[Goodwill] Steve Ballmer is expected to aggressively fight the NBA legally if penalties are levied against him in the Kawhi Leonard investigation: “Steve Ballmer can lawyer up as well as anybody.”
Steve Ballmer created non profit groups to pay coaches and players to win at his elite private high school. He shuffled players through mansions in Seattle and pressured the school to relax academic standards.
He cares very little about the established rules or ideas of sportsmanship and fairness.
Steve Ballmer never followed labour laws as a CEO. Worst case outcome for him has always been to pay a fine which he is happy to do.
He’s going to learn that the 30 owners care little about ripping off the fans or public, but ripping each other off is a cardinal sin. He can lawyer up all he wants but if the owners want him penalized it shall be so.
He could probably just pay the other owners off in a way that avoids publicity and any “penalties” imposed by the league would be minimal but enough to placate league partners. I can’t imagine all the other billionaires would be unhappy to receive some of Ballmer’s wealth.
How much do you think he would have to bribe them each for them to accept it? 10 mil? 50 mil?
Most of the other owners are multi billionaires, several 20+ billion in net worth, paying them off with 50 mil seems kind of low balling
But that would be like 1.5 billion for Steve to pay. The NBA probably charges him less…unless they make him sell the team.
What’s crazy is they could have avoided all of this if Kawhi did like one paid tweet for Aspiration.
No one even knew he had an aspiration endorsement. If he did some low effort ad maybe it draws even more attention to this deal earlier
You know you’re allowed to pay people for work right?
It doesn’t matter if they paid Kawhi to do some low effort stuff, they’re in trouble for hooking him up with a literal no-show job.
he didn’t even win anything so honestly doubt they’ll care lol
They’ll care if they’re not complete morons. Whether the Clippers won anything isn’t the worst part of this for them.
Ya unless pretty much every other team is doing this they are not going to want this to be the standard.
They will absolutely want to fight anything that causes them to spend more money
They don’t care. Mat Ishbia is the owner of the Suns, a team that basically got screwed by the CBA, was running defense for Ballmer when asked about it.
You got it. Their asset, an American pro sports franchise, is growing YoY. Vast majority of owners care way more about that than about winning. They’re not gonna rock the boat.
He’s probably doing the same thing. It’s going to be the small market team owners that should want punishment the most unless they also get paid out secretly.
It doesn’t seem like many owners really care too much about winning a chip. As long as the team increases in value every year, they couldn’t care less.
Him not being punished sets a precedent that these deals are entirely legal. Now any owner can do them.
And what do owners not want to do? Spend more money.
This deal also had the Clippers escape a tax bill that would’ve put money in the pockets of the other owners.
Loooool. My friend you think any of the 29 owners want a fight with balmer? Hes worth more than all of them combined
Tf you think they’re scared of? He has no legal standing, there was a deep investigation with plenty of proof and witness statements of what was going on.
These guys are billionaires, they have just as massive egos and aren’t going to be intimidated, especially when they have the legal standing.
It’s mind numbing this is even a debate. You could hire an army of lawyers and none of them could prove 0==1
You can’t be this naive. Going after him affects them way more than their basketball team. This is one of the most powerful people in the world.
lol yeah because that matters. Idk how some of you still believe in the legal system, especially when it comes to someone like Ballmer. Ballmer’s net worth dwarfs the rest of the league.
balmer worth 160 billy. thats a fkin lot and by far the most of any nba owner…but he’s not worth more than all of them combined lol. the next two richest owners pretty much combine for over a third of his net worth. and they got 27 more billionaires behind them
I’m so happy people are coming around on him. I remember the original sentiment when he bought the team was “oh he looks so passionate about this team”
He was always a POS billionaire. The Sterling scandal made him look good at the time
I mean he wasn’t the first to skirt the rules. The old Russian nets owner, Cuban with Dirk, all had some shady contracts
How universally reviled Donald Sterling was definitely played a part in the perception of him as Clippers owner.
To be fair he is passionate?
But i mean dude is just straight up breaking the rules with his infinite money cheat code lmao
Sadly they haven’t won shit
Sadly?
I mean it’s even fraud. Who buys into a company as an investor at 10x the going price? Unless you know that you gave said company a multi hundred million dollar deal to be an arena sponsor giving it legitimacy to pump the value hoping you could cash at at some point. This is much bigger than just a side deal for Leonard. which it was set to do with a multi billion dollar deal on the table until they fucked it all up. It’s just typical billionaire fraud to pump and dump a company cause you can.
https://youtu.be/8fcSviC7cRM
If this happened today it would be “AI AI AI AI AI AI”
Also I always forget how goddamn sweaty he is in this vid
Always remember: any crime you can pay a fine for is only designed to punish poor people
So a billionaire.
getting pretty tired of these motherfuckers
Wait till you hear about Trillionaires
Aaaaaand he’s gone. All of him. Only for a couple weeks
Only for never. 99% of his “wealth” is literally fake made up bullshit.
Yeah but it’s Schroedinger’s wealth where he can borrow against it to live off of but also it doesn’t exist to be taxed against.
Very timely for Christopher Nolan to make a movie about how civilization is at risk when elites stop caring about virtue.
0 ethical billionaires
Mackenzie bezos seems ok.
Lebron is a billionaire lol
Athletes, like other types of entertainers, fall in this odd area where they are being paid for their labor, yet the top end of have more class similarities with the ultrawealthy than with even the highest earning PMC types. It’s a really interesting thing to think about if you’re generally a leftist/anticapitalist.
Marx discussed the idea of labor aristocrats, but I think I might consider LeBron himself to be a business and he the owner of said business. If you find that hard to divorce from the socialist notion of owning the output of your labor, think about how many people work hard for LeBron, the player, the image, the entity, to produce and to profit.
I’m so glad that even though he cheated he didn’t win squat. Let alone winning couldn’t even sniff the finals.
That and other owners probably did similar shit.
There’s no way Ballmer is the only one.
It’s too easy. As Ballmer showed us.
Owners want to get better players and are willing to pay extra to do it. That’s why there a cap and max contract in the first place.
The only thing stopping them is (1) they’re too cheap; or (2) they don’t want to break rules.
To him, that is him correctly “gaming the system” and is a part of competition, and not looked at like cheating.
It’s anticompetitive. When you can only win by cheating, you have devalued your own reward like a fool.
I’m not disagree with you but pointing out he thinks smart people compete by outsmarting the rules.
Cheaters ultimately cheat themselves.
They can engineer the wins then sit back and know that it’s all fake and devalued.
Participation trophy culture right there. Losers who can’t win legitimately, who are anticompetitive, and ultimately contain themselves in a loser bubble. What fools.
the worst type of human is a billionaire. They can get away with so much just because of their money.
Wasn’t exactly mr ethics at Microsoft either.
Steve Ballmer told him to say this lmfao
*paid him to say this
idk why you would have to pay anyone to say this. I could’ve told you an owner would try to fight punishment
Media have always been a mouthpiece for the wealthy,he’s pretty much threatening the league
Maybe he’s paying you to say how threatening he is too.
He can pay me to say whatever he wants
Steve Balmer is innocent. I’ll always give him the benefit of the doubt. Me and Stephen A Smith
If anyone has a different opinion than you in reddit it means they were paid bots
Sure, but if Steve is offering to pay then take the money. Then release a podcast about how you regret it and if he’s willing to pay you to say that then what else is he capable of?
I’m confused are you referencing something? or just fantasizing about becoming a lamer basketball Edward Snowden lol
Why would he need to pay him to say this…? It’s news, reporting this stuff is his job lol
90% of ESPNs content is teams and agents telling them what to say
You forget the other 10%
Betting odds
Ballmer paid for some Goodwill
I mean Steve Ballmer is the best source for what Steve Ballmer plans
i mean he just said it as a matter of fact while talking about the situation. he wasnt saying it like “good luck going up against Ballmer!!!” like the sub is interpreting
Sounds like Ballmer is already being a baby about it
Billionaires gonna billionaire
He’s in a separate class from most billionaires even, with $145 billion. His tantrum will reflect that
I’m not sure how deeply invested he still is in Microsoft, but their stock went up 15% today. “Fuck You” money to us is literally pocket change to him.
Ballmer is the largest shareholder of Microsoft with over 300 million shares, which means a ~$20Bn increase today
That’s like, what, 30 lawyers?
32, actually - for every fifteen stamps on your loyalty card you get a free lawyer. They have to be notarized, of course. But any decent law firm will have a notary public on staff, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
Time for them to layoff a couple of more people
Ballmer hostile takeover purchase of the NBA coming
You might say “you can’t do a hostile takeover of the NBA,” but you won’t be saying it when Ballmer storms their HQ with a private army, screaming with rage
Ballmer’s PER and VORP against dictators and warlords is legendary, going toe to toe with them
Judging by the way he always looked on the sidelines, could only imagine how much of a baby back bitch he truly is
He also grabbed a dude’s wiener in excitement once
Ahhh the notorious Ballmer Palmer!
He ain’t used to following the rules
We really need to tax these MF billionaires. Parasites the lot of them.
Need to do more than tax em
a billionaire being a bitch? no wayyyyyyy
Would also explain why the NBA is taking so much time to get this right; I’m actually starting to believe they’ll do something because there is a reason Ballmer tells the media to say this.
My gut feeling is that Wachtell found too much for the NBA to do nothing, but not enough to make the case airtight (like the Timberwolves putting the conspiracy in writing)
“are you taking notes on a criminal conspiracy??”
The Billable Hour is doing the Birdman hand rub right now
Birdman
#BIRDMAN!
Never forgave him for what he did to Lil Wayne
Didja get that thing I sent ya? 🦛
Debbie we’re going to need some law books. With pictures this time.
Hey! There he is
Billable hours is truly undefeated
Billable Hours vs Cash Considerations. Who will win?
What happened to that boy?
Out: Cash Considerations
In: Billable Hour
He deserves to lose his team. If the NBA lets this slide then they might as well just eliminate the salary cap.
Why not just decimate them?
There is precedent for losing draft picks.
Ballmer might be able to outspend anyone on lawyer fees but he’s guilty and the courts will not side with him, and all legal battles do is prolong it and continue to give the organization negative media attention.
I dont think killing one out of every ten men on the roster is the right answer here.
but it would send a message….
/s
huh, TIL the original meaning of decimate
Because there is precedent for the current nba commissioner levying penalties that are significantly more lenient than the previous commissioner
This seems like the reasonable solution if they’re found guilty
Hefty fines
Lose draft picks I think 4 future first round picks
Void Kawhi contract make him a free agent and considering the season would’ve started he either has to say a 1 year deal for cheap or sit out the season.
Suspend Kawhi for some amount of games
Easy way to blow this all up but not as easy as it sounds
They got rid of the last clippers owner in like a month, didn’t seem complicated then.
IIRC his wife (or maybe his girlfriend) managed to get control of the team by getting him declared mentally unfit, then she sold the team on his behalf. There was mutual interest at that point to sell.
Not quite the same, unfortunately; Ballmer isn’t going senile yet.
Sterling wasn’t all that rich though. And he was also basically senile for whatever that’s worth.
According to Gemini he had an estimated net worth of < 2B before the Clippers sale. Definitely rich but not “withstand immense pressure from the NBA and reject doubling his net worth” rich
Even if the NBA put the same pressure on Ballmer to sell (which they won’t), the monetary aspect is apples to oranges. Sounds like Ballmer is ready to deny guilt at all costs which probably means he thinks there is not enough evidence to legally prove wrongdoing
Rules for thee and not for me. There’s even levels of it within the billionaire class.
They were able to do that because Sterling’s wife basically sized power of attorney over him
Simultaneously allowing some owners to claim they couldn’t spend more because of the salary cap while allowing others to pay extra by going around the salary cap is pretty crazy.
I really wonder how those paying salary tax, like the warriors and the nuggets, feel about just ignoring the rules with a reach around.
For real. I feel like this situation warrants the other 29 owners getting together and using whatever bylaws are necessary to force Ballmer out.
This assumes 29 owners aren’t doing the same thing
Ah yes, but I keep getting told that if billionaires get what they deserve, the economy will implode and the apocalypse will be upon us, and we can’t be having that.
Ballmer really is doing God’s work with all the cash he is trickling down to Kawhi through back channels.
There’s quite a few magnitudes between losing his team and going unpunished lol
He literally got caught red handed in a cheating scandal. If he isn’t losing his team then he and everyone in his front office that can be tied to this need to receive a lifetime suspension from all NBA related activities. There really is no middle ground here.
Ban the owner. Ban the player. Need both sides to understand that this is unacceptable and carries the harshest penalty the league can levy.
Lmao the lawsuit will drag to 2200 into the next 5 ballmer generations. NBA will be a robot league by then. Robots named Robron.
NBA years from now: “Kawhi Leonard is not allowed to retire until the investigation is complete.”
KL2 in 2040: I Apsire to Retire.
Bored man gets stayed
Or “The investigation won’t be concluded until after Kawhi’s Hall of Fame induction.”
Kawhi will be getting his plaque at the hall of fame and silver will be there saying he reserves the right to chisel the penalties onto it at a later date
About to find out what kind of commissioner Adam silver is
Considering the joke of a “punishment” Astros/Rockets fans got over their team’s cheating in 2017, Silver has a very low bar to clear set by that dipshit Rob Manfred.
yo chill not all of us are Baseball fans leave us out of this
I see what you did there, Astros fan.
Adam Silver does not have unilateral authority over the owners lol. He works for the owners, not the other way around. He’s there to take the heat for shit you people don’t like and he’s doing his job.
He doesn’t have unilateral authority but he has more influence than each and every one of them. If he feels a team needs to be punished, he will get the majority of owners on board.
I’m seeing this repeated ad nauseum in every thread related to this. David Stern had backbone. Adam Silver should as well.
What did he do to the owners? Penalize the Wolves for having a signed document stating they were circumventing the cap? He allowed Sterling to remain owner and left that for Silver to deal with. He had backbone towards players maybe.
Tf you mean YOU people?
Yeah but ballmer is cheating the other owners too. Silver works for them too. Why wouldn’t they be upset that he’s allowed to follow a different set of rules?
Because other owners do it too….
… except maybe the really cheap ones.
But the others? My conspiracy theory is that there’s a lot more people that have signed bullshit cap circumventing contracts.
If we had a wartime commissioner we wouldn’t even be talking about this ! It’s time to go to the mattresses
Ballmer is about to send Adam Silver back to Transylvania
He will send Pablo to Mozambique
Rwanda was right there!
There might be no stronger hate for an individual in the world than the hate Ballmer must have for Pablo at this point
So you’re telling me he works at a tree business outside basketball hours. - the judge
NBA corruption, FIFA corruption, I need a new sport to follow
You prob need to just stop following sports then. Corruption is just hidden in other sports
When I was reading about Portland, this thought was going through my head. I think it’s time to just say bye bye to professional sports for me.
Fairly easy to list the sports without corruption at this piont.
There, that’s the list
Come watch me play pickleball league on Thursday nights
Go ahead Balmer, everyone knows this already
In fact, let’s get all the way to discovery. Would that even apply here? I’m talking out my Charles Barkley. I know people with a lot to lose sue a lot, but never let it get to discovery
There won’t be any discovery. The CBA has an arbitration provision that is pretty much ironclad. Ballmer can sue and try to get out of the arbitration provision but he won’t win and any dispute resolution will remain behind closed doors.
Pure bluffing. If penalties are leveled against Ballmer they’re pretty much final. A court of law isn’t overturning it in a million years and he’s definitely not bringing an antitrust suit.
Sterling sued after he was removed and ultimately settled with the league, though obviously not in a way to get the team back. Ballmer will undoubtedly sue no matter what happens if only to save face, and the league will likely be happy to walk back whatever punishment is given in some minor way that lets him feels like he won.
Entirely different circumstance. Sterling filed a (meritless) antitrust lawsuit because of allegations of a forced sale of his ownership outside of the process that the NBA is technically supposed to follow (which of course isn’t what happened at all). Nothing happened anyway. The sale to Ballmer went through the normal process and Sterling lost his team.
A court of law can’t and won’t touch an in house arbitration proceeding about cap circumvention without any substantial allegations that the process was not followed and totally arbitrary. I can assure you that the league will be dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s as it’s laid out in the CBA, and they will enjoy having Ballmer pay their Rule 11 fees for even thinking of challenging it. The possible penalties the CBA lays out for cap circumvention aren’t even worth the fight for Ballmer.
Any punishments will have to be approved by an arbitrator, so kinda by definition he’s going to be able to fight whatever the league tries to do
At least it seems like the NBA is actually going to deliver punishment to Ballmer.
They wont
Its really feeling like tom brady deflategate except the difference is he got the patriots 3 more superbowls and clippers won absolutely nothing
Also, deflategate was dumb as fuck and had nothing to do with them blowing the doors off the Colts 45-7.
…is this you arguing deflated balls where why the Patriots won their last 3 titles with Brady there?
eh, the thing is even if deflate gate is true, it isn’t even close to the advantages of outright circumventing the salary cap.
This is the reason we need journalism. I would have never known that a guy worth $140b would be able to lawyer up like that.
Steve Ballmer can just buy the NBA probably
I’m not sure that’s how it works there chochee
Rich people don’t abide by laws or rules lol
From DEVELOPERS 👏 DEVELOPERS 👏 DEVELOPERS 👏 To LAWYERS 👏 LAWYERS 👏 LAWYERS
Well yeah. That’s why they took so long on the investigation. If the league is actually going to hand down punishments, they want to be sure it sticks
What’s a lawyer gonna do? This ain’t a criminal case lmao
Propaganda machine is dishing out propaganda for daddy Ballmer
Kawhi and Uncle Dennis about to bite the bullet on this one
Not sure what any else expected to happen…people don’t become billionaires just accepting a loss or fault.
This is why they shouldn’t agreed to let ballmer buy the team in the first place.
He fully paid for the best arena in the league in the best city in terms of weather and attractions
He’s too valuable and people forget the commissioner works for the owners
Awww is the billionaire upset that his shady actions have consequences. Buffoon
I’ve been asking in another thread but I’ll ask here as well.
What grounds? On what basis if it’s shown that they were circumventing the cap does he have to sue?
He can fight it all he wants, he signed a contract when he bought the team that he would abide by the terms of the NBA constitution and its bylaws. The commissioner has within his power the right to levy fines including draft picks and loss of income.
Where’s Ballmer’s position that people are so worried about him?
Another example of rules not applying to the incredibly wealthy. It’s such an insult to an NBA fan’s intelligence to try and deny all the evidence that been presented.
Why is anyone with any credibility saying this.
The CBA signs away the right to litigate in open court. Every time that has every been challenged it has immediately been dismissed.
The CBA has an appeals process and Ballmer has no extra recourse beyond that.
If anyones wondering why the investigations taking forever this is why. They need it as bombproof as possible so the NBA doesn’t get humiliated by losing in court.
There shouldnt even be a chance nba loses this
The fact people think ballmer can just throw money at lawyers until he gets his way is a indictment on the justice system
losing in court on WHAT?
Like it or not there is no part in the NBA constitution that says that Silver doesn’t have this power.
He doesn’t even have to have full proof just the likelihood of it
I don’t expect people to read the NBA constitution but this is what Ballmer signed. This right here is the only thing people need to know and its why Silver is so cowardly when the powers he has are contractually binding and complete.
The Commissioner shall have the power to: (i) suspend for a definite or indefinite period, or to impose a fine not exceeding $5,000,000, or inflict both such suspension and fine upon any person who, in his opinion, shall have been guilty of conduct prejudicial or detrimental to the Association, and (ii) impose the forfeiture of Draft picks held by the Member employing or otherwise affiliated with the offending person or the transfer of such Draft picks to another Member.
He doesn’t have to have proof of it, he has to believe that Ballmer has been guilty of conduct detrimental to the NBA. I’d argue that half the public believing Ballmer to have lied and fixed a salary cap to be a really easy bar to pass that muster.
If he and Kawhi get off Scott free the league is fucking cooked. This gambling shit is already getting out of control, this would be pretty close to the last straw for me.
Any lawsuit in civil court would almost assuredly be throw out immediately, since the NBA CBA and NBA Constitution already lay out an arbitration process that every owner and player has agreed to.
Steve Ballmer is a piece of shit. Noted
If Ballmer can fight this does it mean that there are no penalties for cheating if you have enough money?
Kwahi Leonard cursed the Clippers…..
Oh wait….never mind…..it’s the Clippers
Like shitting in an already clogged toilet.
I’ll donate to Pablo lawyer fund if he gets pushed into it
Non-lawyers are all about to realize why Billionaires commit crimes; because they are usually not caught and, when they are caught, there is “due process,” an endless appeal system and, many years later, if a punishment is ever even rendered at all, it is unlikely to even be close to proportional to the original sin committed.
If this moves to litigation, we won’t see a resolution until 2028 or 2029, I bet, at the earliest.
Ballmer is such a clown. As are all billionaires, but still.
I love that we’re not even discussing if Balmer and Kawhi are cheating scumbags. We’ve moved to, “well there’s nothing you can do about it.”
What a fiasco this has turned into. Silver has failed here and allowing Ballmer to do what he did after 2019 season.
Men will do anything but take accountability
Gotta get Ballmer out of the league, bro is nothing but trouble.
Y’all’s weewees get hard when thinking about punishing Kawhi but Wacky Wavin Inflatable Arm-Flailing Billionaire Man skates on here
This is what Silver is afraid of: Ballmer going into burn-it-all-down mode because he was caught cheating by using a fraudulent greenwashing company. This is why he’s slow walking the investigation as it expands. Ballmer is a dude with infinite resources who only cares about getting his way. This is why he cheated in the first place by paying Leonard under the table.
It’s not easy to discipline a billionaire who is as rich as every NBA franchise combined, simply because of his plutocratic power.
I hope Pablo Torres doesnt get pushback from the NBA for his reporting. He’s messing with all of the team owners if Steve Ballmer decides to sue
If anything, Torre is the NBA’s best asset in punishing Ballmer and the Clippers. Silver may want to give him a wide berth as insurance. It’s not that a journalist is less vulnerable than a huge business to junk litigation, but when the government - say, the Trump administration - has gone after journalists, their pretext has relied on their physical presence somewhere they don’t want them or reporting on what’s deemed classified information.
In CA, anti-SLAPP laws are strong. I don’t know that Ballmer will be able to get at Torre, because the NBA report itself will almost certainly corroborate Torre’s reporting, as nothing he’s reported has been contradicted to date. So, if anything, while Torre’s reporting at one level embarrasses Silver, his reporting was instrumental in uncovering the scale of Ballmer’s cheating - which involved stealing from the league, because he circumvented the cap with under the table payments.
They should have never allowed a guy to own an NBA franchise who has the capacity to purchase EVERY SINGLE TEAM IN THE LEAGUE.
Dare him to do it, start with Portland
Rich white boomer doing everything in his power to avoid accountability for breaking the rules… Change the fucking record.