League angry their work getting leaked before it’s ready

The Clippers leaked a story that framed the report in the most positive light and the league called it out.

The report probably doesn’t directly link Balmer to Kawhi. It was probably done through various shell companies and subsidiaries

Ballmer once again used Ramona and ESPN to publish Clippers PR and the NBA fired back with “sit your bitchass back down because I’m not finished”.

It’s called spin. The PTFO about Daktronics is deadly blow, so now the Clippers recruit whoever is willing to their bidding to try to spin something that was presented to them in July and that does not exonerate them as the evidence that they indeed would be exonerated.

Fact is, if this was true, the Kawhi trade would have gone through already.

Right lol. Glad the league is looking dumb now.

Maybe they are testing how the public will react. Now they see the outburst, they will give Ballmer a tap on the hand instead of nothing.

The crisis PR firm is getting 7-8 figures for today alone.

I can explain this I think.

At one point NBA owners cared about the profits a team made in ticket sales and merch sales etc and they were owned by eccentric rich guys with big family businesses that came up in the town the team was in and had some emotional investment in it.

In this age there was also a government that enforced laws and regulations and taxed people that made lots of money.

But we did away with that version of society and we created monopolies and centi-billionaires and let them undo all the rules and buy off enough of the politicians and NBA teams became vanity investments and investments to just flip.

Basketball isn’t the point anymore the point is clicks. It’s all that matters because clicks controls your valuation and that’s what the ultra-rich owners care about.

Since they’ve long since ended most of the rules for themselves when they bought these teams they said fuck the salary cap. And they got together and they picked Adam Silver to be their bitch, and they all started paying guys under the table.

For every rat you see there’s 10 you don’t. And Silver knows it but if the whole league is exposed then the valuations go down and the billionaires are mad.

So this whole investigation is actually a secret all hands meeting between the league and the corrupt owners to determine the best PR strategy to make it go away and keep teams flipping like the Lakers.

The good thing is that they don’t need evidence if something is not explainable.

Ballmer sat down with Ramona the second this whole thing first broke… coincidence?

Both sides are playing the PR game. Here’s the conclusion, the Clippers/Ballmar were circumventing the cap with improper sponsorships but there is no proof of Ballmar directly paying the sponsor to pay Kawhi. We all know that’s what he was doing, but the easiest course of action is to punish Ballmar lightly for being in proximity of doing bad stuff as opposed to proving he did it directly.

The article never said Ballmar was innocent

Front-running a bad news story with your own PR is a common tactic.

I’m pretty sure that ESPN is just dogshit lol

I kinda think that too. And the vociferous outraged response hopefully makes them rethink things

Major assumption that ESPN isn’t also just trying to generate clickbait. ESPN has been losing credibility for a while.

Both parties have possible nefarious reasons for what has transpired today.

That was likely based off Clippers sources giving a pro-Ballmer slant.

Na ESPN Just sucks lmao

They are doing the Trump thing, leak 5 different statements to different outlets and see which one is publicly accepted and walk the rest back.

Access media guys got no spine anyway, you tell them to jump and show them a dollar and they say how high.

the Karoline Leavitt of sports reporting

Ironically, she made her career bashing on the Clippers.

Investigate Ramona Shelburne. I bet she got an endorsement deal, too.

She just secured the college fund for her child so she doesnt care

And some people are still falling for it.

Which means there is wrongdoing and theyre somehow trying to say there isnt any

Their report from this morning read like it was written by the Clippers’ legal department. They’ve sunk to new depths in their “coverage” of this scandal.

Between Ballmer, Iger and SAS/Ramona/whoever gargling them, there’s no way back for ESPN. This story doesn’t have the cultural public awareness it would in normal times, but it really feels to me like a tipping point for accountability in America.

It’s the kind of reporting that SHOULD tank a network, especially when it comes to a story as sensitive as this but it’s ESPN, they’re the McDonalds of sports news

Not your first choice, unhealthy to indulge, and consumed because it’s a well known name

A better-managed league wouldn’t have rogue agents reporting major leaks or false narratives to ESPN ahead of time. Silver needs to get his shit together. This doesn’t happen in the NFL.

Facts

Yeah, everyone is saying that this was a mistake but I don’t agree. This was the league soft launching their “corruption is now encouraged” report to see how it would effect the fans.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the GMs of literally every other team came down pretty hard on Silver for this today. Imagine learning that the entire skill of your job has been entirely irrelivant for about a decade. I’d be so pissed if I was the Pelicans GM, bascially just found out they could have made a dream team by simply tapping big oil to give everyone under table contracts. Tax aprons who?

This is what happens when 1 owner is worth more than the league, they made a business decision. Much like the league itself has to make a business decision in regards to him flouting their rules.

Well, ESPN’s Daddy company is now Ballmer’s neighbor. Just trying to play nice.

I mean the league could come out and say Ballmer did indeed circumvent the cap. Thats an inaccuracy

I thought Labour Day week tbh.

But this is reaching the end with negotiations on a plea deal (settlement) at an impasse with both sides leaking.

Elite ball knowledge

As if the league doesn’t know people will be upset if they clear the Clips of all wrong doing lmao

People jump to conclusions then work their way backwards to justify them. The same assumptive reasoning that makes people think the earth is flat or that there’s a secret society of lizard people.

Shams is not a real reporter. People call him and he is nothing more than an unofficial official mouthpiece. He fact checks nothing. He always has had a source who probably eats lunch with silver every day. His story is 100% factual.

why did the article switch from shams to shelbourne?

This guy.

Shams is not a reporter, he is a retweeter.

This guy PRs

Where have I seen this before? 🤔

David Stern said he knew where the bodies where buried. I don’t know why people think it’s crazy to think that this league is corrupt when we’re not too far removed from that and the Donaghy scandal.

This is why I wouldn’t be shocked if LeBron was on PEDs or some designer drug for recovery because there’s zero chance the NBA would let him go down for that at this point. It’s like people forgot LeBron’s right hand man and guy who is always with him was caught by the feds for buying/selling PEDs lol

He played basketball to get that money. Board man gets paid.

ESPN is reporting it as if they are the NBA, which is worse.

That part is referring to the article apparently