TruckThunders00

551 | 15 hours ago

if balmer just gets a slap on the wrist, he should just play 6 players on the court at all times

heatrealist

114 | 13 hours ago

That might result in another fine.

iwantsomecrablegsnow | Pistons

34 | 10 hours ago

Fines are deterrents for poor owners

GavMcKennasBurner

8 | 10 hours ago

“What color is your cap circumvention company?” Steve Balmer

didyoutouchmydrums | Cavaliers

18 | 12 hours ago

Why stop at 1 extra? I say 1 extra per funnel company

GavMcKennasBurner

7 | 10 hours ago

“We’re going to be very hard on him, he will not have his third round picks for the next decade, TAKE THAT BALMER AND LEARN YOUR LESSON”-Adam Silver

cancerBronzeV | Raptors

5 | 10 hours ago

Might as well get the refs some side deals and have 8 players on the court at all times.

MCtwerkteam

3 | 11 hours ago

Or force the Clips to play Ballmer 20 min a game

airmarw | Magic

496 | 15 hours ago

How Kawhi is allowed to play and Balmer not forced to sell is beyond me

Zyrinj | Warriors

169 | 14 hours ago

$$$ = rules don’t apply

Wealthiest owner not facing repercussions of using his wealth really shouldn’t surprise any of us. Not after all professional sports bent over for that sweet gambling money. Morals and rules exemptions are for sale until proven otherwise

HumongousBelly

36 | 14 hours ago

If they won’t be held responsible for doing nasty shit to children on Trump/epstein island, why would any of this cause trouble for them?

You won’t face consequences if you have enough money and whatever you own isn’t something that fat orange fuck wants to own/own by proxy, like the Lakers…

dgvhjiiuyttrrffcvbjj

3 | 11 hours ago

the difference here is Ballmer is fucking other billionaires. That’s when wealthy people get in trouble.

nmcaff | Wizards

2 | 4 hours ago

It’s the only thing that eventually forced Snyder to sell. He was implicated in sex trafficking, but the only thing that mattered was underreporting revenue

kNyne

28 | 14 hours ago

It’s like when Elon Musk started flaunting that he’s got the #1 account in path of exile 2 and when everyone called him out, he admitted he was cheating (account sharing).

The president of the company basically said yeah there’s absolutely no way we’re willing to be on the bad side of the richest man in the world so we will not be banning him. Meanwhile they have a hard stance that if you glue a popsicle stick to your keyboard you can be banned.

DG_Now | SEA

2 | 5 hours ago

You need to be a sociopath to have hoarded as much wealth as Elon has. That’s not in question.

However, his interests are just so astoshingly lame.

grudgepacker | Bucks

10 | 14 hours ago

And isn’t Ballmer’s wealth still like a metric fuckton more than even if you combined all the other owners’ wealth? Or some crazy stat like that??

All billionaires suck but Ballmer’s still in an entirely different tier of the oligarchy, hard to imagine his level of soft power over anything/everything whenever he chooses to wield it.

Zyrinj | Warriors

13 | 14 hours ago

Had to double check, according to wikipedia, his net wealth was estimated to be between 140-160billion.

Also based on Wikipedia, all team valuations combined is about 160billion as of this year.

Using those numbers he’s basically in spitting range or being able to outright buy all teams if he wanted to and assuming he could convert all his wealth into buying power.

So yea, any random fan is probably closer in net worth to any other team owner as any team owner is to Ballmer.

Edit: because I sometimes think about how crazy large numbers are:

Spending $1 a second and assuming none of the money earns a return, it’d take:

$1,000 → 16 minutes, 40 seconds

$1,000,000 (millionaire)→ 11.57 days

$1,000,000,000 (billionaire)→ ~31.7 years

$1,000,000,000,000 (trillionaire)→ ~31,688 years

Say we only invested in S&P 500 that averages 7-10% returns, we’d have 70-100mill in gains for every billion invested, with only ~32million seconds in a year, it’d be impossible for the billionaire to run out of money by spending $1 a second.

xXxChippysMittensxXx

7 | 14 hours ago

An average fan ISNT closer to in net worth to an NBA owner vs an NBA owner to baller thats just absurd. For the sake of round numbers if the average fan makes 50k/yr and the average NBA owners worth 5 billion the owners worth 100000x a fan. If ballmers worth 160 billion to an average NBA owner thats like 30x more.

Zyrinj | Warriors

10 | 14 hours ago

That’s why I said closer, if you had a $1, you’re about 1 billion away from a billionaire. A billionaire is about 140billion away from being as wealthy as Ballmer.

When we’re speaking in terms of multiples sure, but that removes the absurdity and context of how large a number a billion is

ewokninja123

4 | 5 hours ago

There’s a saying: The difference between a billion and a million is about a billion.

A million is just a rounding error at that scale.

CleverNickName-69

1 | 13 hours ago

Your conclusion is correct but we could be more exact. Median is usually a better measure than average is. I asked Google for the numbers and Google can be wrong, but assuming:

The median US citizen has a net worth of almost $200,000.

The median Principle NBA owner has a net worth of $12 billion, which is 60,000 times more.

Forbes says Ballmer is worth an estimated $126-152 billion. So less than 13 times larger than the median NBA owner.

Zyrinj | Warriors

6 | 13 hours ago

Conclusion isn’t correct though. Put differently, you wouldn’t say a point 12 billion miles away from you is closer to a point 140 billion miles away from you than you are to a that point that is 12 billion miles from you.

Difference is 128 billion miles vs 12 billion miles

OkAutopilot | NBA

38 | 14 hours ago

There are specific, defined rules about what the maximum penalty can be for salary cap navigation. Selling your team is not one of then. That is why.

randotd152

2 | 13 hours ago

Bull. People keep parroting this while being totally ignorant to the entire Brady v NFL case.

The CBA is worthless if the commissioner decides to tuck anything he wants under the vague “integrity of the game” clauses. That was the legal ruling and end result of the Brady case. Unless Kawhi/Clippers want to fight that to the Supreme Court and try that route, it’s settled. Silver is a god over his jurisdiction as far as courts are concerned.

As for selling the team - that’s not actually a commissioner power. That’s an owner vote. Doesn’t need Silver’s approval. But owners won’t oust Ballmer - his money is too valuable to league power.

Laggo | TOR

8 | 12 hours ago

Owners really don’t like encouraging the precedent that someone can be forced to sell unless it’s a slam dunk like Sterling because they are all well aware that it could be them down the line. Even in sterling’s case he wasnt ‘forced’. It’s not even about Ballmer’s money, they just aren’t going to make it a regular thing to use scandals as an opportunity to force re-sales, because that gets ugly pretty fast and drives down valuations and sale prices if investors think NBA teams being up for grabs is going to start becoming more common.

GonePostalRoute

4 | 9 hours ago

Also with the Sterling case, if they didn’t boot him, they were going to have a full blown mutiny in LA (and possibly across the league). An owner making comments like that about black men. When the league is majority black. The NBA had no choice but to give him the boot.

randotd152

2 | 12 hours ago

While I agree completely with everything you say, this is actually the kind of thing that would rise to the level of booting an owner, much as owners dislike doing that.

This was blatant and massive salary cap circumvention. Not just tiddlywinks level cheating, but flat out playing with a different salary cap structure. And it landed them a prime MVP candidate too.

Who even knows how far this goes back with Ballmer and what other players he did it for.

I think a “poor” owner might get booted over this exact situation.

ewokninja123

2 | 5 hours ago

Also all the other owners hated Sterling because he didn’t make a real effort to put a winning team on the floor

OkAutopilot | NBA

2 | 3 hours ago

Nope. Not bull. By your logic there are no employment laws and you can be fired for whatever at any time from a job. That’s not how the world works and it’s not how the NBA works.

The NFL and deflate gate is not analogous to this in any way. That’s a different league with a different CBA and that whole thing was outside the scope of existing laws.

This on the other hand is the NBA and the CBA has exact and specific language for what punishments can be for salary cap circumvention and puts a clear limitation on what the comissioner can do:

13.3 Penalties.

Upon a finding of a violation of Section 1 above by the System Arbitrator, but only following the conclusion of any appeal to the Appeals Panel, the Commissioner shall be authorized to:

Impose a fine of up to $4,500,000 (fifty percent (50%) of which shall be payable to the NBA, and fifty percent (50%) of which shall be payable to the NBPA-Selected Charitable Organization (as defined in Article VI, Section 6(a))) on any Team found to have committed such violation for the first time; impose a fine of up to $5,500,000 (fifty percent (50%) of which shall be payable to the NBA, and fifty percent (50%) of which shall be payable to the NBPA-Selected Charitable Organization) on any Team found to have committed such violation for at least the second time;
direct the forfeiture of one First Round Draft Pick;
Void any Player Contract, or any Renegotiation, Extension, or amendment of a Player Contract, between any player and any Team when both the player (or any person or entity acting with authority on behalf of such player) and the Team (or Team Affiliate) are found to have committed such violation; and/or void any other transaction or agreement found to have violated Section 1 above.

Upon a finding of a violation of Section 2 above by the System Arbitrator, but only following the conclusion of any appeal to the Appeals Panel, the Commissioner shall be authorized to:

Impose a fine of up to $7,500,000 on any Team found to have committed such violation (fifty percent (50%) of which shall be payable to the NBA, and fifty percent (50%) of which shall be payable to the NBPA-Selected Charitable Organization);
Direct the forfeiture of draft picks; when both the player (or any person or entity acting with authority on behalf of such player) and the Team (or Team Affiliate) are found to have committed such violation, (A) void any Player Contract, or any Renegotiation, Extension, or amendment of a Player Contract, between such player and such Team, (B) impose a fine of up to $350,000, on any player (fifty percent (50%) of which shall be payable to the NBA, and fifty percent (50%) of which shall be payable to the NBPA-Selected Charitable Organization), and/or © prohibit any future Player Contract, or any Renegotiation, Extension, or amendment of a Player Contract, between such player and such Team;
Suspend for up to one (1) year any Team personnel found to have willfully engaged in such violation; and/or void any transaction or agreement found to have violated Section 2 above and direct the disgorgement by the player of anything of value received in connection with such transaction or agreement (except Compensation received for services already performed pursuant to a Player Contract), unless the player establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that he was unaware of the violation.

In any proceeding before the System Arbitrator in which it is alleged that a player agent or other person or entity acting with authority on behalf of a player has violated Section 2 above, the System Arbitrator shall make a specific determination with respect to such allegation. If the System Arbitrator finds such violation and such finding, if appealed, is affirmed by the Appeals Panel, the System Arbitrator shall refer such finding to the Players Association, which shall accept as binding and conclusive the finding(s) of the System Arbitrator (or, in the case of an appeal, the Appeals Panel) that a violation of Section 2(a) or 2(b) has occurred and shall consider such finding(s) as establishing a violation of the Players Association’s regulations applicable to such person or entity. The Players Association represents that it will impose such discipline as is appropriate under the circumstances on the person or entity found to have violated Section 2 above, and that it will promptly notify the NBA of the discipline imposed; provided, however, that in no event shall the penalty imposed upon a player agent found to have violated Section 2 above be less than a one-year suspension of that player agent’s certification by the Players Association.

In addition to the authority conferred on the Commissioner pursuant to Sections 3(a) and 3(b) above, the Commissioner shall be authorized to impose a fine of up to $1,000,000 on any Team or Team personnel found by the Commissioner to have violated Section 2 above. Any fine imposed pursuant to this Section 3(d) shall not require as a predicate any finding of, or proceeding before, the System Arbitrator. In the event the Commissioner imposes such a fine, the Players Association has the right to de novo review of the Commissioner’s finding that a Section 2 violation occurred under the System Arbitration provisions of Article XXXII. With respect to any fine imposed under this Section 3(d), fifty percent (50%) shall be payable to the NBA and fifty percent (50%) shall be payable to the NBPA-Selected Charitable Organization (as defined in Article VI, Section 6(a)).

GuacKiller

14 | 14 hours ago

Baller isn’t going to be forced to sell. The owners would not allow a precedent were a team can be stripped.

Waveytony | Timberwolves

3 | 14 hours ago

That has literally already happened to the Clippers during Adam Silver’s tenure lol

Edit: It did not go down like this apparently! Great context added below

No_Description6839

28 | 14 hours ago

I’m pretty sure that didn’t actually happen. They got incredibly lucky and convinced his wife to do the selling therefore they didn’t actually have to FORCE it. You can call semantics but at the end of the day they all breathed a sigh of relief because none of them wanted to set that precedent, they still don’t want to.

Lloopy_Llammas | Pacers

2 | 14 hours ago

Yeah I may be mistaken but it was more of a making the conditions ripe to want to sell vs legal means to require the sale. Kind of like an employer who starts scheduling you on the worst shifts and the managers start treating you like shit and you end up quitting. They didn’t, in a legal sense, force you to quit but they really wanted you to quit. Not apples to apples but…

No_Description6839

7 | 14 hours ago

Yeah I just looked it up further and he was medically declared as mentally incapacitated, allowing his wife to take control and then they convinced her to do it. They did not force Sterling to sell, he was fighting against it and trying to sue the NBA

soycameron | Trail Blazers

3 | 13 hours ago

No it didn’t. Look into it. The last resort was gonna be forcing the sale, but it would’ve taken a long time

CazOnReddit | Raptors

0 | 14 hours ago

Biggest difference is that the Sterling racism had a smoking gun in him being recorded saying some awful shit about not wanting his “silly rabbit” to associate with black people and was straight up unavoidable. The president at the time even talked about it (And could say coherent sentences unlike the current head but I digress)!

There was also the fact that Silver was new to the role of commissioner and had to make a statement with Sterling a la the lifetime ban/forcing him to sell. Even with all of that, the racist sac of garbage that is Donald Sterling still had the gal to appeal the NBA’s decision when we hear what his hideous maw uttered.

dgvhjiiuyttrrffcvbjj

0 | 11 hours ago

it has to be on the table for actions beyond the pale, the only question is where exactly that line is drawn. Surely we all can imagine some kind of heinous shit that would cause a forced selling to happen.

Personally, I think it’s perfectly reasonable for a number of owners to want a guy like Ballmer banned to set a precedent. Uber-billionaires like him are going to be more and more common as franchise valuations skyrocket, and if this cap circumvention crap is normalized it’s a clear slippery slope to chaos. “Barely” billionaires like most current owners would never be able to compete again.

RansomGoddard | NBA

10 | 14 hours ago

There’s a process that has to happen before any penalties can be given out.

Also player suspension is not one of the authorized penalties for cap circumvention.

standouts

2 | 6 hours ago

No shot Balmet is being banned and Kawhi being banned is just laughable imo. A guy gets offered free money and takes it. Sure it’s not right , but that’s on the owners. He can be fined but an actual suspension when players are allowed to beat the shit out of women and still get paid is just a bad decision.

TheAnalyst32

1 | 4 hours ago

Yeah, it’s been a tough learning curve for folks to get the Kawhi really didn’t do any wrong by the book or the code even if he looks greedy for it. The issue is Ballmer exporting his power to skirt the rules, not Kawhi for taking money.

I’m not expecting him to face much punishment, but who knows.

Iptv-provider-here | Toronto Huskies

2 | 12 hours ago

Its going to be hard to force him to sell as ballmer built intuit dome with his own money

k0fi96 | LAL

2 | 11 hours ago

Forced to sell is a stretch, let’s be honest

MddlingAges | Knicks

1 | 13 hours ago

How does Ballmer selling his franchise help the other 29 owners compete? You’re not making any sense. That’s the last thing they want.

This isn’t the NCAA or the Olympics, it’s a cartel of billionaires.

beefJeRKy-LB | Lebanon

1 | 5 hours ago

I don’t see why Kawhi should get his contract that he earned through his play voided. If anything, he should be forced to pay all the extra money he made back.

As for Ballmer, the other owners don’t want that to happen.

ewokninja123

1 | 5 hours ago

The season hasn’t started yet bruh. Also it’s not that easy to force an owner to sell that doesn’t want to sell and Balmer even tougher with all his money and his controlling interest in the team.

fuzzywuzzypete

371 | 15 hours ago

get this shit done already nba

Lou_Peachum_2 | Clippers

150 | 14 hours ago

Exactly, it is embarrassing how long it’s taken Silver to make any punishment at this point.

tangential_quip | Lakers

29 | 11 hours ago

He very literally can’t just hand down a punishment. Under the terms of the CBA, Silver can’t impose a punishment until there has been an arbitration and there has been a conclusion of the appeal process.

But of course you all just want to shit on the man because that is easier than actually trying to understand what is going on.

Edit: I hope you people downvoting realize you are just proving my point.

SeaMoney4312 | Rockets

23 | 9 hours ago

Every other week there’s new information found and they’ve been looking for a punishment since last year. Imagine the scenes if they took some picks away asap and then all this extra stuff came out. They’d be calling it a coverup

ewokninja123

0 | 5 hours ago

Stern was a gangster, Silver is a lawyer. There was famous instances of Stern threatening players with things that he technically couldn’t do but who wanted to try him and never play in the league again?

Silver is going to go by the book on this

captain_ahabb | Lakers

5 | 11 hours ago

It’s not up to Silver at all

No-Ranger3356

53 | 14 hours ago

nothings gonna happen

it’s russiagate for nba fans

fuzzywuzzypete

65 | 14 hours ago

fuck this league then

onewonyuan | Thunder

33 | 14 hours ago

The billionaires always win. It might hurt their feelings if they ever face even the slightest of inconveniences, and Adam Silver simply can’t allow that.

swamidigital

2 | 13 hours ago

This mentality is why they win.

onewonyuan | Thunder

13 | 13 hours ago

Is calling out observable reality really the reason that they win? I think it’s the fundamentally broken system, but perhaps that’s just me.

TumanFig

5 | 13 hours ago

its a reality until it isn’t.

nothing lasts forever

Character_Bug_1862

5 | 12 hours ago

Reminds me of the quote: Truth Is Stranger than Fiction, But It Is Because Fiction Is Obliged to Stick to Possibilities; Truth Isn’t.

OutrageousQuantity12 | Slovenia

5 | 12 hours ago

What can fans do that would actually change anything? Outside of an entire fanbase (in the second largest city in the country that has new people constantly streaming in alongside giant corporations buying tickets) boycotting the team, there’s no tangible detriment to the team/league.

swamidigital

1 | 9 hours ago

Having interacted with billionaires (and had a few invest in my company) they are acutely aware of how groups of normal people can influence their outcomes. They hate it. They do everything in their power to change it. But the root of them using all their influence and power to get more power is that they know ultimately their fate is also in the hands of others. Absolutely we can collectively change the outcomes. If fans were united that something was unacceptable, it would stop. But yes, individually we only have a tiny ability to influence an outcome. Ultimately it’s on us to realize that they make their money from us, our attention and our spending. And because everyone individually feels they have no power, we end up collectively not having power. They only way to change that is to start being the change you wish to see.

Vegetable-Baker6362 | Knicks

3 | 12 hours ago

I mean, the other billionaire owners take the biggest hit if Ballmer doesn’t get punished. They can’t compete with Ballmer if there is no salary cap and every player is getting under the table supermax “sponsorships”. Not to mention that a drop in fan interest would reduce the valuation of the teams i.e., their assets.

It’s literally the interest of 29 billionaires vs 1 here. If it ends up being a slap on the wrist, it’ll be because the lawyers reviewing the case told the league that Ballmer can ruin their lives in the court even if he’s guilty; or Steve is sending every single owner a billion dollars worth of MSFT stock as a gift.

OutrageousQuantity12 | Slovenia

5 | 12 hours ago

Trust me, the NBA won’t lose enough fan interest to justify (in the league’s eyes) an actual punishment. After the Luka trade killed most fans’ trust in ownership and interest in the team, attendance dropped for a few months. Then they got a shiny new toy (Coop), and interest surged back up enough to raise ticket prices by 10% within a year of the trade.

There’s more than enough corporate money and apathetic causal fans to sell out most games regardless of controversy.

BillFrackingAdama

5 | 10 hours ago

It’s a dangerous game to trade your credibility down to nothing.

MddlingAges | Knicks

1 | 13 hours ago

Tell me again, do the billionaires always win if they let one billionaire pay a millionaire too much money, or do they always win if 29 billionaires punish Ballmer for paying a millionaire too much money?

I’m curious what this could even mean?

OutrageousQuantity12 | Slovenia

2 | 12 hours ago

The other billionaires would have to do something about it, which they won’t because an actual punishment for the Clippers would probably hurt the league’s revenue more than they would gain by enforcing the rules. Best option for the other billionaires is to follow Draymond’s advice and do similar deals

MddlingAges | Knicks

1 | 12 hours ago

This got me thinking about, does the salary cap work? In football in the old days, yes but ,maybe less now that QBs are so important I think.

But in basketball, I don’t think it’s ever really worked because of how important the best players were, (Jordan, Shaq, early Levron eras) and now due to three point and injury variance. The Heat, Knicks, LA and Warriors have built in advantages and all featured in recent Finals. The Knicks technically “circumvented” the cap with Brunson taking less money, possibly because his dad is employed there. No one cares because he’s getting paid less not more. I guess?

So 20 years ago the luxury tax did its thing, but it was still down to which team had the best one or two players, not the best front office - unlike football. But in the last 6 years, other than the Knicks exception (very dominant postseason), it looks like 3 point and injury variance.

Last year was decided by Hali’s injury. The Heat Finals appearances were down to crazy luck with contested three point shooting (and good defense). Celtics were affected by both injuries and 3 pt variances. Bucks didn’t repeat due to Giannis injuries, Nuggets due to Murray injuries (I’d argue), OKC had a key injury too. And AD’s infamous health issues in LA of course.

It’s been a great run of parity in the NBA lately but I don’t think it’s the salary cap, it’s the competition. Small market contenders Pacers, Bucks, Suns, Nuggets didn’t attract talent or get an advantage from the cap system post Finals. OKC has had a great run with the financial engineering, but they started with Durant, Harden and Westbrook - luck - and got Shae before he was really good. And even they didn’t repeat. The small market teams seem more hamstrung by the cap than, say, the Lakers, Dallas, Knicks, etc.

Of course the players always determine who wins and loses, but I don’t think the salary cap works at all. It’s mostly injuries.

nico_juro | Nuggets

2 | 12 hours ago

nba been rigged since the 2000s lmao bro if you actually mean’t that you woulda quit watching years ago, but you didnt, and you wont

fuzzywuzzypete

1 | 12 hours ago

Eat a dog turd

fiasgoat | Kings

1 | 8 hours ago

That is indeed the case

NBA is now the WWE

Will the fans care? Nope

Uhhhjayyy1

199 | 15 hours ago

Five first round picks minimum. Enough to scare teams/owners from circumventing the cap

WolfPack80

115 | 15 hours ago

Timberwolves got a harsh penalty when it wasn’t a superstar, this seems fair

EverybodyBuddy | Lakers

52 | 14 hours ago

And that was just delaying payment. Still technically cap circumvention, but money staying within the “system” and eventually making it to the other owners via luxury tax sharing.

NotUpForDebate11 | Lakers

21 | 14 hours ago

basically exactly what gary trent and the bucks did

HotSteak | Timberwolves

1 | 5 hours ago

In retrospect, rather than saying “sign cheap and we’ll max you later” they should have just said “sign cheap and we’ll pay you off the books via corrupt sponsors”.

OkAutopilot | NBA

15 | 14 hours ago

Timberwolves were paying someone less than they were worth and making that up on the back end so that they could field a better roster via having more money to spend. The Clippers paid Kawhi the max then paid him more after that.

Objectively the Wolves/Joe Smith situation is much worse for the NBA product and competition.

cantclimbatree | Kings

10 | 14 hours ago

Also they left written evidence of this deal apparently

Huckleberry_Sin

6 | 11 hours ago

A lot of ppl keep comparing these two situations but nobody ever mentions this crucial detail. Wolves had it all in writing. Clippers most likely are guilty but so far have not put anything in writing. It’s not as cut and dry as the Wolves situation.

cantclimbatree | Kings

3 | 11 hours ago

Yeah i really don’t like Adam Silver but to want him to give the clippers the death penalty without significant evidence is going to be tough when Ballmer had all the resources in the world to fight back.

limp-bisquick-345

1 | 14 hours ago

And then the NBA gave back 2 of the picks because they decided it was too harsh of a punishment.

Briggity_Brak | Tampa Bay Raptors

1 | 7 hours ago

And that was deemed a HUGE mistake after the fact, and they only ended up losing 3, and the commissioner swore to never do anything like that again. Clippers are losing a couple 2nd rounders, or nothing is happening at all.

Mpuls37 | Spurs

2 | 9 hours ago

I’d say they get the final 2 picks in the draft for however long Kawhi was initially signed for plus they’re fined the amount of Kawhi’s non-Clippers contract values over the same duration, and it gets taken out of their cap space.

AbsoluteGarbaj

37 | 15 hours ago

Hope they punish the Clippers and also I hope Ballmer goes ballistic revealing all the shit the NBA do lmao

lffl90

8 | 13 hours ago

The other 29 owners would never let this happen. It’s bad for them, the fans the league . Ballmer will just have to take an in between punishment, not super heavy but not super light

AbsoluteGarbaj

8 | 13 hours ago

Knowing Ballmer he would not accept any punishment and I think thats why this is taking too long.

Entire-Joke4162

5 | 6 hours ago

This is exactly it

Bro makes 1.2 billi a year in straight cash doing nothing

He could buy the Blazers by sitting on the beach for 3 years and the selling 0.24% of his Microsoft stock to close the last $400M

He’s be the 7th richest owner in the league if you included the 10% of his net worth that’s not Microsoft

Bobbith_The_Chosen | POR

0 | 9 hours ago

Sorry officer I am not accepting any punishment, give me my keys back

AbsoluteGarbaj

2 | 5 hours ago

I dont think you understand. Ballmer is not doing anything illegal this is just salary cap rules.

EthicalBballFan | Heat

1 | 8 hours ago

He does have the money to drag this into a situation where every contract in the NBA gets under scrutiny. Imagine Mavs getting punishment now for their under the table deal for that documentary in exchange for less money on the books

Nickbeau | Pistons

30 | 15 hours ago

Hear hear!

tangential_quip | Lakers

33 | 14 hours ago

At this point if you don’t understand what the hold up is, it is becaue you are being willfully ignorant. The way the process works under the terms of the CBA is that the parties involved first try to come to an agreement on the punishment. If that doesn’t happen. Then the dispute goes to arbitration. If the team loses then there as a procedure for appealing to a larger arbitration panel.

They are currently in the process of trying to negotiate the punishment to avoid the arbitration process.

Silver does not have the authority to simply hand down a punishment. That isn’t how the process works. Frankly the media has done a really horrible job on explaining this.

SilvioMascalzone

9 | 10 hours ago

Exactly. Any semi major organisation writes mediation clauses into their agreements requiring parties to work on a commercial settlement first. This is just par for the course yet people want to pretend it doesn’t exist.

mandrakewilder | Bulls

2 | 12 hours ago

Man, I wish I could have ever negotiated the terms of my consequences. That sounds really nice, actually.

dgvhjiiuyttrrffcvbjj

10 | 11 hours ago

you can. there are plea bargains in criminal court and settlements in civil court.

speakintrapanese | Bulls

6 | 10 hours ago

Join a union! Discipline works the same way - either the parties settle, or it goes to an impartial arbitrator.

mandrakewilder | Bulls

1 | 10 hours ago

Don’t know that I’ll ever have the opportunity, but FWIW I fucking love unions.

tangential_quip | Lakers

5 | 11 hours ago

Write it into the terms of the next contract you enter into, because this is just a contact issue and the league is following the terms of that contract.

That might not make r/nba happy, but it is what they have to do.

Bobbith_The_Chosen | POR

1 | 9 hours ago

If you’re not well versed in NBA cap circumvention punishment, your head is in the sand!

MrDogfort | Warriors

27 | 15 hours ago

Silver probably meant the investigation was cleared for the start of next season, not this.

tagprobablylag | Ty Lawson

21 | 14 hours ago

I hope Balmer goes scorched earth and snitches on all the other teams

Bobbith_The_Chosen | POR

2 | 9 hours ago

What dirt could he have that the league doesn’t already know

tagprobablylag | Ty Lawson

1 | 9 hours ago

could be anything but it’s not just about what the league knows its about the fans knowing

Entire-Joke4162

1 | 6 hours ago

Silver is in a tough spot because commissioners don’t want to take actions that make owning a team less desirable and affect valuations, especially because Ballmer is the model owner who does the things you’d want owners to do (build an arena, spend [too much!], etc.)

But, also, oh ya, he has more money than God and will sue everyone to fucking hell because they’re going down with him

McGarnagl | Bucks

13 | 14 hours ago

As a Bucks fan I was relieved to see this wasn’t about the Gary Trent Jr deal 😅

Amuzed_Observator

11 | 14 hours ago

The thing is if they really want to stop this from happening there needs to be harsh penalties on the team and the player.

In my opinion players that do this should be banned from the NBA until they pay a fine equal to the extra mo ey received.

Dont want to pay then youre career is over.

Its silly to just void the contract and put all the punishment on the team. Both broke the rules both should pay the price.

christlikehumility

4 | 13 hours ago

Also, the next time this happens teams will just be more clever.

It won’t be, “I’ll invest in your company and you endorse my player, wink wink”, it’ll just be “anyone who endorses my player is someone I want to be in business with, and I’ll pour millions into that company”.

No paper trail, just let every agent know they can go shopping for companies and afterwards I’ll make sure those companies have the money.

ChickenLiverNuts | PHI

2 | 12 hours ago

i know there are limits on fines but there is a reason a ticket for going in the EZ pass lane without an EZ pass is more than the toll. If it was the same cost there would be no difference for who is allowed in the lane and who is not. He SHOULD be fined way more than what he actually made on the side but theres regulations and rules for that so it will never happen.

pokey68

11 | 13 hours ago

I doubt Kawhi is the only case cheating like this. There’s probably more to learn and other players who have done this. You don’t start at $28 million. You work up to it.

shinshikaizer

9 | 12 hours ago

And I don’t think other teams want to be investigated for it, because, if I was Ballmer, I would demand that the NBA comb through every player sponsorship contract to prove they’re fairly prosecuting me and not just targeting me unfairly because Pablo said my name while the NBA hasn’t been doing its own due diligence in investigating and enforcing cap circumvention.

EthicalBballFan | Heat

2 | 8 hours ago

If Ballmer forced the NBA to clean house with this I’d have a lot of past comments talking shit about him to delete.

Ok-Effort1192 | Pistons

8 | 13 hours ago

Not only is this a repeated sentiment, it is getting spammy let alone just by people who refuse to look into the established MO of investigations or the mutually agreed upon between players and owners (Silver still ain’t a dictator however much yall seemingly want to wish it into existence to be right about one thing) what the punishment for doing so is.

Zotzotbaby

6 | 14 hours ago

Punishment should fit the crime. Circumvent the cap by $40M should mean the first and second apron should come down by $40M to hit Clippers in their pocketbook.

dgvhjiiuyttrrffcvbjj

3 | 11 hours ago

not nearly enough since they’re rebuilding anyway.

cactusmanbwl90 | Pacers

5 | 14 hours ago

I don’t even care about the picks. Ban Balmer and force him to sell the team. Ban kawhi and strip him from the record books. Anything other than that hurts nobody but the fans. That is the only punishment that will hurt them and stop this from happening again. Balmer will still own an NBA team and he’ll keep doing illegal bullshit in order to win. Hell, with no picks he’ll probably do even more shady shit in order to stay competitive.

beefJeRKy-LB | Lebanon

0 | 5 hours ago

Holy overreaction. Kawhi making extra money didn’t have a meaningful effect on the league. He was already on a max deal. Him getting paid didn’t make him an AllNBA player either. What the hell is this logic with stripping him from the record books? I don’t even agree with voiding his current contract. Just make him give back the extra money.

And btw the other owners absolutely won’t want Ballmer to sell. The last thing they need is more PE money coming into the league. Be careful what you wish for. What if Elon or Thiel or Ellison bought a team?

onefootback | Raptors

6 | 14 hours ago

can you guys wait until we know the results of the investigation before you start dooming about rules not mattering

coocoach | Vancouver Grizzlies

6 | 14 hours ago

I wonder if the nba punishes kawhi that triggers the players union to do something and possible go on strike and get a new contract to get rid of the aprons and increase player compensation since the owners clearly have a lot of money.

At the end of the day, I would like to the see the top brass be held responsible. Punish ballmer financially, punish management if they knew about it by suspending them, punish kawhi by a big fine but let him play. I think punishing the clippers basketball team by taking away their picks and such is just a kick in the balls to the fans.

CleverNickName-69

3 | 13 hours ago

You do know that being in the 2nd Apron over the salary cap can start impacting a teams draft picks by moving the pick to the back of the round?

So if you don’t punish the Clippers draft picks you’re saying that cheating and circumventing the cap isn’t worse than following the rules but exceeding the cap.

TomlinSteelers | 76ers

2 | 11 hours ago

If Kawhi gets punished the players union is going to fight it pretty hard

fightclub98

6 | 14 hours ago

How come Dan Gilbert hasn’t wrote a mean letter about this situation?

[deleted]

5 | 15 hours ago

[deleted]

cricket9818 | Knicks

14 | 15 hours ago

You are the first person to ever be sarcastic! Thanks for the refreshing commentary

boogswald | CLE

1 | 15 hours ago

Shill alertttttt

No-Owl-6246 | Lakers

3 | 15 hours ago

I hope they punish the Clippers soon just so these stupid Dear Diary posts can be over with.

Icy_Transition1375

4 | 15 hours ago

Who initiated all this to get it started? Like, did it come from the clippers side or did it come from kawhi’s camp? Whose idea was all of this, do we know?

SMOKE2JJ | NBA

22 | 15 hours ago

Uncle Dennis/Kawhi. They were going from team to team, during free agency, asking for things that were blatantly against CBA/cap rules. The lakers and the raptors turned them down (this is well documented).. and then somehow they signed with the clippers. It’s a massive coincidence.

johnjacobacon | Spurs

6 | 14 hours ago

It takes two to tango.

7059043 | Celtics

2 | 14 hours ago

Yeah idrc who started it. I’m not sure why any player wouldn’t try to get paid more. Ballmer has to sell

xMakerx | Cavaliers

4 | 15 hours ago

IIRC the tree planting business went under and was under scrutiny which was how the Kawhi Leonard payments were found.

Sexyturtletime

1 | 14 hours ago

I don’t think Pablo was poking around Aspiration’s records by accident, someone likely had told him already and he was looking for confirmation + additional evidence.

xMakerx | Cavaliers

1 | 14 hours ago

I don’t think he got involved until the initial story was dropped

TheAnswerEK42 | Magic

4 | 14 hours ago

Y’all need to chill about time table on this. Legit silver hired a law firm to investigate this let them do their job. This is a pretty complicated investigation new shit keeps coming up.

KnicksGhost2497

3 | 13 hours ago

He should be forced to sell

GrudenLovesSlurs | Bulls

3 | 13 hours ago

Stern would’ve executed everyone on the clippers by now. Absolutely spineless

axecalibur | Knicks

3 | 6 hours ago

All the owners seem to be ultra-rich assholes, which means no rules will apply to them.

Iptv-provider-here | Toronto Huskies

2 | 12 hours ago

Can we wait on the actual punishment first? For all we know Silver is taking his time because its a big ass hammer

nbaistheworst

2 | 12 hours ago

Silver is “taking his time” because the law firm doing the investigation is taking longer than expected (most likely because they didn’t know about Daktronics until Pablo released it).

Iptv-provider-here | Toronto Huskies

1 | 11 hours ago

even that is an assumption. just a reminder… we are all assuming shit here

nbaistheworst

0 | 9 hours ago

True

100_proof_plan | Cavaliers

2 | 11 hours ago

The nba isn’t going to find much if Torres’ “sources” have to go on record.

dgvhjiiuyttrrffcvbjj

2 | 11 hours ago

I’d rather see ballmer forced to sell and banned. He is the problem. If that is the punishment, I don’t see the need to heavily punish the team (and fans).

But if they don’t force him out then yes it has to be lots of draft picks and more.

icalledyoulastsunday | NBA

2 | 10 hours ago

Team forfeits all picks for the next five years.

Player receives lifetime ban.

GonePostalRoute

2 | 9 hours ago

I’ve said it many times already. I do get that, because it’s the salary cap we’re dealing with, the NBA wants all its i’s dotted and t’s crossed because one wrong screw up, and their salary cap is nuked. But this has gone on for way too long. Something screwy is up

JohnFish2734

2 | 9 hours ago

Its funny reading this while half of the mlb subreddit is feverishly wanting a cap to be in place

Mura_14 | Lakers

2 | 9 hours ago

Idk what the punishment should realistically be because it feels kind of unfair to clippers fans if they get penalized in the form of picks. The fans will be the ones really suffering while the people that actually circumvented the cap can just wash their hands of it and depart. Ideally Balmer and the top execs that were in on it would suffer along with kawhi and his agent but idk what that would look like

kingdoniumhearts | Timberwolves

1 | 5 hours ago

That shit sucks, it killed Garnett’s prime with the Timberwolves.

Parker_Evans1

2 | 7 hours ago

ok but u gotta give credit where its due lol. Thunder’s been playing the long game w/ their draft picks and cap space. they’re stacking assets like crazy. they’re def proof that playing the system can work, but yeah it does look kinda sus when the cap feels like a suggestion…

webelieve925

2 | 6 hours ago

Take away their draft picks and fine the clippers

Svndmann

2 | 6 hours ago

Adam silver a pussy

PositiveCoyote100

2 | 5 hours ago

In a perfect world, Balmer and Kawhi would both be banned from the NBA

Thizzenie

2 | 4 hours ago

I bet yall think Jalen Brunson really took a 100 million dollar pay cut to help Knicks win 😆

JollyNincompoop | Raptors

2 | an hour ago

Revert the Toronto trade (am I even saying this?) and then penalize the Clippers by reducing their salary cap (or put the under the table money against their cap), and fine them significantly (plus the luxury tax they avoided). And picks too. If Twolves lost 5 picks they should probably lose 10.

TemperedTorture | Spurs

1 | 14 hours ago

Sorry to disappoint you but with the recent Lakers sale because rumor has it that he ran after realizing he can’t just buy a championship, 2 expansion teams in a current bidding war between owners vying for a shrinking talent pool l, I’m more than convinced that Silver is about to absolve Balmer of all wrong doing.

Enforcing the rules means unhappy future billionaires who feel they’re forced to play by the rules. There’s a reason why Mark Cuban has been defending Balmer so hard.

CleverNickName-69

0 | 12 hours ago

I’m not following your logic.

Adam Silver better not make the owners follow the rules because it might make the owners unhappy and one of the owners just sold the Lakers for billions of dollars more than they bought it for a few years ago and other prospective owners are bidding billions of dollars just for a chance to have a bad expansion team?

It seems like there is no lack of interest from billionaires wanting to own an NBA team, even with the current hard cap and two aprons scheme. Live attendance is steady. TV ratings were at a 24 year high last year. None of those facts suggest to me that the NBA should not punish owners that cheat.

rfgrunt | Nuggets

1 | 14 hours ago

Looking forward for the Pwat/Walmart endorsement deal after he signs for the league minimum

SFmodscensorship

1 | 14 hours ago

Adam Silver is big on optics, except when it’s inconvenient from a business standpoint. corrupt af. he should resign and we should have a black commissioner

lohohohoho | Warriors

1 | 14 hours ago

Draymond has already said it best, slap on the wrist, all teams should just do it cause why not, this definitely will open up a pandora box and make the nba like the wwe, where it’s legit just an entertainment league

MddlingAges | Knicks

0 | 13 hours ago

What do you think sports leagues are? It is literally already an entertainment league.

I’d love if it the teams actually paid the players what they’re worth, it’s not my money.

donut_koharski

1 | 14 hours ago

Has the NBA started their own investigation? Props to Pablo but he’s not the final statement on this.

Waquoit95

1 | 13 hours ago

Uhh, yes. It started in 2025.

HonestAbradolf | Mavericks

1 | 14 hours ago

Kawhi’s contract gave the Clippers the exact same max salary hit that it would have on any other team. It did not give them any team building advantage or extra cap space, only incentivized him to take his max there instead of taking his max somewhere else. Youd have to find a lower contract player they also paid under the table that otherwise would have taken a larger one to “stop pretending the cap exists”.

SkippyDoodleberg

1 | 14 hours ago

Kawhi wanted all this extra money while he rode the bench in street clothes most of the time. He and PG suck.

RMRdesign

1 | 14 hours ago

Why is everyone afraid of Ballmer’s net worth?

It’s NBA rules, not some actual laws the Clippers have broken.

The league could just nuke the draft picks for the next 10 years. But what would be the point? You would have a team no one wants to play for. Along with driving down the team’s value.

At this point it has to be forcing Ballmer to sell. No other option is going to bring back semblance of league integrity than this option.

And if Ballmer sues?

What is his defense going to be? Because there wasn’t an explicit rule saying I can’t use other companies to funnel money to my players then it’s not illegal to do?

This is crazy.

This is the most open and shut case the NBA has ever seen.

zakuruchi

1 | 37 minutes ago

Because there is a specific rule in the agreement between all the parties that details what are the punishment for this specific case (cap circumvention), and none of them is the owner being forced to sell the team.

NBA wants to give a punishment outside of that agreed terms? Yeah they’ll lose in court.

No_Tangerine2720 | San Francisco Warriors

1 | 14 hours ago

Adam Silver is speed running the NBAs credibility into the ground and he is not the man for this moment with the clippers. He has shown time and time again that they are willing to take money over integrity. (Clippers, gambling etc.)

Raptors4daysguy

1 | 13 hours ago

C

boogie_westbrook | Lakers

1 | 13 hours ago

Force the clippers out of LA as punishment. We dont need a jv squad anyway.

Waquoit95

1 | 13 hours ago

The Clippers have already reaped the benefit of their treachery. A fime woould be meaningless. I think the NBA is trying to find a way to put it all on Leonard.

WiIIemdafoe | OKC

1 | 12 hours ago

If the NBA doesn’t have the spine to punish the clippers the Thunder need to rework contracts “on paper” ASAP and improve the roster drastically.

siomi | IND

1 | 12 hours ago

I think the problem here is that NBA doesn’t have a code. Otherwise everyone would know beforehand how each “crime” is punished and understand how to scale it. This would make life easier in such situations for everyone.

dizzymidget44 | Pistons

1 | 12 hours ago

Or. Tell them don’t do that that again

OPDBZTO

1 | 11 hours ago

90% owners don’t care about winning for them its about making the most money possible (likely even higher)

So I doubt they care enough to punish the clippers and one of the richest owners. And Adam silver works for the owners

Wise_Rip_1982

1 | 11 hours ago

If the only punishment is picks the cap still doesn’t exist. He does not need picks as he can just out if every other team for every player

Fun_Recognition5614

1 | 10 hours ago

My bet is that the owners crack down on this. Otherwise their labor costs go through the roof.

Nuclearsunburn | Heat

1 | 7 hours ago

Rules and laws are just suggestions without enforcement

NoonDread | Magic

1 | 5 hours ago

I’m sure this has happened, or is happening, elsewhere. I think the real issue is that Kawhi’s laziness made it overt.

kingdoniumhearts | Timberwolves

1 | 5 hours ago

Hurt their bottom line. Suspend the players involved and add the hidden money to their payroll. If they’re over the aprons then penalize them accordingly.

aikon012 | Lakers

1 | 14 minutes ago

Adam silver gives zero shits about basketball he’s just cashing checks no matter where it comes from. That skeleton is just trying to eat.

we_hella_believe

-1 | 14 hours ago

Every draft pick should be taken away from the Clippers for the next 5 years. Kawhi should have his contract terminated and he should be suspended for 2 years. Ballmer should be suspended for 5 years, or have to sell the team.

This is way worse than Joe Smith.

EverybodyBuddy | Lakers

0 | 14 hours ago

Facts

dunots | Rockets

0 | 14 hours ago

It’s a club of billionaires. They’ll just all haze him at the next orgy or whatever, they don’t want actual punishments to start happening

Lobster15s | Heat

0 | 14 hours ago

This is a big deal but the only reason it’s not and even bigger deal is the clips have been ass in the post season. So it feels like they’ve self owned.

SatireGeto | Supersonics

0 | 14 hours ago

It’s interesting, a hefty fine and draft picks would absolutely be enough for most owners. Ballmer is not most owners though, this would be his second time doing that and he’s doing it for a player who at his best is one of the best in the league. Forcing Ballmer to sell, is probably the only meaningful punishment?

Sensitive-Ad8710

0 | 12 hours ago

I am not in favor of taking away picks, I think it hurts the competitive balance too much if they take too many away. Clippers need to build a team the right way and be pushed in that direction.

Instead, assuming everything is true, the franchise should incur a significant penalty, like a fine equal to the funneled money + Kawhi’s annual salary for every year that he has been a clipper, with interest. Kawhi has to pay back the funneled money + interest, and he is suspended for 1 year minimum without pay

CommonWiseGuy

0 | 11 hours ago

My vote? Pretend the cap doesn’t exist! They never should have added a cap to begin with!

ViewFromHalf-WayDown | Knicks

0 | 9 hours ago

I understand Ballmer has a lot of money, but he’s not the only billionaire in the world. The Lakers just sold for 12B- surely someone would be willing to buy the clips.

SpliffsnKicks | Nuggets

0 | 7 hours ago

Ballmer gotta go, or your punishing the few clippers fans and any players that gave to sign there more than the main people involved in the schemes

beefJeRKy-LB | Lebanon

0 | 5 hours ago

Personally, I’d rather see the cap removed. It’s more pro labor that way.

Take away their picks or stop pretending the cap exists