interest of the accused, but also have to work in the best interest of the rest of the league that is the victim. Super complicated.
Exactly and this is what it’s like for all union stewards of all walks of life. It’s the same principles that apply to a defense attorney. Even if you’re defending a murderer, and you think deep down they may have done it, it’s still your sworn duty to help them beat the case or reduce punishment as much as possible.
It’s all a part of what we consider to be a free and fair society. Or the facade of one at least.
That’s not true. As a defense attorney it isnt your duty to try to beat the case. Its your duty to make sure the trail is fair and the prosecution doesn’t overstep in their pursuit of proving guilt.
a union has to have the back of all their workers, otherwise it ceases to be representative of the people within it (barring something extraordinary like a clear video tape of someone committing a heinous crime). you can’t pick and choose who you go to bat for or else it becomes a political issue where the leadership has the power to decide who they see as being worthy of fighting for
The cba is something that the union collectively agreed to backed by the players at large
A player violating the cba is therefore betraying his representatives and their agreement
The victims are not only the rest of the teams implicitly, but the rest of the players..
This is a conflict of interest
Why wouldn’t they? It’s not like being backed makes you immune. This is like arguing people accused of crimes shouldn’t get a lawyer.
Everton deducted 6 points
From Kris Purlasian
Pablo Torre just noted that Daniel Theis became a part owner of the Rhode Island Football Club during the ‘23-24 season, when he signed with the Clippers Kawhi Leonard, Dennis Robertson, and Leonard’s former agent Mitch Frankel are all part owners of RIFC Leonard registered two LLCs a week before signing an extension with Clippers. One called KL2 RIFC, another connected to real estate development in the Rhode Island area:
Pablo Torre just noted that Daniel Theis became a part owner of the Rhode Island Football Club during the ‘23-24 season, when he signed with the Clippers
Kawhi Leonard, Dennis Robertson, and Leonard’s former agent Mitch Frankel are all part owners of RIFC
Leonard registered two LLCs a week before signing an extension with Clippers. One called KL2 RIFC, another connected to real estate development in the Rhode Island area:
Clippers are going to get fined a minimum two draft picks based on section 13 from the CBA, two seperate occasions of cap circumvention. Ballmer is so fraudulent. This situation should be called the steve ballmer clippers situation not kawhi leonard situation, it misses the true culprit: the owner allowing this all to happen
Don’t forget that this actually isn’t the first time that he’s been caught circumventing the cap either. He was fined back in 2015 for circumventing the cap for DeAndre Jordan. Although, that was a much smaller deal, \(200k, but the fine was bigger, \)250k, so Ballmer really should be getting fined at least $30m or whatever the total of all the side deals end up being for Kawhi (not that money matters to him).
30m is pocket change for Ballmer. Gotta punish the team.
I think the punishment that will actually hurt Ballmer personally the most would be a one year ban from involvement in team operations and attending games like Minnesota got for the Joe Smith cap circumvention. Ballmer is a real diehard basketball lover and not being allowed to go to games would drive him crazy.
It’s not just about Ballmer, it’s also about setting a precedent to deter fuckery like this from any owner in the future. It has to be a team punishment.
A massive dead cap hit for half a decade could be an answer
This dead cap money could also be taxed, even if the team is t in the luxury tax
Team might get better without him around
Yea lol. How about give them the Joe Smith punishment. Wolves got hit in 4 years but the effects we’re felt for much longer than that. You want teams to get the message, tell them they’re giving away 10 years of their franchise for maybe a single shot at a ring
How about they force them to use a roster spot on Ballmer, with him also having to start all games?
Imagine they both fine Ballmer and have that equivalent amount be deducted from their salary cap.
DeAndre is either punching air now, or the finding (intentionally or not) didn’t cover the full scale of their violation.
He should be forced to sell the team the nba is embarrasing. They tried to lie to keep rozier protecred too. They knew about cap circumvention in 2019 and did nothing. They knew about kawhis situation again in 2025 and did nothing too. Fans should be tired watching the nba and thats coming from someone whos been passionate about basketball their whole entire life. Its honestly one big soap opera, so much fake crap
They tried to make us responsible in the trade lol.
Buddy this is America, where they are currently rounding up all the brown people “stealing” the jobs and ignoring all the people voluntarily, illegally paying them.
It’s actually funny how many people are so into this as if it isn’t common billionaire fuckery that won’t lead to anything and Kawhi knows it. Do y’all really think the association owned and run by billionaires wont actually just give you some bs closure at the end and just continue doing this all over the world?
Which will all occur in 2035
Can someone explain like I’m 5 how Kawhi makes money off this? Is Pablo Torre saying Kawhi took a discount, and in return, he got ownership of this soccer team?
We don’t know. A lot of the Aspiration investment structure was unknown until it was revealed in the federal indictment. RIFC has a lot of their financials hidden from the public as they are a private entity. There’s definitely a rabbit hole, and maybe it’s something, maybe it’s nothing, but it seems to me that this story is an effort to encourage people to send tips to PTFO, or on the political/legal side to dig for themselves.
How can it be nothing? Multiple players incorporate right before signing with the same organization, and then all take a stake in the same RFIC. If it is nothing, it’s a weird coincidence.
not clear yet, It’s another no show deal for Kawhi. The owner of RIFC has two PE firms that he runs, Benevolent and Fortuitous. Likely Balmer money went into the PE firm and then came out the other end at the soccer team.
Aspiration, Benevolent, and Fortuitous…
Bro’s investing strategy follows Kier’s Core Principles? Pablo should look for companies called Verve and Probity.
Uncle Dennis and Balmer represent Woe and Malice.
praise Kier
I don’t think it would really be a “no show deal” (since most investments don’t involve active management) but the scenario in which this is cap circumvention would be if Kawhi bought into the franchise at a major discount to its actual valuation. Private investments are just that, private, and the price an investor pays for private securities can vary wildly as long as the seller agrees to the terms. Ballmer wouldn’t have to funnel money through PE, he could just buy directly into the football club at a massive premium to Kawhi’s purchase price, and then Kawhi’s investment would have appreciated due to its newly raised valuation. However I imagine this would be much more difficult to prove as in violation of the cba than the aspiration endorsement deal
Rhode island backed bonds at a guaranteed 8.xx% return for real estate market investment
Kawhi is invested in that somehow and no houses have been built
Also curious. I just got home and I’m about to listen to the whole thing to try and find out but I don’t even see what would be alleged in the few excerpts quoted above.
One weird thing to me is how they keep reporting Kawhi registering LLCs with the implication that it’s some shadowy and nefarious activity. I’m just a small time entrepreneur and not a hundreds of millions NBA superstar max contract type of guy and I can tell you that I’ve registered quite a few LLCs over the years for my various ventures.
Maybe I’ve missed it in this whole saga since a new investigation drops every other month, then it’s on me, but a good way to be credible as a journalist would be to compare to let’s say the top 15-20 guys in the NBA and show how Kawhi differs from the others because I would bet some money that the business managers for all these guys register plenty of LLCs for all the business ventures that come their way from being an NBA superstar with a lot of disposable income to invest in stuff. So just telling me he registered LLCs doesn’t do much IMO.
i’ll spoil a little bit for you: the owner of the team confirms that uncle dennis, kawhi, and his agent are part owners of the team but will not disclose further details about the nature or value of that equity
The LLC stuff has never been the focus. Not sure what you are focused on that other than to let us all know that you are a big business man and have a lot of llcs.
It’s about timing not the fact he registered an LLC.
This mfer aint giving up
kind of his job
People are shocked at real journalism.
Makes sense when 99% of it now is access “journalism”
“Here’s why experts say it’s bad”
No journalists, YOU be the experts.
He should dig into Trumpstein’s broad network comprised of raping and trafficking kids
He has several episodes about Epstein
Sports fans in general are used to “journalism” which is really agency/team PR or tabloid gossip. So seeing a real investigative reporter do his job comes off as out of the ordinary.
Not that any sports fan deserves the benefit of the doubt but this is how most people see everything now. You’ll see people that are disappointed by what Maggie Haberman reports about Trump, but because she got twenty articles and a book out of that reporting she’s just juicing the story for clicks. As though, unless you wanted to buy that book I guess, you’d rather just read a 90 minute article every couple months instead. It’s bizarre; like standing outside of a newspaper stand day after day and complaining there’s new stories in there.
Yeah, but you gotta praise the dedication. The majority have a job but don’t (even want to) excel at it.
Good
exactly. literally fighting for justice while setting the standard for what modern journalism should be.
Then we got Windhorst with his fingers in the air
“He’s an iNsiDeR so that’s different somehow”
He won a Pultizer Prize. Why would he ever stop.
He’ll retire when the Pulitzer has voter fatigue
He’s going for the Peabody
Then it will be a Nobel.
Then it will be FIFA.
He’s a generational hater.
And an excellent reporter. Hater first though.
Now do the Brunsons
This whole story is wild
huge day for Rhode Island Football Club fans
RIFC supporter here. This is a nothingburger, at best…Kawhi isn’t showing up here. At worst? I don’t know that it could destroy the club…but that rabbit hole hasn’t been traveled yet.
I didn’t expect this tonight. I don’t think anyone did. Like…RIFC? Really?
It’s interesting for nba fans but I think the takeaway is about a governor diverting public funds from housing for a stadium, for the benefit of non Rhode islanders
Yeah, not a good look…especially when housing has been a big part of McKee’s platform. (And, to be fair, there have been a lot of initiatives for housing in the state.) The article I read from WPRI really doesn’t do him any favors ahead of November.
That said, I think there’s also a bunch of gray in there…the state government was desperate to add a pro team after the PawSox left. And the product that has settled in (RIFC) has been a win for what a team should be in Rhody, so he may get past that. I guess we’ll see.
If only Adam Silver could’ve hired Torre instead that law firm this investigation could’ve been wrapped up in a weekend
The league doesn’t want to find the clippers guilty. The commissioner is trying to protect the owners
Yeah, the lawyer commissioner of the absurdly wealthy league needs to pay absurd money to wealthy lawyers to exonerate the absurdly wealthy owner and Pablo’s not in that club
it’s a big club and we aren’t in it
Problem is that the NBPA won’t stand for the league punishing Kawhi without it punishing the Clippers. Or at least it won’t fly in court.
Imo the league wants the clippers to settle this before the arbitrator so it gets finished
lmao how does Ballmer settle this?
“I will accept a 1 FRP penalty and I will admit no guilt. Case closed?”
The NBA version of a plea deal essentially.
The other owners definitely don’t want this to be the norm. Ballmer is the Yankees and every other owner is Pittsburgh. No one can compete with him. He will be able to get every top FA if this is sanctioned. He is worth more than the ‘poorest’ 24 owners combined. These people don’t want to spend more money than they have to.
Corporate ghoul Adam Silver is efforting to protect one of his bosses. Silver isn’t interested in justice. He’s going to go all out to make this situation look trivial and nothing more than happenstance.
I don’t really get this argument. Sure Silver works on behalf of the Clippers in a way but he also works on behalf of 29 other teams who wouldn’t want the Clips to get away with Bs.
All you need to know about this argument is “ghoul”
The other owners don’t care. They’re probably doing similar shit on a smaller scale and are happy to see their franchise valuations grow YoY. If Clippers were actually winning chips they might care but at the moment they’re not incentivised to go after one of their own. They’re all on the same team at the end of the day.
You think the other billionaire owners care about this?
100%. If you can secretly pay under the table then it’s the Wild West. And you don’t need to be in a shootout with an owner like Ballmer who is worth 50X more than you.
“Look at this really wealthy lawfirm, totally legit, and they found no proof! How crazy! Right? Anyways, 2nd rounder docked for the Clippers and 2 games for Kawhi”
Steve Balmer is the 10th richest person in the world, and is the richest NBA owner by a mile. Rules do not apply to him, and he has Adam Silver by the balls with an iron grip.
Clippers are likely going to lose a 2036 2nd round pick, pay a small fine, and just wait around until the media stops asking about it. Oh, and nothing will happen to Kawhi at all.
Back in 2000 the timberwolves were stripped of 5 first round picks (later reduced to 4) for cap circumvention with Joe Smith. Look at this reddit post from 5 years ago, where murmurings of misconduct were brewing when Kawhi chose the Clippers in free agency. This is well before the aspiration documents were made public, but it’s interesting to see the comparison between the two situations even if they’re not 1:1.
I believe the timberwolves were severely over-punished, but forfeiting multiple FRPs and the voiding of contracts was the precedent the league set. It’s truly bizarre to see how drastically different the league is handling it. Although I suppose it’s the sign of the times that breaking the rules to get ahead is just the norm now.
I mean the law firm 1) isn’t going to release updates during their investigation, unlike Pablo whose whole job is getting enough of a scoop to release findings and 2) this keeps getting messier and messier, I think it’s likely the law firm is being extremely meticulous since it’s beginning to enter potential financial crimes territory, not just breaking NBA rules
That said Adam Silver is still a soulless ghoul
I feel like I saw a report somewhat recently that one of the reasons the investigation was going so long was that they found more stuff.
Pablo’s evidence on Aspiration was water cooler talk from a bunch of low level employees who weren’t in a position to know the particulars of the Kawhi deal, if we’re being honest.
Raptors gonna wait for at least 10 more years to finalize the trade…
he’s gonna ball out in 2032 man don’t worry about it
By 2032 uncle dennis might be better than kawhi by virtue of having multiple knees
shit man uncle dennis over BI? might have to think about that one
Have you been in a Thai prison? 10 years from now is 2036.
To everyone that watched that thinks this was a nothing burger, there are things that are unknown. Like what was Kawhi’s level of investment, and what did he receive, and who else invested. Remember, Aspiration was Ballmer putting money in, and Kawhi getting money out. This was only discovered because of the federal investigation.
So far there is no investigation into RIFC, so there is very little documentation of who and what is coming in and out.
The purpose of reporting on a story without all the pieces is to shake loose more sourcing. This is how Watergate, Epstein and other massive stories come to light. Initial reporting, follow-ups, new information, new sources, new investigations, bigger reporting and so-on.
The things revealed in this episode were pretty astounding, I don’t know how anyone could think it’s a nothingburger.
After Aspiration collapses Kawhi signs a new deal for less than his maximum while at the same time registering an LLC related to RIFC.
Governer of Rhode Island and RIFC owner are invited to a clippers game and comped seats by the Jersey partner of the clippers. Edit: The Governer tried to hide this and marked it as private in his calendar.
Governer breaks tied vote to pump tens of millions of public taxpayer dollars into a stadium for RIFC and Kawhi gets an undisclosed part of the team.
The affordable housing part of the project has produced zero houses in three years.
Both RIFC and Kawhi try to hide he is a part owner, how much he invested and how much he owns and we only know he’s part owner at all due to the owner slipping up in a quick side interview.
There were numerous other supporting details that are worth watching for. It sounds incredibly dodgy.
After following the whole saga it’s pretty clear that Pablo and his team have burning info that they simply won’t share with the public at this time.
He definitely wants everybody involved to open up before dropping a new episode burning them.
I think the NBA believes that too and it’s why the investigation is dragging.
Right, this episode is more important because it’ll encourage whistleblowers to come forward; or at the very least, cause Ballmer, McKee, and Brett to scramble to pay everyone with remotely adjacent knowledge regarding the deal off.
Either way, it’s fun watching Clippers and Raptors fans sweat bullets.
What did Raptors’ or Clippers’ fans do to deserve this? This is another case of the ultra-wealthy screwing over the working class. I don’t understand the joy you derive from watching this, unless you’re in the 1% yourself.
I feel for Clippers’ fans because they are the true victims of this shit. Kawhi gets his money one way or the other to play whenever he feels like it. Ballmer gets to have no consequences for his frauds. But they will get a losing team and a lackluster product for how expensive their tickets are.
And this is why I’m annoyed at Clipper flairs that defend this shit.
If, somehow, one could muster the attention span to follow the entire video, it’d be pretty notable that most of the reporting for this story came from local reporters in Rhode Island via tips from Pablo.
This isn’t, on its face, anything close to resembling the Curt Schilling fiasco, but Rhode Islanders have a pretty powerful, quite recent memory of getting fleeced by a big entertainment expense that sounded nice at the time only for government negligence, or corruption, to blow the whole thing up. It’s even worse because all this is timestamped a handful of years after that debacle was out in the open, so at baseline it makes the Rhode Island government look really, really apathetic.
Spectacular swerve from Pablo that nobody could’ve seen coming, even if it really doesn’t tie back to the Clippers in a tangible way it’s incredible how many legs this Kawhi story has let alone how long they are.
we need to put the top journalist in the business, Shams, on the case so he can say “first” when a punishment is decided… depressing..
Given what we know about Pablo’s journalistic approach through the Aspiration stuff, and also knowing he’s been sitting on this ep for a week, I think he and the WPRI crew have more on the way.
I think this already looks bad for the governor. It could look much worse if some sort of convoluted kickback is discovered.
They haven’t really broached the topic of Ballmer’s money through all this. My guess is that will happen in part 13(? 😂) of the saga.
Sir, another podcast has hit the Clippers.
Guess how many houses were built …………………Zero
BANG BANG
Pablo with the dagger
0 trees 0 houses I wish jail time would be a possibility. A lot of real people were hurt by all this fraud
With the governor and actual public service tying in, there is the chance of a civil liability suit at the very least. I wonder what the league will do if goes to that. Can’t just sweep it under the rug to not step on Ballmer’s shoes anymore if a federal court is using the evidence they consider “not enough” to sentence someone.
Yep, they essentially used public money to pump up the value of an asset Kawhi has to allegedly circumvent the salary cap.
Bill Simmons gonna have Pablo on again and yell at him again and ask why he’s reporting on this
Forgive me for being clueless, but that already happened once?
He mostly yelled at Pablo for investigating Belichick.
Yelling is a bit to much. He made fun of him for trying to make real story out of Belichick’s girlfriend, then had Torre on to explain why he chased both big real stories and seemingly non-stories like Belichick dating a 20 year old with the same seriousness.
Ya im joking around. It did with bellichick’s child bride. But Simmons has, for some reason, poo-poo’d this story over and over. Probably has some relationship with Ballmer.
Probably because he’s grown up with the league. Superstar players have long gotten preferential treatment from owners.
You need my private jet for a week? Have at it.
You wanna fly out to this island resort in the summer? Let me get you a sweet deal on that.
A nice penthouse overlooking the river? I know the landlord who will give you and your wife a really nice lease on it.
But what Kawhi and Uncle Dennis did with the Clippers is on a different scale to what is considered acceptable in the league. We are talking about cap circumvention in tens of millions of dollars.
He has had season tickets to the clippers for like a decade or two, probably has something to do with it.
He was a Clippers season ticket holder for a long time.
He absolutely hasn’t poo poo’d this story over and over tf are you talking about
Yea he 100% thinks the clippers did it lmao
Nah. We just say shit around here that sounds vaguely plausible.
Ohh he saw them dragging things till 2027 and said “Hold my beer”
Thought it was a live stream but it’s a premiere
So Kawhi took a side deal at the same time of his discount and Daniel Theis seemed to have got a lil extra too. Oh and he might take down the governor of RI.
The governor of RI was doing well enough at taking himself down
Holy shit is Pablo about to bring down the Governor of Rhode Island?
Pablo better have some damn good security. Someone is going to put a hit out on him.
The stacks of paper get bigger each episode lmao
FWIW
Pablo Torre has produced the whistleblower complaint that led to fraud charges against Aspiration, and allegations of the LA Clippers using Aspiration to circumvent the NBA salary cap.
Submitted under penalty of perjury
Governor is involved in this shit now hahaha..omfg.. this shit is crazy
I genuinely feel bad for the people of Rhode Island.
First Kurt Schilling took all there money…
I genuinely feel bad for the smaller states in general rn, seems like corporations are just buying up land everywhere
There is absolutely zero chance Steve Ballmer doesn’t have enough money to ask Pablo Torre to please shut the fuck up
Probably already offered but Pablo turned it down. There’s gotta be some people who are committed to integrity.
Probably already offered but Pablo turned it down.
Pablo would have recorded and reported that.
This whole drama would have been decided long ago if Balmer was brazen/stupid enough to do that and literally create the evidence that he was at least involved in the cover-up similarly to what took down Nixon.
In this economy?
No way, if he offered Pablo would either take it or out him.
Adam Silver must have a filter on all his social media for content mentioning Pablo Torre by now.
It’s funny Rhode Island is coming up again, Curt Schilling was another athlete who got involved with weird financial stuff in Rhode Island
I was about to say this.
It’s fucking weird that off all places it’s Rhode Island.
Rhode Island is one of the most corrupt states in the country. https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/politics/2023/09/28/which-ri-rhode-island-politicians-have-been-convicted-of-crimes-ri-politics-buddy-cianci/70962317007/
But at the same time it’s not weird because Rhode Island is insane in every way
All to make an MMO that never happened. Part of me has always wanted to check out the single player game they made to try to help fund everything (for those that do not know, it was Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning).
It has its fans (me being one of them) and the combat was really fun in an arcade-y way, but the story is super simple, the look isn’t for everyone and it reuses more voice actors for similar roles than Skyrim does. It was basically an arcade-slasher in a Fae-inspired Elder Scrolls world. It’s also, even with a “re-make” made by another studio, a relic of its time in 2012.
It still makes me laugh how this game is associated with a POS former athlete and destructive financing for an entire state and all the drama that came for it.
tldr anyone?
After Aspiration collapsed, it looks like they continued the scheme with “RIFC” (Rhode Island Football Club)
Pablo has to be careful, he may find out the entire us economy is propped up by fraud
Clippers-“oh man that was too close with Aspire, and them collapsing. What could collapse and no one would question it. A lower tier professional soccer team.”
Bro.. Kawhi you should’ve just gotten paid.
Lmfao clippers are so toast, ballmer investing in post aspiration fraud companies and say hes a victim of fraud. I feel bad for clippers fans, theyre going to lose around 2 draft picks based on the CBA terms
Kawhi harmed the credibility of two professional sports at the same time. Legendary run.
You mean steve ballmer? Last I check all 29 teams in the nba couldve done this, especially the lakers and raptors but neither did and they instead reported it to the nba who did nothing? This isnt kawhis fault its steve ballmer and the nba and then kawhi
Lol Kawhi’s getting fucked 10 times more than Ballmer. Whom do you think the other owners wanna be on the good side of? 35 year old player who’s well past his prime? Or the 13th richest man in the world?
Uncle Dennis would have been banned from all NBA facilities by Stern. But they kept on going.
So should steve ballmer
Arsenal has a Rwanda ad patch fwiw
Every time I see that it cracks me the fuck up
We all knew Kawhi was quiet, didn’t know it was from Omerta
This guy Rhoad Islands.
I’m just gonna assume that all the jersey patch money across the league is being used for under the table funds for top free agents at this point
New theory, Mattress Firm stores only exist to circumvent salary caps.
How long til Ramona Shellburne tries to dismiss this report?
Pablo cashing in now that the investigation is taking longer
Imagine losing picks over thies
Honestly the thing I find most shocking is that a second tier soccer team is getting taxpayers money to build soccer stadium. The fight against public money for sports arenas is completely lost.
Can anyone give us the TL;DW? Was there anything relevant actually revealed in this one?
[deleted]
RIFC is not a fake team, its real…i think they are trying to imply that they used RIFC to somehow get Kawhi paid.
Thanks
Kawhi became an investor in a 2nd tier football team (Rhode Island FC) when Aspiration went down. This team got gifted a stadium paid by Rhode Island taxpayers. The taxpayer money was supposed to go to build housing units because Rhode Island has a massive housing crisis. As part of the stadium greater project there were supposed to build 400 housing units to offset. They built 0 thus far, 3 years later.
How does Kawhi/Uncle/Mitch/Theis profit off of being an investor in a soccer team? Is Pablo saying Ballmer invests into the soccer team, and Kawhi gets a portion?
I think the insinuation is that someone associated with the clippers gave the money to RIFC LLC or whatever it’s called based on the timing of his extension and the fact that the clippers seemed to in the same orbit as the owner of the club.
And the governor of Rhode Island was involved
Cast the tie-breaking vote to release public money.
They get a certain percentage of stocks normally and then when the valuation goes up they can sell those stocks for more than what they bought them for.
Gotcha. So basically Kawhi took a discount and in return, Ballmer’s friend - who is the owner of a soccer team - gives him stock/ownership of his soccer team?
and this was the one that actually impacts his current contract
Friend: I need x amount for my soccer stadium Balmer: okay, I’ll give you x amount + extra but give that equity to these three people Friend: okay cool
I’ve heard enough, punish the Raptors
This is just classic (modern) money laundering.
He can’t just take $20m+ he shouldn’t have and move it into his bank account. So you funnel it into something else, the shadier the better. A “prospective” sports club on the other side of the country is perfect.
Kawhi loves soccer
It’s pretty funny that Pablo has like zeroed in on Kawhi who is the most unassuming nba player of all time.
Kawhi probably at home like “why the fuck is he so obsessed with me
Pablo Spurs fan confirmed.
The cherry on top of all of this will be Wachtell and Lipton finding “no evidence of wrongdoing.”
in case you guys were wondering what’s taking so long, this is what that law firm has been up to
Yeah Kawhi and Ballmer need to be expelled
The Utah Jazz have been fined another $500k
Wish he did an HGH piece on the Heat.
Pablo is not letting this go, I love it. All of this for not even one Finals appearance for the Clippers. And you just know that Balmer has been doing shit like this for decades in his other businesses, these billionaires don’t have an honest bone in their body.
Why the fuck does he keep naming LLCs after himself
Got to be the dumbest shit ever. Its like a drug dealer naming the company, keys of coke, LLC.