Any less than the next 7-8 years worth of their firsts, kawhi contract voided, and suspensions for frank/ballmer is a joke.

The wolves title window was crippled (-4 picks, voided deal, suspensions for owner and GM) because they tried to sign a guy for cheap with the promise of using his bird rights to extend him for more later, which is nowhere close to this bad.

These guys need to be a kings tier franchise for the next decade.

And to remind everyone, the salary cap and tax aprons were put in place by the owners at large specifically to curb the spending power of the richest owners. The 2nd apron was pretty much specifically made for Ballmer. If the owners as a whole were cool about him outspending them, they wouldn’t have put these rules in place in the first place.

And that’s without mentioning that they missed out on millions of tax penalties from Ballmer.

The NBA represents the interests of the owners as a whole, and Ballmer defrauded them. I’m not exactly sure why so many are expecting a slap on the wrist. Billionaires don’t give a shit about breaking the law, domestic violence, sketchy business practices, gambling, etc. But they really care when someone cheats them and messes with their money.

Simple - if there is as much proof as the Clippers, go find it and report on it. You’ll potentially win a Pulitzer.

Same argument as the Astros cheating scandal. Yeah other teams like boston and NYY had scandals and accusations but nothing on the same planet as what Houston was doing

My ethical Celtics overpaying Porzingis and Holiday and then sending them off for ultimately nothing, unable to re-sign Horford at \(5.7M, Kornet at \)10.2M AAV, and scared to give Brown an extension.

This is why I love my team

Reminder of the wealth scale.

My cat’s net worth is closer to Mark Cuban’s net worth than Cuban is to Ballmer.

Multiple teams including the Lakers and Raptors literally said no to Kawhi’s camp (Uncle Dennis) when he was shopping teams. They all reported that Kawhi was asking for things that they weren’t allowed to give.

So it’s not just that other teams don’t do it to this level. They literally had the opportunity to in this exact case and said no.

I have a hard time believing the Celtics have done this. Would have been smart to do this instead of getting rid of all the talent for peanuts

Tampering? I could see that

Cap circumvention? Definitely not

Yep, it takes Ballmer levels of money to know you can get away with anything.

There is a reason that both Raptors and Lakers reported this independently to the league in 2019. The league decided not to do anything about it.

Wouldn’t it be more obvious that teams were circumventing the cap if they never lost their role players like that? This seems like a strategy that’s deployed for elite players, not just everyone.

You joke but it really seems like they enjoy bending the rules

I wonder how they tried to scam the Spurs back in the day that went so badly that he got traded for a bag of cheetos.

Unc Dennis gives off that scummy aura since his name floated in 2019.

It’s hilarious that sketchy Dad/Uncle who acts as a fixer is universal across sports. At least Neymar’s dad just got paid in orgies.

The second I hear someone’s “agent” is their family member, they are up to some shit.

Idk if it’s Kawhi himself or Uncle Dennis, but it’s been reported Uncle Dennis asked the Raptors and other teams for under the table endorsements, ownership stakes, etc.

I’m pro player and have no problem with players making money, but come on man lol. The hundreds of millions in career earnings weren’t enough? Christ.

The scale of this makes me wonder how many other players have a similar deal. I know the clippers were the last straw in terms of implementing the second apron, but could they really be the only team circumventing the cap if they weren’t able to get anyone better than Paul George and Norm Powell with an unlimited budget?

So funny how Kawhi got away with the slimiest shit for so long because he was a quiet guy who won lmao the 2019 offseason was full of rumors of shady shit but nobody cared 

The least marketable star ever, had the most endorsement money laundering deals

Keep digging 

Take the rest of the day off, lad. You earned it.

Another interpretation of it taking so long is it means serious consequences. The league wants to make sure they’re air tight before bringing down the hammer because Balmer and Khawi are going to fight it.

Or maybe that’s too optimistic that the rich will see consequences.

I don’t think you understand the magnitude of this investigation. The Sarver investigation took ten months and was much smaller in scope. This investigation is massive. With the Sarver investigation virtually everyone involved was an employee of the NBA in some capacity. Per Article 35 of the NBA Constitution and Bylaws “any non-player personnel who refuses to comply with an investigation, attempts to hide information, or engages in tampering/dishonesty faces immediate suspension, lifetime bans, or personal fines up to $2.5 million directly enforced by the Commissioner.”

This is significant because the current Wachtell investigation involves entities that are not required to follow the NBA Constitution. We have no idea what people are saying to the investigators but many of them are under no obligation to say anything. Ballmer could be paying people off to keep quiet. Yes, that would be a violation of the NBA Constitution but he’s already violated it to an insane degree with the salary cap circumvention and if he fears losing the team as a result then I wouldn’t put it past him to pull out every tactic to detail the investigation.

Silver and the league office are in a difficult spot right now. I’m not saying I feel bad for the ghoul but he can’t interfere with Wachtell and I highly doubt Wachtell would let him because they are extremely reputable and wouldn’t risk damaging that for Silver. They gain nothing from fixing this for the NBA. But the scope of this investigation cannot be understated. This isn’t as simple as allegations of misogynistic behavior like Sarver or racist comments like Sterling. This shit involves an entire fraudulent financial institution, Daktronics (who are the premier display company for sports teams across the US), and it could potentially involve Rhode Island politicians siphoning money meant for affordable housing into a soccer stadium. I would seriously not be surprised if Wachtell has interviewed over 500 people so far.

But my main point is that Wachtell is not operating on the league’s timetable. They are doing a thorough investigation and will take as much time as they need. The ramifications are far reaching (as we’ve seen with these allegations already resulting in a lawsuit against Ballmer and even coming up in a Rhode Island governor debate) and they are going to be absolutely certain they get it right. I honestly don’t think this will be completed before the season starts. When this first broke my guess was 12-13 months. With the information that has come out since then I’d be surprised if they even finish it by the end of the year.

EDIT: On top of all the current stuff Wachtell Lipton is investigating we gotta remember that this shit with Kawhi, Ballmer, and the Clippers goes back nine years to 2017. I have no doubt Wachtell is investigating the paper trails and allegations that started then. One of the most interesting is Randy Shelton’s lawsuit against the Clippers. Shelton was Kawhi’s strength and conditioning coach and claims he made an off-the-record deal with the Clippers to get him to them in exchange for money. I dug around and couldn’t find the current status of the lawsuit. Suffice to say Wachtell is pouring through documents that go back nine years. This investigation won’t be done before the season, this whole thing is massive in terms of scope. I’m not a lawyer so have no idea if Wachtell could get access to court documents of pending lawsuits or any that have been thrown out. Idk if court records get sealed when a lawsuit is dismissed in California or how much authority Wachtell has to gain access to stuff like that. I also remember a different person in Kawhi’s camp that sued the Clippers for the same reason and if memory serves me right the case was thrown out because the backdoor deal meant the plantiff couldn’t prove it existed. I swear Pablo mentioned it on one of the earlier episodes.

Anyway here are some links that show how much shit there is with Kawhi and how far back it goes:

https://abcnews.com/Sports/clippers-staffer-sues-fired-kawhi-concerns/story?id=115122062

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/kf8fyh/amick_source_the_nba_has_launched_an/?share_id=cWsQG_XfTwjHceCrvafzy

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1ncmjfv/bruce_arthur_in_2019_kawhi_asked_the_raptors_for/?share_id=iQs94pirAeCpCSX5QvebU

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1r2sk3z/pablo_torre_clippers_former_gm_michael_winger/?share_id=f2h2yp57EJuVakTTxjjqd

I keep hearing this but there are procedures and legal requirements to follow. This is the adult world not some speedrun. League doesn’t have a certain timeline outlined by fan expectations but actual rules to follow.

Unfortunately to get one of the richest people in the world adequately punished it’s going to take all of this and more

He’s forcing Silvers hand here. Still think Kawhi gets the fall for all of this

The NBA would like to make sure this resolves cleanly and not have the rug pulled on them. Especially if it places them in an arena they don’t have control over (i.e. civil court, federal investigation). Because if the latter happens, that’s not just damage to the league but the risk could have spillover into other areas.

Generational hate tour 

The man won a Pulitzer and keeps feeding the public 

You can’t rush the punishment because this case will set precedent. You only get one shot at a thing like this. You mess it up and the second apron is all but dead in name and the NBA leans closer to the MLB.

Ballmer is richer than every owner combined and will have his army of lawyers use any misstep to appeal the punishment.

I wouldn’t even say Pablo is necessarily on a mission against them - he’s just doing the best at what used to be an honorable profession 

I can’t believe you guys want to give up 2 FRPs for this guy. 

Back out of the deal now 

“If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.”

~Carl Sagan

And uncle Dennis will bid on the hit contract

Only so many Jumbotrons to sell I guess?

Doesn’t feel like the kind of business that should be publicly traded and accountable to shareholders, punished for not hitting growth targets every single quarter etc so I’m sure that didn’t help

It’s a very niche market, don’t know anything about it but it seems like it would be very vulnerable to external factors.

Who was buying a jumbotron in 2020-2021 ?

It makes sense that they have issues. 

He didn’t manipulate the stock price. He bought a $100M jumbotron and infused their business with cash when they were out of money. It’s probably slightly illegal to not disclose they did that in order to backchannel money to Kawhi Leonard, but the stock went up because the business was legitimately saved.

Or they are a well run organization that wasn’t going to put up with Uncle Dennis and Kawhi’s nonsense

I remember when Kawhi left how people on here were shitting on the Spurs medical team. Spurs were in the right for letting this drama go

Lucky? lol, that whole saga started because the Spurs will not play ball with under the table deals. It is a blessing to have your favorite team be well-run, but this whole BS train was basically:

• Kawhi wanting all the CBA-circumvention money, Spurs not putting up with it.
• Making shit up for publicity to leave the Spurs (spurs medical team was right, and both Raps and Clips ended up doing that exact recommendation - load managing).
• Land on the Raptors, have them be unwilling to put up with this BS either.
• Raps later talk to the league about illicit demands, who brushes this under the rug.
• Win ring as THE guy. More leverage, nice.
• Try any franchise willing to do this shit, Lakers included (they also turned to the league).
• End up with the one franchise that both didn’t mind and was offering the most money.

This MFer probably ended up sitting a whole lot of games playing “where’s my moeny” with the Clips when aspiration went belly up.

Ballmer should be forced to sell and kawhi’s uncle should be banned, too

There’s no way Balmer and the clips get a harsher punishment than Kawhi. Balmer is ultra rich and at the end of the day Silver’s boss. Kawhi and uncle Dennis would be the fall guys for this case in my opinion

This is worse than Pete Rose imo.

I know what you mean, lmao. But to be fair, this isn’t the movies or tv shows, lol. If Torre were to just suddenly disappear, who do you think would be suspect #1?

Clippers will, they’re the ones that should have said no

Clippers going to get striped of multiple picks

Per the CBA, the harshest penalties are reserved for the team.