Because this guy writes like he’s paid by Clipper’s PR.

“Mr Silver, I did an oopsie poopsie, a little fucky wucky if you will, can i play?”

Silver works for ballmer, clippers and the raptors. Not the other way around. When silver goes to ask for a pay raise he has to bargain with Ballmer for his salary. Can’t get clearer than that. If ballmer takes any discipline here it’s cuz he’s doing his buddy silver a PR favour.

Because that’s exactly what Michael Grange is lol

its actually worse than that, ballmer was paying kawhi while he was on the spurs

its why he was so insistent that LA is the only place he’d accept a trade to while floating that the lakers weren’t a great fit through back channels

because he was already on the fucking payroll

Why are you wording this like it’s mostly Kawhis fault and not mostly Ballmers?

Toronto writer who releases no-effort pontifications that are meant to be read by Leafs fans who have an awareness of the Raps and not much more.

He has no sources outside of what the Raps FO feeds him if any at all.

He’s just trying to write an article based on things he’s making up but phrasing it in a way where it doesn’t seem blatant.

“it’s just a piece of metal” vibe

“This Pablo guy is saying too much. We gotta do something, Mr. Silver.”

Bc everything is a PR scandal, the rich and powerful know theyll never face any real consequences 🤷🏻‍♀️ the biggest hit to them is their public image

The punishment will be Torre having his NBA journalism credentials revoked.

We all know it, most people have said it from Day 1. Slap on the wrist, move on. NBA has had worse scandals and also did nothing. I watch the NBA as entertainment but its long had no integrity and I dont pretend it does. 

That how the NBA is handling it. The only people who got cheated were the other owners (who all knew they weren’t getting Kawhi anyway and don’t care how much he gets paid off the books) and don’t care about the results of this thing other than to avoid bad publicity for the league.

“A tolerable outcome for all concerned.” - yes, ideally I would like to not be punished.

Welcome to capitalism.

Now please go to work and don’t miss a day. We wouldn’t want you to miss out on your chance of getting to sit at the big kids table.

That is basically American capitalism in a nutshell. Lol

“Better”

That’s just capitalism in general

It’s an arcade and getting the most tickets is a success. You could press the buttons like everyone else and get quite a lot this way. But is that winning the most? Nah, you gotta steal from others and own the machines…then you have the most.

The orange guy is in the White House

The only thing I love about a world where the Clippers don’t get punished is that my owner is known to spend big money. I’d love to see what he could do with an unlimited payroll.

Realistically though, I expect there to be monetary penalties and not as much on the discipline side.

It’s funny to me how many people are so unaccustomed to journalism and long investigations that they think Pablo has some kind of obsession or other motivation and isn’t just doing what real journalists used to do way more of.

So true. Like take this Grange report: everything he is reporting here is just league PR

I just don’t understand why the other owners wouldn’t want to destroy Kawhi and Balmer over this.

I understand people are saying rich people never face repercussions, which is normally true. The only time they do is when they fuck with other rich people’s money. 

Hurting the perception of the league while normalizing extra under the table payouts isn’t good for the other owners who want to be cheap as fuck. You’d think they’d be pissed that another owner is trying to give more money to the players.

It’s not the death of journalism, it’s the systematic dismantling of all the checks and balances. If PTFO wasn’t funded all this would have slid under the table. There’s even a 50|50 chance it slides if Adam Silver sees fit.

It depends on what Ballmer decides the punishment will be. I suspect he may fine Uncle Dennis an undisclosed amount, to maintain the appearance of integrity

Additionally, it may be determined that Ballmer receive a spanking on his bare back, balls, and butt

I choose to believe that phrase was made up after nothing happened to Scott Foster during the Donaghy scandal

That’s how it always goes. Take a look at the Astros.

Corruption isn’t even hidden anymore.

Don’t worry though, the league will show how serious they are about enforcing their own rules by putting the hammer down on the Bucks for overpaying Gary Trent Jr…

I really can’t believe how naive sports fans are. The world is ran by corrupt people playing by different rules.

yeah this dude writes like he’s paid by the clips.

This sub needs tier lists like how /r/soccer has for each reporter/journalist.

He’s literally been the mouthpiece for the raptors organization forever. People sometimes don’t get that whenever he reports something from the raptors, its what they’ve chosen to feed him and relay.

This is how you kill a league

Yeah, I get people assuming they’ll just get a slap on the wrist because of Ballmer’s wealth and Silver’s lack of a spine (to say nothing for the Clips not actually winning anything of note), but I think it is noteworthy that the new rules in place were made specifically make it much harder for owners like Ballmer to just outspend everyone, since the luxury tax is still peanuts to him, and also that they had already got caught once trying to get around the CBA. Other teams are blowing up rosters and trading away fan favorites to stay under the second apron, while Ballmer is basically taking a dump on the legal agreement written to stop this exact scenario.

If Ballmer and the Clippers aren’t hit with a real punishment, all this does is set the blueprint for what every other owner can do to get around the aprons, with precedent that the league won’t do anything real about it when they do.

Literally, look at the Joe Smith scandal. The league took a hammer down on the wolves for MUCH less

Toronto Raptors to shoulder the cost of Kawhi’s year long medical stress leave.

Wolves were punished so harshly that it basically set our franchise back another 15 years.

Silver is genuinely a bitch. 

I think we’ll see a combination of an unsatisfyingly light penalty here, but a whole new set of rules regarding disclosure of endorsements and other third-party deals, plus a moratorium period so teams and players have a couple years to get all their contracts above-board.

Who says it’s not already happening and that’s why the league goes easy on the Clippers?

I know, it’s infuriating. So many comments from people that haven’t watched more than a few short clips from Pablo and people that know nothing about Wachtell Lipton’s investigation into previous owners.

I’ve been watching videos today that have had Pablo on as a guest. At the end of his appearance on Stephen As show his final words were “I think there’s a lot more to come.” That makes me think he has another bombshell about the Kawhi scandal that is separate from Aspiration and Daktronics and I’m dying to know what he’s teasing with that.

I don’t believe Ballmer loses the Clippers. He brilliantly financed Intuit Dome himself and the NBA won’t risk losing access to it by forcing him to sell. I also don’t think Ballmer, the Clippers, and Kawhi get a slap on the wrist. The most important piece that so many people are forgetting is that owners having “free reign” to circumvent the salary cap means the wealthy owners can avoid ever hitting the luxury tax. That is money the other owners are missing out on and I guarantee you they would be livid not getting that sweet cash.

Yeah honestly if they don’t get severe punishment all the stars should just take cheap deals and side money so they can have a championship roster. Imagine my Warriors if Steph was making 20m a year instead of 65m.

No fine will be sufficient as every owner is rich enough to handle it. The only way to make them fear the consequences is to dock draft picks.

wouldn’t that be the price anyway, even if the fine is severe?

Per article 13 of the NBA’s CBA the absolute maximum fine the NBA can hit the Clippers with is \(7,500,000 and for an owner it's \)1,000,000. So basically it’s impossible to hit Ballmer and the Clippers with an adequate fine for this scandal.

I don’t know why suspension wouldn’t be a much better punishment avenue. Salary still gets taken aways and I think Silver has wide latitude with suspension to do as he sees fit. If this stuff turns out to be true I would suspend Kahwi for an entire season.

A contract void would hurt Kawhi and the Clippers more than a suspension, because a void completely screws up the trade. A suspension for some limited amount of games still allows for the trade to made (with possibly adjusted terms.)

It’s a small list. 1. You have the owners too cheap or too ‘ethical’ aka the look down at the players like Dolan and Kroenke. 2. Then you have the teams owned by ownership groups. 3. Then you have teams that simply don’t have the cash. 4. Then you have the owners that simply don’t care enough about winning.

My list would be: Suns, Heat, Cavs, Mavs (under Cuban), Nets

“I’m sorry if you took offense…”