TraderJake09 | Bucks

224 | an hour ago

Keep digging. The more people look, the more the Clippers, Balmer, and Kahwi appear guilty of cap circumvention (and being shady)

Mattyj925

68 | an hour ago

Hold up, reports now coming in that Kawhi’s investment came from a joint enterprise co-owned by Gary Trent Jr

TraderJake09 | Bucks

20 | an hour ago

lol

Gary Trent’s nonsense is all on the books, hitting the Bucks cap. Sadly.

JoeBiden2020FTW | Celtics

1 | 30 minutes ago

Well, not necessarily.

They got the benefit of Gary Trent on a minimum contract, when they didn’t have cap space.

TraderJake09 | Bucks

1 | 25 minutes ago

Yup, no argument on that at all

uncleoptimus

1 | 8 minutes ago

“Benefit”

StarFox-6 | Timberwolves

17 | an hour ago

Billionaires aren’t even human bro of course they’re going to do shady shit

And I don’t even mean that like “fuck the rich” Reddit speak. Like when you’re that far removed from the human condition, there’s no reason to not look at them as a subspecies of human. I’m sure Ballmer laughs and has painful shits but to say we are the same species seems disingenuous to the way people have to live their lives every day

jonathanisaacisgoat | Magic

4 | an hour ago

Painful shits

JoeBiden2020FTW | Celtics

1 | 28 minutes ago

Kawhi asked for cap circumvention from the Lakers and Raptors, and they laughed him out of the building.

Ballmer’s level of cheating is not that common IMO.

LarBrd33

-19 | an hour ago

Either that or the more Pablo comes across like a wild conspiracy theorist.

Some of his initial premises have been disproven by his own podcasts. It all seems fishy, but there remains no actual proof of cap circumvention and the narrative is far less clean than people here seem willing to accept.

Proper-Patience8442

11 | an hour ago

This all points to cap circumvention + local corruption literally across the country. This is a very worthy story to follow for a journalist, even if they don’t find a “smoking gun.”

LarBrd33

-8 | an hour ago

It doesn’t necessarily point to cap circumvention. I continue to have lots of questions about it. The more you dig into the narrative the less compelling it becomes. I wouldn’t even say the “circumstantial evidence” is all that convincing if you actually understand the details.

noisheypoo

1 | 31 minutes ago

You do realize Aspiration has ON THE CONTRACT agreement explicitly say the payments were to avoid the cap circumvention with the Clippers? Or do you think thats “different” here?

LarBrd33

1 | 10 minutes ago

no. That’s not on the contract. Where’d you hear that nonsense.

TraderJake09 | Bucks

5 | an hour ago

You are either a bot, a Balmer shill, have no idea what you’re talking about, or are intentionally seeing what you want to see with the clear cap circumvention the Clippers pulled when they got Kawhi to sign with them

You do you though. I’m not here to reason you out of an opinion you didn’t reason yourself into.

LarBrd33

-3 | an hour ago

you guys call anyone who isn’t slopping up the narrative a bot/shill.

I’ve watched every podcast. It’s not at all clear that it’s cap circumvention. There remains zero proof. But I agree it all feels really fishy and something shady probably went down.

Or not.

Even what you just said in this thread proves you dont’ know what you’re talking about. “What the Clippers pulled when they got Kawhi to sign with them”…

This shit didn’t happen when the Clippers got Kawhi to sign with them. It happened years later after he signed an extension with them.

TiP54 | MIA

82 | an hour ago

Yet there are dummies on this very board who claim this is nothing and that Pablo is chasing his fifteen minutes of fames. Just idiots.

DMking | Wizards

26 | an hour ago

He might do clickbaity titles but that’s how you get viewers. His reporting work looks legit and no one else is doing this type of investigative journalism in the sports world

CJ4ROCKET | Rockets

1 | 26 minutes ago

I will say, watched the whole video and it is not the bombshell I was expecting

ChipsOtherShoe | 76ers

1 | 11 minutes ago

He needs more evidence to get to bombshell level, but I think this is likely part 1 of this story. For now it’s a lot of wink wink nudge nudge look over there

It seems to me like he has been putting up episodes where he either

Is missing something and putting this out there in the hopes that a new source will reach out to him (I think this happened earlier in the aspiration story) or
intentionally leave something out so that he can catch parties involved in a lie when they deny the report (like catching Adam Silver in a lie saying he had never heard of Aspiration)

Efficient_Art_1144 | Celtics

1 | 7 minutes ago

If you listen to the full episode he’s pretty upfront that there are pieces missing to connect this to any hypotheses about this being another under the table agreement on the clippers end. But it’s a “that’s weird” type of thing considering the timeline for it picks up right when aspiration goes under

TiP54 | MIA

1 | 5 minutes ago

It’s not a bombshell but it’s more than we knew before and that’s how shit gets uncovered.

sewsgup

64 | an hour ago

the local Rhode Island news outlet mentioned theyre running a part 2 of their story that will release later today, apparently there was another hidden investor known as “Mr. Big”

with Pablo mentioning multiple times the Governor being up for reelection this year, wonder how much this story might pick up. saying “i invited myself” and happening to meet both the soccer team owner and the Rhode Island Commerce Secretary at the Clippers game is such a coincidence

Double_Video_3262 | Nets

49 | an hour ago

Kawhi Farve

BUSean | Celtics

31 | an hour ago

I don’t think it’s surprising that a guy in favor of a stadium subsidy visited with a guy who was going to invest in it.

McKee is toast either way.

DiscreteBee | Raptors

1 | 31 minutes ago

From Pablo’s side he’s trying to connect these guys to Ballmer. It’s a very loose connection without much substance but it definitely looks odd that they attended a Clippers game without talking about Kawhi being an owner

bahamuto | Warriors

1 | 9 minutes ago

A lot of smoke with no clear fire, but raises so many questions.

Like sure the governor knows about the RIFC owner …. but why go to the same clippers game? Sitting in a box who is connected to the current stadium sponsor Visit Rwanda?

Also Kawhi is going to have to start naming his businesses differently from now on.

irishwolfbitch | Nets

31 | an hour ago

The fact that he’s connected to the redevelopment scam that RIFC did in Pawtucket is actually nuts. You can draw a straight line between Curt Schilling getting a loan from the state to make a video game, to the Paw Sox jumping ship for Worcester, to Kawhi Leonard being involved in this nonsense.

ipadminihalf

13 | an hour ago

The real question is, why were the clippers bending over backwards to get this guy a deal when he is constantly injured and didn’t even bring them a finals appearance? lol. Good one.

Meunderwears | 76ers

7 | an hour ago

I heard that someone told him that Kawhi was “developing as a player” and Ballmer thought he was a “developer” so he had to get him whatever he wanted.

djabae

1 | 6 minutes ago

The hype around Kawhi in 2019 was that he was the best player in the league despite the reality of him being lucky Paul George.

TeaFabulous7376

6 | an hour ago

PabloZilla not letting up

brnccnt7

5 | an hour ago

They should just put Pablo Kawhi Ballmer Uncle Dennis and Silver in a room for an hour for our amusement

pepsandeggs | Pistons

1 | 15 minutes ago

Idk if Pablo is leaving that room

ShortEquivalent4576

3 | 42 minutes ago

strip the clippers of their next 3 FRPs and be done with this

mhpatterson1

3 | 36 minutes ago

So…I’m trying to sort out who got what and why. Kawhi signed with the Clippers, they got his services for below the max, he got a piece of RIFC, the RIFC owner got the stadium approved, and the Governor put his thumb on the scale to get it approved. So the question is what did the RIFC owner give and what did the Governor get? Did the RIFC owner just give a piece of equity to Kawhi and his uncle and agent for free? Or if not, who paid for it? Did RIFC donate to the Governor or maybe Ballmer or the Clippers did? Any ideas?

mhpatterson1

1 | 22 minutes ago

Also the RI local news story references a mysterious “Mr. Big” who was a deep pockets anonymous investor brought in to save the stadium financing…..was Ballmer Mr. Big?

“Throughout the hundreds of emails exchanged, no one reveals the identity of the guarantor, a stadium investor with a personal net worth of at least $250 million called in to backstop the project and reassure nervous lenders. Or if they did it was redacted.

Until Aug. 25, the guarantor was being referred to by pseudonym within the group.

“Looks good. Please remove reference to ‘Mr. Big’ and replace with Guarantor or other term,“ John Simmons, the longtime former head of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council who was a city consultant on the deal, wrote in an email.”

wallace6464 | Spurs

1 | 14 minutes ago

Kawhi is literally getting everything we know uncle Dennis demanded, ownership in other teams and no show/no work jobs.

heat_fan_ | Raptors

2 | an hour ago

And there are people who’s saying Pablo is just phishing for things

Dangerous_Ad5039

1 | an hour ago

Are governors typically aware of people who invest in minor league soccer teams?

LeBaconator

1 | 40 minutes ago

It’s a small state

roddyb3 | Mavericks

1 | 33 minutes ago

What does this have to do with cap circumvention and Balmer/Clippers? Is he implying Balmer arranged all of this?

noisheypoo

1 | 29 minutes ago

It’s the exact same fraud scheme, he isn’t tying Ballmer, yet

roddyb3 | Mavericks

1 | 24 minutes ago

If you have the evidence then just say it. Otherwise I have no choice but to say this is conjecture. There’s no evidence here, or even fact pattern, that shows cash flowing from Clippers owners to Kawhi. Shady yes, but that’s not the scope of the NBA’s investigation

noisheypoo

1 | 6 minutes ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmALuLCbOLw

Spend 20ish mins with an open mind while knowing that the CBA explicitly states even the APPEARANCE of impropriety is a violation of the CBA. Aspiration employees have testified under penalty of perjury it was to circumvent the cap.

(edit: misread. Theres no pattern? You are willfully blind. nevermind.)

AW316

1 | 29 minutes ago

Imagine circumventing the cap just to end up with a team like the clippers.

Gristle__McThornbody | Lakers

1 | 4 minutes ago

I don’t get it. We know the Aspiration deal is bad but this is a separate thing that I really don’t see anything wrong with as of now. All I see is Kawhi invested in a soccer team. That’s it.

HibachiTyme | Knicks

1 | 15 minutes ago

Pablo sucks

Altruistic_Rate9595

-14 | an hour ago

We all know they circumvented the cap but they did it in a way that legally they can’t be proven guilty.

yabuslay | 76ers

22 | an hour ago

It’s funny because cap circumvention isn’t even a real law, it’s an NBA rule. They don’t need to go to court to prove jack. Just punish these guys already 😭

ldclark92 | Pacers

2 | an hour ago

Eh, that really depends on what the punishment is.

If it has anything to do with Kawhi’s contract being voided or impacting his money, then it absolutely could become a legal situation.

Jon_ofAllTrades

2 | an hour ago

You want to have solid footing for the punishment because Clippers/Kawhi 100% will contest the penalty, and then that becomes a civil case in the courts that could take years to resolve.

captain_ahabb | Lakers

1 | 42 minutes ago

It goes to arbitration first

Altruistic_Rate9595

-5 | an hour ago

I never said actual law. The nba has legal rules(laws) that each team must abide by. The clippers and Kawhi ran a shady cap scheme and we all know it but as I said they did it in a way that they won’t be found guilty of breaking anything rule(laws) of the nba. Silver is just going to fine them and move on

yabuslay | 76ers

1 | an hour ago

Silver’s complaining about “no smoking gun” which would expedite it, but in my layman view there’s more than enough “circumstantial evidence” to prove wrongdoing.

In reality they’ll probably go to some hearing or courtroom to prove what is there, which hopefully results in more than just fines.

bbob_robb | Supersonics

2 | 35 minutes ago

A “Smoking gun” is an example of circumstantial evidence, just like DNA evidence at a crime scene.

When people suggest there isn’t a “smoking gun” they are basically saying the circumstantial evidence isn’t strong enough to make it a slam dunk.

Circumstantial evidence is often used to mean a “lack of proof” in layman’s terms, but circumstantial evidence is often the strongest type of evidence. A direct witness (for example) can lie or misremember what they saw.

There isn’t a courtroom where this is adjudicated. It really comes down to what the NBA (Owners + commissioner) decide they want to do with the information they get from their investigators. The investigators (law firm) are paid by the league and aren’t really as “independent” as the league wants us to think they are. The league wants to be able to justify their decision. Owners have generally been hesitant to go after other owners, because they don’t want to limit their own power/value.

It really will come down to how egregious the lawyers report is and how well they can justify the behaviors that PTFO has reported.

This was obviously cap circumvention. Do the other owners want to do something about it? Right now Silver has indicated “no.”

noisheypoo

1 | 27 minutes ago

“smoking gun” is LITERALLY the definition of circumstantial evidence

the gun is smoking, but who fired it? people have lost their godam minds

noisheypoo

1 | 27 minutes ago

You do know Aspiration has, in their contract with Kawhi’s team, that this is to specifically avoid the cap circumvention? Do you not know that?

Altruistic_Rate9595

1 | 6 minutes ago

Because Aspiration was a legit company….the company was a fraud just like the deal with Kawhi was. Everyone knows the shady business uncle Dennis ran. Everyone knows there was side deals made and cap circumventions done. Just whether the league wants to do anything with the evidence they have or if they want to hide behind the no “smoking gun” argument

noisheypoo

1 | 4 minutes ago

ah you mean he told watkins and lipton tea or whatever the firm is to follow a particular investigation scope? that i believe completely

randotd152

4 | an hour ago

The NBA is not a court of law, they don’t need to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt. Even a whiff of impropriety is plenty for a commissioner to do whatever he wants as punishment.

BigOlPass

1 | an hour ago

Beep boop ass comment