I wonder how Daktronics conned Ballmer on this one, poor billionaire can’t catch a break

Do y’all think he still ends up in Toronto?

It’s weird this story doesn’t seem like a bigger deal. It’s strictly only discussed in NBA circles. Maybe people are just so desensitized to corruption nothing matters anymore

League should Rescind his contract and make him play for the Kings on a minimum lol

Pablo Torre living up to his podcast name and showing that the Pulitzer prize was well deserved

lol wolves lost 5 first round picks for less while the clippers get no punishment and the nba tries sweeping it under the rug

The feds should get involved. I’m going to laugh my ass off if this is bigger than cap circumvention and Balmer and the Clippers are actually involved in money laundering and wire fraud.

The commissioner better step in and suspend Dak Prescott for this

If you wanted a smoking gun, this is as good as it gets for salary cap circumvention. Why the hell would a jumbo tron company sign this dude and have him do nothing at all. And the company even said before this it didn’t want to do endorsements 😭 you can’t make this up

“Board man gets paid.”

Kick him outta the league and make Balmer sell at this point obviously

The league has to either void Kawhi’s contract and ban him for two years, or fine him enough where it hurts. I doubt they can do the second option, so first one is in their wheelhouse.

As for the clippers, punish them with a cap penalty for 3 years and remove their next 3 owned 1st round picks. They’ll be in purgatory

That darn Clippers organization just doing all types of debauchery behind Steve Balmers back. Dont forget hes the real victim here.. What a crummy staff to just find roundabout ways to give Kawhi more money for shits and giggles totally random and unprovoked.

Hindsight I remember watching Clippers games over the years and you could see Balmer burning a hole through Kawhi as he sat out game after game after game. Now it all makes sense. He was pissed because he paid extra and wasnt even getting what he paid for on the original contract.

I hope I’m wrong but nothing really impactful will happen to anyone

All of this to not even come close to winning a chip.

This is way worse and way more damaging to the league than anything sterling did. 

Honestly, I hope more and more of these under-the-table deals to Kawhi are discovered just so I can laugh at the Clippers doing it to win fuck-all.

Kawhi played 11 playoff games (4-7 record, 0-3 series) over the past 5 years.

ALLLL of this bullshit for a guy who could barely stay on the court for more than 30 games a year.

As a college sports fan, it’s hilarious to me to see the discourse of “just how far is too far” in professional sports when it comes to extra incentives.

I remember when Arian Foster told a story about playing in front of 102k+ fans and then going back to his dorm with an empty fridge, so Phil Fulmer bought him and a couple of other players like 50 tacos from Taco Bell. That kind of shit in college football at that time could get a coach suspended / fired, and a player ruled ineligible.

Now we’re all in here making jokes about a professional basketball team skirting salary cap rules and paying players under the table, and the NBA seems like they’re just hoping and praying this will go away without a scandal.

wtf kind of reporting is this “technically kind of”

Kawhi went from a humble chill guy with a good legacy to ruining all that for greed. What happened to the rookie who was still driving his old pickup truck because he didn’t need a flashy new ride.

It’s about time to start asking, ‘Wtf else are you hiding, Steve?’

Did all this to cheat and win nothing.

This is cool. Now they just find one next year and nobody will ever face any repercussions or punishments. Except for the fact that the NBA has become a joke and I hope they get used to not getting money from people who know this

How mad do you think silver is every time this gets updated? He just wants it to go away but it just keeps getting worse and worse. I still don’t think he will do anything about it but it his “wait it out clock” just keeps getting reset 

Top 5 players in the league: Hey Steve, give me a call! Let’s make a deal!

Technically kind of funding it?

If this was David Stern he probably would have forced Ballmer to sell the team and Kawhi would be suspended for at least 1 season if not more. But since this is Silver there’s still a chance Kawhi plays this season on the Raptors.

Remember when young Kawhi drove his old pickup truck to games and clipped Wingstop coupons?  Uncle Dennis really corrupted this guy.

How does this affect lebrons legacy ?

Time to watch former players attack Pablo and call him a loser and say that it happens all over the league and “so what? It’s not a big deal”

Kawhi should be banned for 2 years and the Clippers have to be punished worse than that

It would be so incredible if this is what finally cause an ULTRA rich billionaire to actually suffer a legitimate L (which let’s be honest, having a team taken from you is still basically nothing at all in the grand scheme of things) but sadly this is why I feel so confident that nothing noteworthy will come of this.

David Stern would’ve sent Kawhi to Alcatraz

Just like how Steve Balmer was paying Kawhi through Aspiration?

Are we about to find out Kawhi is low key like a billionaire lmao with all these side deals

I really appreciate that Pablo is doing this reporting but I cannot stand his delivery

Hi this is the IRS. Tell me more.

What are the odds that Kawhi has played his last NBA game?

I don’t care bro it’s the Clippers

There goes the Toronto deal. Kawhi will definitely catch a yearlong suspension from this. And I think the only reason Balmer will survive this is because he’s attached to the only good thing Adam Silver is attached to: The Sterling forced sale. It’s Adam Silver’s legacy as a commissioner

Make ballmer sell the team

Ban the trade and move both the clippers and kawhi to San Diego.

It’s the only fair punishment.

As a Raptors fan this is truly depressing…… just veto the trade at this point. Burn the Clippers and everyone involved to the ground.

I will just say that it’s objectively funny that the Clippers did all this shit for Kawhi and got jack shit from it.

Silver doesn’t have the balls to do anything

Curious of others thoughts on this idea. The league should make an example out of LAC and take their franchise and move it to one of the expansion cities and . It’s honestly perfect timing.

Also think Kawhi needs to be forced to retire. I’m sure this last point is not popular, but honestly for how much he actually contributes in the last few years, the league won’t miss him.

Kawaii gonna end up in prison with Dennis. Too many sketchy things already out so easily, the worst is always buried deeper. Too foolish to be a grifter

I bet NBA does nothing about this. Where’s the Kalshi bet at

Adam is on vacation, sorry

So much for the load management, if this gets throught with all the other accusations, he might as well load manage his rest of his life back in his home where he always wanted

They really need to freeze all clippers draft picks until this is resolved

I blame Kawhi less now.. most humans won’t turn down half a Bill

How is this stuff not illegal and not just against the CBA?

The plot thickens…the Clippers were doing dirt to get Kawhi more money. The commissioner needs to do something here. The Clippers cannot get away with this there has to be consequences. Kawhi also need to prove he was oblivious of the dealings or get some penalty as well.

Ballmer is going to put a hit out on this guy 🤣

Lol man all I can imagine through this whole thing is Kawhi doing that ridiculous laugh all the way to the bank

How long until Shams breaks the story that Pablo has accepted the league office position of Chief Dig Up Ya Skeletons Officer and will act with full latitude as Special Advisor to Silver? 

Like why the hell does Silver employ all these fools who have been twiddling their thumbs on this investigation for almost 2 years while making their boss/contract holder look like a fool publicly.

Similar to the Aspiration investigation, Pablo fails to establish the actual link to cap circumvention. If Daktronics wants to sponsor Kawhi in exchange for winning the business of the Intuit Dome, then Pablo needs the terms of the exchange for this to be meaningful. Otherwise, this is no different than any other athlete having a deal with a team sponsor.

Can someone ELI5? I get that this company made the scoreboard for intuit; and also had a deal with Kawhi, but is there a smoking gun connecting the money from ballmer to Kawhi? Otherwise this just sounds like a vibes situation.