Can Nikola Jokic now sign for veteran minimum and get 300 million on the side for planting few trees?
It would help Nuggets a lot, they could build up the roster really nice with all that extra money. Precedent is set.
He doesn’t have to plant any trees
Or maybe he could put some ads on his horse during the harness racing in the off-season…
That Umamusume x Nikola Jokic crossover event gonna hit so hard
Umazing
Cheerleaders required to perform dance routine to Umapyoi, Uma in America and Girls Legend U.
Yes, with ears and tail.
Very fitting for Ballmer to have kick started the r/antiwork revolution.
When you’re a top ten richest person on the planet there are so so many things that aren’t relevant to you anymore. He could not care less about whatever message he is sending by being a cheat.
I’m told he’s also an expert in stadium displays?
How come he hasn’t been displaying anything on the court?
All we need is executive order from Trump daddy. Or nvm i changed my mind, scrap that. Trump can just threaten to annex Serbia unless Jokic plays for us for min wages.
WE WILL BOMB CROATIA UNTIL SERBIA AGREES TO OUR TERMS
Trump can just threaten to annex Serbia
Yeah I’m sure Trump will get right on that after Greenland and winning the Iran war for the 200th time.
Just build a mountain or something
the 300 million number sounds oddly specific here
You got it all wrong.
He doesn’t have to actually do anything.
Kroenke can just send 310mil to the tree planting company who will sponsor Jokic for 300mil
And when that tree planting company goes bottoms-up Kroenke and associates will keep investing money that matches the amount owed to Jokic to ensure he gets paid
totally normal find a new slant
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Kawhi doesn’t even have to be the one posting either, just have his social media guy do it. Hell, the Clipper’s social media guy could have probably done it.
one bad photoshop work (so we focus on that instead of the money) and there you go
have one dude make up stupid random publicity with game pictures of Kawhi and that’s it, no one suspects a thing
And even if article 13 of the nba cba says that you don’t need exact evidence that cap circumvention occurred, it just needs a smoking gun, you can just ignore that part!
Let’s be real, most likely only Ballmer can ignore that part. He’s too far up the NBA’s ass for them to say stop now.
I’m sure there are other owners who can. Dan Gilbert has just as much right!! He’s VERY rich.
Sure, there’s a ton of rich owners. But none of them are also such rapacious basketball fans that they built the league one of the most opulent stadiums in professional sports.
wonder what kind of side deals got done during that little construction project
and thinking back, Kawhi did put on the hard hat iirc. that’s gotta be worth something
Well at the very least we now know that some of that $100 million halo jumbotron money went to another secret do nothing contract for Kawhi.
They do have to be careful about how they introduce Jokic to the tree company though
[meanwhile in 1998]
You got it all wrong; the Timberwolves can just sign Joe Smith to a couple of cheap contracts then make it the money when they have Bird rights, just like Orlando did with Horace Grant. The precedent has been set so there’s no way they will get in trouble for it.
I mean, at least make it a horse-related side gig. Have some creativity.
Looking at horses. $1M/minute.
My man wouldn’t bankrupt Balmer
What if he sees two horses in the same field?
750k each, 600k for 3 and that’s it, my man can’t be losing more money than that
Make it donkeys, and call the company Ass-piration LLC.
You are an inspiration
Horsepiration
this sounds like pinterest for whores
So pinterest
Yeah but he’d actually do any side gig involving horses. It needs to be fake
or it’s just something he was going to do anyways for free, like invade bosnia
You can’t fake his enthusiasm for horses; it’ll just be paid vacation for him
Plant horses then. There.
Mususume game promotion incoming.
I think GSW should give Jokic a veteran minimum contract and give him Golden Gate Fields (horse racing track across the bridge from Chase Center).
Hell, rename it too while we’re at it and throw in some horses.
Hippotherapy 5 mil per session
Do horse races have scoreboards?
Seriously, it should be a side gig working at a stable
Equine therapy, get that sympathy angle
I think he should be the new linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams myself
Seems easier
If this gets brushed under the rug like everything’s been signaling it will, I hope every single laker has producer credits/pay on every Disney movie going forward
Luka, 5 yr vet min contract
Also Luka: producer credit on a bugs life pt 4
Gonna use NBA players to further enhance Hollywood accounting.
Coco 2 actually only just broke even because on-set mentoring from Austin Reeves isn’t cheap.
SpaceJam 3-17 have just been greenlit
Subscribe
Odyssey 2
Starring Luka Doncic
Perfect reasons to as well ;) He wants to reduce his alimony fees, keep the team together to win his first championship yada yada.
I can’t believe Squirrel Girl has a 2.5 billion budget.
All Lakers are now Avengers
Yeah I don’t wanna hear shit when AR and Luka sign new contracts for the vet minimum so we can also sign Wemby and Tatum for vet minimums who just so happen to have extremely lucrative deals with a rock quarry in Anaheim
it works out because then they can sell Disney themed jerseys as well. imagine the revenue possibilities.
Just as long as their actual nba contract matches their worth, then guess what will happen…not a damn thing
$300,000,000 horse racing contract
Nuggets suddenly have mounted patrol in the arena.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby sponsorship incoming
Worth it
“Just give me $300M in pulls.” - Joker, probably
Imagine Jokic gets a CS deal 😂
Haru Nikola
Jokic Akebono.
Good luck convincing Kroenke to spend like that.
This is why I’m shocked that the 29 other owners are ok with this result. This just means that ballmer has a massive advantage over all of them. The salary cap exists to benefit the owners, not the players. Why wouldn’t they want to enforce it?
This is why I crack up when people act as if most teams are doing cap circumvention like this. If they all wanted to spend more on players they wouldn’t have put in the second apron to prevent themselves from spending on players.
Those seven teams in the luxury tax at the end of the season don’t care about money
And they get outvoted by the other 23 owners
There hasn’t been a result yet.
Didn’t I read earlier today that they found no wrongdoing? Isn’t that what prompted this very thread that we’re in right now?
The NBA responded saying the reporting was incorrect.
Wow I hadn’t seen that yet. Thanks
I have posted this elsewhere many times but this absolutely is good for the players and bad for the owners. By the CBA the players make 50% of basketball revenue which as of this year is \(4.9 billion. Meaning no matter what the players make \)4.9 billion.
Anything outside of that is more money for the players and less for the owners
It is good for the very top echelon of players, but for all other players it would be better if that money was accounted for in the CBA because max contracts limit the amount the top echelon of players earn. The wealth would get spread around more if it was part of official cap accounting.
I’m guessing they don’t want to spend the money fighting one the richest people on earth in court?
Probably because they know that Ballner could go legal scorched earth on the way the league does business and expose all kind of shady backdoor deals that have been standard operating procedure for decades, and in fact probably legally challenge the entire concept of a salary cap.
Most of them don’t care about winning, they just want to own an exclusive asset.
Best he can do is 36.40 and a carton of cigarettes for his brothers every week.
seems like an easy way to duck the tax
might come out to same out of pocket for the owner
He better not. We need that money in North London.
i like when people say shit like this not realizing the one thing the kroenkes spend crazy money on is player contracts
Yea the incentive to circumvent the cap sounds good in theory until you realize who is gonna have to pay out.
It’s money he would have spent on luxury tax anyway.
we’re going to pay him in Arabian thoroughbreds, which is probably his preference anyway
any self-respecting superstar would do the same thing as kahwi
lmao he doesnt even need to plant any trees
Fuck it why not
Maybe he can sign a contract for 2 million a year for 2027-2036 seasons and then 70 million a year for the 2037-2046 seasons
No because jokes aside, you still have to get what the league deems fair as a contract (yes its arbitrary). He can sign for the max and a 300m sponsor to do nothing, sure.
But the news is hardly a big deal. If kawhi planted one tree then he’d have been fine. Any player could have already done this and not worry.
You absolutely do not have to make market value after lebron took a $50M/yr pay cut, coming off an all star season and leading a team to the 2nd round.
IMO the league seriously needs to be proactive about that situation and make a rule around fair/market value. Guys are going to start coming off their first supermax with like $500M career earnings. There’s nothing that prevents one from signing a vet min with the reigning champs, getting their ring, then going back to max contracts after.
This is what should happen for everyone ring chasing. Every all star / all NBA player joins the kings for vet min for 1 year and go 82-0.
Then go back to super maxing next year.
There’s nothing that prevents one from signing a vet min with the reigning champs, getting their ring, then going back to max contracts after.
That’s never been an issue with any sport and it’s always been allowed and very few players do it. Turns out even rich players want to still get paid
How is 4m for LeBron fair?
He old
lebron legit sat out games for arthritis, it’s pure aura keeping him afloat this long at this point
While the talent is higher than being worth that, there is significant injury risk and also significant risk of regression.
I would never bet against LeBron but if he played like 30 games next year and averaged like 10 points on medium efficiency… I mean, he’s 42. It could happen.
This is hard cope, they just let it slide because it’s lebron. A flyer on him is worth far more than 4m, even in 2026
If kawhi planted one tree then he’d have been fine.
no. it would have provided a little more cover for the scheme, but it absolutely doesn’t excuse the core issue of the money coming from Ballmer.
This comparison doesn’t make sense. Isn’t Kawhi making just a couple million under a max deal?
So it’s more like Jokic’s same deal plus money on the side, which is probably already happening with most max players.
What if Joker pulls a LeBron and claims that he’s taking the minimum to pursue a ring? Then they pay him extra through some horse-racing events that he’s paid $100 million to attend.
He signed a 35% deal on his new contract but it was flat at ~$50m each year which is the only thing you could possibly point to. He now makes “only” 30% on the salary cap.
It could easily be explained away by his injury history.
This is literally how college football works now. But, instead of planting trees, he shows up at the tree planting company and takes photos with employees for 30 minutes..
But, instead of planting trees, he shows up at the tree planting company and takes photos with employees for 30 minutes..
Than again, Kawhi didnt even do the “shows up” part.
This would be more than what kawhi did with his 3+ “endorsements”
as long as the NBA doesn’t find any evidence of it, sure
and even if do, sure!
Nuggets won’t even pay the luxury tax and you think they’re going to pay that much off the books?
dafuq is a lottery tax
lotteries are a tax on poor people.
Lmao got me
Would it even be better for foreign players? Harder to dig up records outside of USA.
Did kawhi sign for a minimum?
Esquire Inc. can buy his horse for 300M $ and silver-balder could not do anything about it.
All you have to do as an owner is prop up a failing business (or 10) with millions in extra funding and siphon some of the money to the player without a literal check addressed to the player from the NBA owner.
I saw the same post about Luka. Is this a bot or is each fanbase going to recycle the joke 😭
He can’t do that. That’s against the rules, wink wink.
You cannot equate players being overpaid to players being underpaid.
No.
They have to send it to Nikola’s uncle. Always use a rat hole.
If Kawhi had planted even one tree, this would’ve been a non issue.
Yes
short answer is yeah, and he dont gatta fuck with the tree part
Yes but also he’ll still be the most paid player in NBA history once he does the extension with the Nuggets.
The NBE it’s a circus show! The salary cap no longer matters. Stop betting on a FIXED sport.
yall joke but this could all mean no salary cap in the near future
I wonder how high balmer or other owners would pay if there was absolutely no salary cap
As an example, in the last couple Chicago years Jordan was making more than the entire salary cap for a team. And that was even with a (soft) salary cap. So it could be double in extreme cases.
not a chance. owners fought tooth and nail for a salary cap (which has only been strengthened over time with taxes and aprons). They aren’t giving that up.
Yes, yes he can
Kroenkdawg would pay his entire squad in acres of developable land around rural Walmarts.
Keep dreaming. The Kronkes aren’t spending any money outside of the organization.
That’s the whole point other sponsors would be footing the big bill
You think Balmer wasn’t paying Kawhi through those “sponsors”?
no, no one would care if Aspiration, Daktronic, etc were the ones paying Kawhi. The entire issue with Kawhi is that ballmer funneled the money to the other organizations.
The sponsors were getting the funding from Ballmer
are you completely oblivious as how the cap circumvention works, and how it worked regarding the while Leonard saga? Rich owner pays/“invests” X company 10 million. That company then signs NBA player to an andorsment deal worth 8 million. They pocket 2 million for free/“fee”, kick back the balance to the player.
I am not sure why you would comment and have no clue what is happening, or how it happened in the Leonard saga.
No where is the sponsor losing money, in fact they are GAINING free money in doing it.
The precedent is more like if a historically shitty team was bought by a billionaire who was trying to spend a shit ton of their own money trying to get that team out of the gutter then the league would turn a blind eye to them bringing in Jokic through cap circ if they could pull it off. Not really a bad call on the league’s part.
Vet minimum and 300 million in horses with a company that surely has no ties to the Denver owner or team.
might as well
It’s open season now. Every single team should be making slightly obscured marketing deals with other companies to lure players.
Silver is about to make a catastrophic mistake because he’s going to let Ballmer get away with it.
Expect full on corruption and cap circumvention with every middle and bottom tier org who couldn’t get big players to come before.
He can like breed horses.
Us smaller markets are even more fucked now
He’s going to get $300 from Casa Bonita. And become a South Park character
Can he? He already did it 30 minutes ago
Tree power
Just give him beer concessions at games. He has to play with a bunch of beer-filled cups around his waist.
They can just pay him under the table, no tree planting required
Why not get him a sponsorship with Tractor Supply Company? Seems like a natural fit.
No because the Clippers were paying Kawhi a max the whole time. None of this ever involved the Clippers getting extra cap space. At worst they paid a guy more without gaining a competitive advantage for the rest of the team’s balance sheet.
Hahahahaha…Stan Kroenke is only worth a measly 24b! You gotta be the richest owner in sports to pull this off
No - the type of permissible structure is that they already used their cap as much as possible on him.
Signing a below market deal means they have more cap room for shenanigans.
Kawhi’s type of deal requires maxing out under the CBA first.
That’s why Gary Trent Jr. is a problem. He took a deal that allowed them to sign other folks and do shenanigans. That’s not ok.
That was always an option
Lebron only making 4M is sus af
There are no trees, we never needed them
He doesn’t need to even plant the trees. How about spokesperson for ethical treatment of race horses.
According to silver seems like it, gonna be crazy next year when all these all stars on like 10-20 million contracts since balmer and nba showed us the way lol.
Did I miss the part where Kawhi signed a bargain deal? Can you link me to the source showing Kawhi signed for less than he was worth?
Just saying going forward if that’s how we gonna play cba time for all team to get crazy roster paid off the books but thanks for the high clip fan
Huh? First of all, that doesn’t make any fucking sense
Second, what an absurd jump in logic
Absolutely.
People are in for a rude awakening when they find out their team won’t get away from punishment for doing this. The Clippers got out because Ballmer is rich as fuck. That’s what happens when you let someone that much wealthier than everyone else into the club.
do you idiots realize the clippers literally could not have given kawhi any more money than they did?
Yeah thats whats wack about all this
They did it to secure his FA over another team that could pay him the same amount. They didn’t do it to circumvent the cap in the NORMAL way, which is the team salary cap, they did it to circumvent the player salary cap
literally every single report since Kawhi was in SA was saying Kawhi was insanely biased towards going to LA because he was from socal and wanted to be close to family in socal
yeah it sucks but circlejerking like this is the same as signing for a minimum is hilariously stupid
MAYBE you can claim the raptors got shafted but once the Clippers put together a contending team for him he was never going anywhere else realistically
this isn’t the gotcha you think it is.
[removed]
Nice bigotry there, buddy. Go away.
WHAT BIGOTRY, STOP TRYING TO START BEEF OVER NOTHING, ITS A FACT BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS WITHIN THE NBA. HOW DOES A MAJORITY AFRICAN-AMERICAN LEAGUE NEVER HAVE A HAD A MINORITY AS COMMISSIONER? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
Take a little trip to the “Early Life” section of Wikipedia pages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NBA_team_owners