[Murray] The NBA has released a statement as well this morning (regarding ESPN story on Kawhi Leonard and Clippers)
So was the ESPN piece just Ballmer propaganda
ESPN has such strong journalistic integrity, surely they would never fold to rich people
Pat McAfee should write a song about this!
Hopefully he doesn’t take as long to write a song as he does to get to a question in his interviews.
I swear everyone on that show takes turns spamming the guest with 4 questions at once. And then there’s just AJ Hawk in the corner.
The show is such a sensory overload too. Even at the gym with no sound there’s so damn much going on at the same time.
Just imagine how long the prompt is for his songwriting in ChatGPT?
Oh, I mean, how hard he must labor over his pad and pencil to get his lyrics just right!
and then put it through generative AI
#bringbackskipper
ESPN and NBA are in bed together. ESPN shouldn’t be taken seriously as journalism ever again.
Except this post is about the NBA denouncing ESPN’s report
It was released by Shelburne and Holmes. They’ve been clear Balmer shills now for the last few years. This is just another example.
As a Laker fan, I’m so annoyed by their coverage. It’s so obvious that their negative portrayal of the Lakers front office, as well as their reporting with the intent to sow discord, are at the behest of Balmer.
It’s all part of the Ballmer propaganda machine, of presenting him as the “happy-go-lucky billionaire” who always seems so happy and crazy about everything.
God forbid anyone actually put the motherfucker on the spot and asked him pointed questions.
Like why Windows Vista released to the public when it was clearly an unfinished beta for what eventually became Windows 7
I loved the later ad campaign for Vista. it was basically showing folks a computer running smoothly, then surprising them by showing it was running on Vista. The whole campaign boiled down to “Windows Vista, it doesn’t suck as much as you think!”
Yep. The second that hit piece on Jeanie/the Lakers happened, she’s been a Ballmer butt buddy through and through
Shelbourne is insufferable
Holmes was so good when he was going after Sarver and then he decided to become Ballmer’s meat shield
I would bet a lot of it is personality. Ballmer seems like the type of guy where if you talked to him one on one he’d be really charming and likable, especially if you’re someone who could help him in some way like a member of the media. And some media members totally fall for that. Sarver was a known dickhead.
Sarver is cheap. Ballmer is not, lol.
From the Clippers subreddit: “This is such a clippers thing to happen We bout to lose a 3-1 investigation lead.”
“This subreddit owes the Clippers an apology.”
The guy that wrote that probably gets his political and economic news from Kyle Kuzma
Dude is on the payroll for sure
If Shelburne is involved it’s ownership propaganda.
I would not be surprised
They’ve mostly been in his pocket with the reporting on this for awhile
no it was just a leak. the NBA wants to use it’s own wording to explain the findings.
It seems plausible to me it’s a Clippers-only leak trying to shape the narrative.
Which it was.
Do you think the NBA leaks something like this:
In recent days, both sides have been negotiating a resolution to the investigation, the people said. Those talks – led by attorney David N. Kelley of law firm O’Melveny & Myers for Ballmer and the Clippers, and NBA general counsel Rick Buchanan – at times have been “spirited,” one source said.
Ramona Shelburne was cited on it so probably
Not shocking. Shelburne has made a career of being a mouthpiece for whenever LA franchise gives her access. She was the Lakers’ shill for years until Jeanie Buss was out of the picture. Then suddenly she became the Clippers’ mouthpiece when this stuff came up
It’s not that sudden, she used to be Jeanie’s mouthpiece to sow disapproval and direct blame on Jim Buss. Jeanie iced her out sometime during the Magic GM years and then she moved on to doing the same for ballmer and put out random hit pieces like “pelinka doesn’t understand the salary cap”.
So really she’s been at this for a decent amt of time
Ballmerganda.
The article combined with the clipper statement points to that being the case
Anything that Shelburne reports is propaganda. She’s been bought and sold for awhile
I don’t trust anything on ESPN that isn’t shouted loudly between two vile humans.
Anyone with a functioning brain knew it
lol everyone involved is a joke. The league, Ballmer, Kawhi, corporate media.
Pablo Torre did not laugh
I have a feeling he’ll get the last laugh when he releases the silver files
Oh i would be delighted. I just want legit sports to distract me in this tough time
Sorry, best I can do is tough times spilling over into sports
How do we get Pablo flairs on this sub?
Corp media has always been a joke
The only difference is money makes these jokes that much more amplified
“ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers Investigation - for which the NBA declined to cooperate - contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.
Does anyone really believe it’ll end differently?
Different enough that the nba felt the need to put out a statement saying so
League publicly saying ESPN is full of crap is certainly unprecedented
“Fuck ESPN” - /r/NBA and the actual NBA
They have spent 11 months scratching their balls. At most it will be like a million dollar fine to balmer or some stupid shit like that
Jesus Christ. Top 1% commenters always say the dumbest shit. The NBA isn’t doing the investigation, Wachtell Lipton is. The NBA shouldn’t do anything about Ballmer, Kawhi, or the Clippers until Wachtell is finished. It’s taking so long because there is so much shit to get through and every time once thread gets pulled on, several more show up that need to be followed.
Tiktok brains. Shit like this takes a long time. A year is a rush job.
Especially if they’re uncovering new things in addition to what they were originally investigating. I’m gonna remain agnostic about the investigation until it’s actually over.
This is classic political trial balloon shit. They let that story hit to see what the reaction would be, maybe they thought no one would care for some reason.
They definitely wish this story would just die on its own
By the part of the Clippers, yes. But the interests of the Clippers and of the league are way different.
Nah silver would love to spike this story if it was possible, same with the clippers
No way he would man. A guy just cheated his salary cap, he has other 29 owners that have to play by it. This guy not only inflated the market, but he also took some money out of their pockets in the form of unpaid luxury tax. People that act as Silver is a shill for Ballmer miss the point that the damn Clippers aren’t even the most important franchise in freaking LA
I’m sure Silver wishes he never had to deal with this crap.
I do. The NFL suspended Ray Rice for two games…and then the elevator video came out and the NFL had to essentially shadow ban him for life and then justify it by suspending Adrian Peterson for a season as well. The NBA should know that is a far worse outcome.
The NBA doesn’t have the balls that Roger has. He battled the Pats dynasty, lost and still held onto total power.
He’s evil, but damn he’s effective.
The NFL knew about the elevator video and covered it up.
Probably not but this has been going on for over a year now
You’d think Silver and co would want to find some resolution to this before the season starts. It would question the competence more than it already has
Well, he has to present everything to an arbitrator, Ballmer is already giving him all sorts of PR hell, I think he really wants to have his ducks in a row, not to mention the fact that it seems that Michael Winger exasperated by the amount of side deals Kawhi had wasn’t an exaggeration.
No.
I imagine the 29 other billionaires that own teams would be fuming at the loss of luxury tax dollars and/or be plotting ways to get around the cap if there isn’t significant penalties.
There is likely behind the scenes negotiations going on with Ballmer on what the right actions would be that he could accept without being forced to sell. Not that he wouldn’t make a ton of money, since the lakers were flipped for $2b in a year.
People with brains do
To be clear, the NBA declined to cooperate on the article, not the Clippers investigation. At least that’s my assumption given it’s their own investigation. Very poorly worded 1st sentence from a professional spokesperson/organization.
Obviously it means the article and not the investigation.
Wonder if they got caught flat footed a bit and didn’t expect this article to drop today.
Took an hour between release and statement.
Statements gotta go through lawyers when they are about stuff like this.
numerous and significant inaccuracies. For instance, the NBA is NOT considering whether the Clippers inappropriately introduced Leonard to sponsors. The Clippers are a well-run organization with larger than average endowment in the procreationary region.
This subreddit owes the Clippers an apology /s
That post by yugidomain was so cringe
yugidomain is a massive bitch for that comment alone. Dont really need to know much more about them
Everyone do yourself a favor and block that account. Been had it blocked for a long time.
I had them blocked anyways because they like to make several posts from a single article
They’ve been hard on the pro-clippers propaganda this entire year
This sub is so ass but blocking these weirdo power users makes it slightly readable. I didnt even know this was a comment he made but it sounds like exactly the type of loser ass post he and others karma farmers post.
I genuinely thought that had to be a joke
one of the most obnoxious posters on this subreddit but theyre allowed to post any slop and get news up before anyone else so you cant mute them. shit is so annoying
And he’s been too big of a pussy to even leave a comment on his post
A disgrace to the name yugi
u/yujidomainexpansion we’ll take your apology now too
Downvoted that post as soon as I saw that line at the end
You owe him an upvote actually
I’m sorry they cheated and only made 1 Conference Finals appearance. At least when the Astros cheated they got a ring out of it. 😭
The season ended in heartbreak but damn I am glad we blocked Ballmer from the Finals
Knowing Reddit this is getting posted on every clippers post for the next 5-10 years lol
I’ll be doing my part.
If the r/clippers subreddit were true shitlords that sentence would be in every game thread they win
“This website owes an apology, Senator!!!”
- Steve “Tom Hagen” Ballmer
I for one would like to deeply apologize to the Clippers organization and their billionaire overlord for possibly assuming what I believed to be credible evidence of potential wrongdoing or chicanery. Clearly I was mistaken. I’ll learn from this and try to be better and more skeptical of “news” moving forward. Thank you.
ESPN fired all its journalists and have Pat Mcafee coke rant albums and Stephen A Smith acting like a right wing mob boss taking 70% of the cap. Dogshit company what a shame
ESPN owes reddit an apology!
They had to pin that lmaooo
McAfee AI-ghost-written coke rant albums.
Ooh, if I had to guess the Clippers leaked that story to ESPN to put pressure on the NBA in negotiations. Interesting.
Very likely.
Ramona is a mega shill, so probably
And case in point in the article:
I’d be shocked if the NBA admitted this so there’s only one other party….
Would that make sense though? Wouldn’t leaking this story just show the league how pissed people would be if they go easy on the Clippers?
My best guess is that negotiations have reached a standstill because the two sides do not agree on the facts, and the Clippers are trying to put in the press that a) the common practice of introducing players to sponsors is now under review, and b) they’re reviewing whether ownership has the responsibility to “supervise” employees from doing that “independently”. Both those things are issues owners would not like the league to crack down on, so the audience for the leak is other owners.
I don’t know. The audience of NBA owners is small enough that I would assume Ballmer can make these points to the other owners directly. IMO an article in ESPN would be to sway the general public, and I’m not seeing how leaking this benefits the Clippers in that regard.
sounds more legit and vetted if it’s coming from ESPN versus just Ballmer whining about it on the phone
Maybe they are trying to frame it as aggressive employees now as future cover.
Maybe it’s the same Crisis PR firm thinking this would be a good idea
aka, “blame the intern”
Public opinion unfortunately doesn’t matter. The Clippers’ reputation is already in the shitter. All that matters is what can be proven or not.
The Clippers probably got wind that the NBA still has no concrete evidence that Ballmer knew or was told directly about the under the table deals and then leaked that to ESPN to announce it to help Ballmer save face.
Its been clear from the beginning that the NBA and Ballmer want to pin this on Kawhi and Uncle Dennis.
It’s not all that dissimilar to the Raptors leaking the “surprise memo” story to put pressure on the league to articulate a position publicly. At this point, both teams seem to know the league feels anxious to wrap this up and is particularly afraid of public perception/a lengthy arbitration process.
What’s gonna happen when it basically winds up being the same “result” 💀
Step 1 is to leak the outcome and gauge public reception.
Step 2 publish the same result a month later so everyone treats it as old news
Step 3 We file an insurance claim.
Step 5 is profit
The Barr Letter before the Mueller Report.
He just comes out on selection Sunday and says’ nobody did anything wrong’
Does anyone believe it’s going to go any differently
Ramona and the shills wouldn’t put out that story if they didn’t have verifiable evidence or sources
Yeah they obviously aren’t lying.
And it was clear it wasn’t from the NBA’s side because the league looks horrible.
It won’t be the same result.
There was no evidence of Ballmer circumventing the cap.
ESPN
There was no evidence of Ballmer circumventing the cap and Utah is fined $50,000 for tanking
This will be the actual result.
Magic Johnson flinching out of habit.
NBA wasted no time getting a response out
That speaks volumes.
I agree. I know the sub hates various of the actors involved for various reasons, many justified. But I truly think the NBA will be handling out decent sized punishments. Can’t have one owner stomping on the Association like this. Usually taking time on investigation is a good thing.
Yea for some reason people think a long investigation means that the verdict will be soft but I don’t really understand that logic. People want to criticize the league for a decision they haven’t made yet.
They’re just used to the league making shitty decisions. The difference here is Balmer is fucking with the bag for 29 other billionaires. They’re going to take it seriously.
I don’t understand how anyone in this sub can confidently say what is going to happen. There is a lot of different factors at play. None of us know what is going to happen.
In other words: chill until we give you a reason to riot in our own words. 😕
/r/clippers is filled with “suck my balls” type of threads hahaha. The absolute hilarity that will ensue if ESPN “sources” were once again full of shit and the NBA still drops the hammer on that franchise.
I was blown away reading what they’re saying over there. Hilarious how stoked they are to get away with cheating.
Crazy that even with cheating they still can’t win anything of note
Especially when they have absolutely nothing to show for it
Detroit vs everybody
r/clippers vs r/nba
I feel like every sports team subreddit gets like this when there’s a team scandal. The good fans get exasperated and fuck off as the loud dipshits take over.
I’m not optimistic that the NBA is ever going to drop the hammer, but taking pride in getting away with cheating is so degenerate.
They’re gonna be by far the most hated fanbase in the league for a while
They can never make me hate /u/lolwtferic
Clippers fans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWCLI7lXEdI
word for word
Oh boy.
FWIW, if you read the article, it sounds like this is far from over. Negotiations regarding punishment are still “ongoing”, which implies that punishment of any kind is still on the table. If they don’t reach agreement, it goes to arbitration, and arbitrators can compel organizations to produce documents and witness testimonies that Wachtell wasn’t able to.
The fact that negotiations are taking place at all makes this sound more like “we don’t have a smoking gun, but we still smell bullshit here”
Fischer speculated they’re going to try to separate Kawhi/Ballmer punishments last week. Just to not piss off the union.
[removed]
>based purely on circumstantial evidence
Except the CBA has a clause that very specifically outlines how high the threshold for standard of evidence is. The NBA is a private entity, so that threshold isn’t high.
“(d) A violation of Section 2(a) or 2(b) above may be proven by direct or circumstantial evidence, including, but not limited to, evidence that a Player Contract or any term or provision thereof cannot rationally be explained in the absence of conduct violative of Section 2(a) or 2(b).”
So whether the evidence is concrete or circumstantial, ultimately does not matter.
Copying my reply to a similar comment:
You’re correct in theory, but in reality, there’s a robust appeal/arbitration process that the Kawhi and the Clippers organization do have a CBA-given right to use, and anything short of definitive proof (and probably even then), they’ll certainly use it.
Having an arbitration process doesn’t really change the standard of proof. As you said, even if the evidence was direct, the Clippers/Ballmer would still appeal.
The real issue is the commissioner is the one that holds all the power and legal frameworks, so if Adam Silver cares about the best interest of the league and integrity, he can pull a Roger Goodell and go after Ballmer and the Clippers with the full power of the CBA at his disposal.
Yeah, the only punishment that the CBA allows for a player in this circumstance is voiding of their contract and the NBPA would contest that and the Raptors would also contest it since it would mean that their trade can’t go through. I expect that Ballmer, Frank, and the Clippers get punished for cap circumvention, but Kawhi instead gets punished for “conduct detrimental to the league” and basically just gets a short-ish suspension for making the league look bad.
And the standard for cap circumvention in the cba is that “no other rational explanation can provided for the compensation”.
If (big if) the investigation in being conducted to the standard of the cba, the nba doesn’t need to prove that ballmer funneled money. Ballmer/kawhi need to provide a rational explanation for the money he was paid. So even if the espn quote was accurate and undisputed by thr nba it doesn’t really mean anything because “proving ballmer funneled money” isn’t the threshold for a violation, unexplainable compensation paid to the player is. That exists in spades.
Super true, but the arbiter has the power to compel testimony and refusal to comply results (again in theory) in the withdrawal of the appeal.
Look I have no faith that the nba is going to do the right thing, more just pointing out that they have all of the tools needed to do the right thing readily available to them.
With a different headline the article is actually pretty damning. We learn of Boingo Wireless and potentially one more unknown sponsor. We confirm the league is negotiating an outcome with Balmer’s lawyers which has only been unsourced speculation. We confirm that employees were doing just what Pablo showed us they were doing.
We also confirm that those negotiations are “spirited”. These are not two parties that are aligned on what the results of this investigation should be.
Shelbourne has spent all offseason defending Ballmer to her very best and then does work on an article so egregiously wrong the NBA had to make a statement about it?
With that kind of mindless billionaire first attitude, she’s gonna get extended by ESPN soon.
Pssh, you’re thinking too small. Ramona is blonde and is one botched surgery away from White House Press Secretary
Girl everything about her is botched
This subreddit owes the clippers an apology 🥴
we did it reddit
The mods on this sub are so fucking lame
remeber they “closed the sub” and then had their own mod watch parties. lmfao
Shams and Shelburne showing their asses
All of this for 3 first round flameouts and 1 trip to the conference finals
I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it a thousand more
Kawhi going to the Clippers was a waste of his time (and some of his prime)
ESPN has zero journalistic credibility anymore.
And I’m not saying this as some ESPN hater, it comes from the fact that they have these MASSIVE contracts with the same leagues they are supposed to be reporting on.
This has created a huge conflict of interest and people should not look to ESPN for credible reporting, especially on matters like this.
They are an entertainment company and that’s it.
That’s INSANE LMAO. ESPN got FRIED
Wtf is going on. Clippers went rogue before the investigation finished?
Ballmer trying to end this before the season starts probably
Ballmer propaganda spread by Shillburn and Ballmer shill Redditor Yugidomain being exposed.
Lmao wow
Another investigation into who leaked the verdict
There was no verdict.
Holy shit they are dragging this investigation to hell like it’s been a year just get on with it already
All I know is, the Kawhi-era of the Clippers is a perfect metaphor for what the franchise and their owner is, and always has been: fraudulent.
The NBA has found no evidence showing LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard in order to circumvent the salary cap, according to three people with knowledge of discussions between the two sides in recent days.
Even the writing in the original article is horrible. They’re using a source with knowledge of discussion between “two sides”. What sides are those? Clippers vs. Leonard? NBA vs. Leonard? NBA vs. Clippers? I guess we’re supposed to assume the latter, but even then, why is it clear the sources for those conversations know final facts about the NBA’s investigation? They don’t have sources inside the investigaiton.
It’s awful journalism. In stark contrast to Torre’s Pulitzer-winning reporting.
It’s going to end the same, we all know it lol
So was Ballmer taking a PR victory lap while he could?
Their own rules dictate direct evidence is not needed, only circumstantial evidence is enough, and there is a ton of circumstantial evidence. The espn release is pure PR bullshit treating “direct evidence” as “evidence” when it is not their own standard of proof required.
Just one owner could sue if they made the espn article type finding. Hell, it might be possible for fans to create a class action, let alone boycotts of games or advertisers. Congress could end up involved, lord knows the chance to go after a billionaire that is not Trump would help tons of them come election time.
I don’t think the writers for ESPN even researched the CBA.
The CBA clearly outlines the steps in the process.
(1) Investigation. (2) System Arbitrator reviews those findings. If a violation is found, proceed to step 3. (3) Appeals Panel - the team or player may appeal whether a violation occurred. If the Appeals Panel declines/rejects the appeal it moves to step 4. (4) The Commissioner issues a punishment.
All this talk about the NBA discussing a punishment before even coming to a conclusion or an appeals process is bogus and not at all how the CBA is written.
Does this boil down to their not being an email or text message that says the phrase…this is for salary cap circumvention.
basically yeah - seems like clippers are trying to spin that as no evidence
It’d be the most Clippers thing to happen for that article to give false hopes of no punishment and then it turning around and actually screwing them.
The 3-1 leads of investigations if you will.
Get owned Ballmer shill Shelburne
This is like when Kendrick dropped Meet the Grahams!!!
What a night lol completely stepped on Drake’s red button
I can’t imagine the other owners would be happy with no punishment for Ballmer. Supermax wouldn’t mean shit anymore given the precedent set by the clips, just sign superstars for $20m per year and have them plant a few trees.
The ESPN piece is meaningless. It doesn’t say no evidence of side deals, influence, violation of the CBA. It just says we don’t have bank records of Steve Ballmer sending checks to tree companies and score board companies for them to cash and then deposit in Kawhi Leonard’s account.
Give us the full story then!
They clearly were baiting Pablo and to see public perception on it first /s
Timberwolves fan here. 5 first round picks! Something needs to be done. Clippers got to use their 5th pick this year. Leonard is a way better player than Joe Smith. Anything less than 5 picks and 40 game suspension is easy on them!!
That one OP owes this subreddit an apology
ESPN probably trying to drop before pablo does lolll
Pablo still undefeated
classic, leak the result to gauge the outrage / release the stress before we actually release the result
I’m tired boss
these ‘media outlets’ that act as billionaire pr departments should be shamed and shunned. fuck all these ‘reporters’.. they are a great shame upon the profession and hopefully to their friends and family.
Yellow Journalists.
Genuinely so scummy on the part of these “reporters”.
We’re so back
Just gonna make Pablo find out harder.
Hot take: The NBA released the earlier news about “no evidence” to check the pulse of the public, and now are realizing the backlash is significant enough to retract the report.
Do Clippers fans owe this subreddit an apology now?
Wow, so we went from the NBA looking like clowns to ESPN looking like clowns. Sounds like it was pure pro-Ballmer propaganda.
This is what happens when your brand is built on insiders and not actually journalists.
The NBA, while urinating off the roof onto the sidewalk below.
“We have released an official statement that this is just rain.”
Almost 40yrs of being a fan and I’m about done. I can’t root for my own team because of Dundon, and shit like this shows how manipulated and corrupt it’s come to. I don’t want “entertainment” I want sports back to being about competitive players and meaningful games.