Yep we know, that’s why the league hasn’t taken action.

Rich people truly are the worst

“I’m rich I can do whatever I want”

We need to punish rich people for once

Call his bluff. Make them bring it to arbitration. Hold up the trade for months on end. Go for it Ballmer

Dude sounds like some computer nerd who gets mad when he’s told he’s not doing things right

ESPN is very clearly taking a side in this investigation. The bias was already obvious from the jump, but they’re just explicitly supporting Ballmer now. This “leak” is literally threatening the league and the fans of other teams at large.

Person who has to take responsibility won’t accept the result of him having to take responsibility? I am shocked. SHOCKED i tell you.

Ballmer is a little bitch.

Who cares. Take it to arbitration then. One way or another this will come to an end.

The NBA is lucky this is the clippers and they suck. If this happened with a team that won a championship, they would have no choice but to deal out consequences.

God he’s such an egotistical dumb fuck. Dragging this out makes everyone look worse. He doesn’t even have to admit wrong doing just accept the slap on the wrist and move on while maintaining your innocence.

Okay but Pablo should be the arbiter.

Arbitration is only way to go

Rich spoiled brat doesn’t want to be put in timeout

Eli5 why the NBA is afraid of arbitration. The evidence that this was cap circumvention is huge and undeniable. So what ballmer is rich. So is Donald Sterling and they got rid of him with barely a second thought.

a Billionaire doesn’t want to be held accountable for cheating

Shocker

“Look man we gotta keep up some kind of facade of integrity here”

“No fuck you”

Then arbitrate. Backing down isn’t an option.

He’ll pull what Elon Musk did with Twitter and just buy the league lol

How can they go into arbitration if he basically won’t accept any punishment and keeps denying it?

I just don’t understand how there’s no evidence.

Kawhi got paid for doing nothing. Money was moved from the clippers to Aspiration, and slightly less money was moved from Aspiration to Kawhi. For nothing.

What do the NBA think Kawhi was getting money for? Is it supposed to be a coincidence that the Clippers paid Aspiration almost the same amount?

This is so blatantly obvious, it genuinely offensive they think it’s not.

This is just posturing from Balmer to threaten the league.

He knows arbitration is a terrible idea for him, the league wants to avoid it as well.

At best this is a thinly veiled threat using ESPN as his mouthpiece again

If they let him get away with this because they are afraid of taking on a rich owner then all the league rules are toothless.

If the investigations support it they have to punish him and the Clippers severely, and he if refuses to accept it they have to do him the way they did Sterling.

Ballmer is smart in that he damn well knows he’s commited cap circumvention but made it so nothing could be pinned on him.

The lack of outrage from other owners is telling. If I was an owner I’d be pissed that I’m limited to how much I can spend to keep/sign talent while other owners can get around it.

This reminds me a little of a podcast former US Attorney Preet Bharara hosts a podcast and in one episode he talked about plea negotiations.

He said people (through their lawyers) swear up and down that they’ll fight to the end, that they’re innocent, that they’ll drag it through court and appeal and use every option.

And then Preet, or the attorneys in his office, will bring them in and very calmly lay out every piece of evidence. Every text, every email, every photograph, every contract, etc. They show the whole case.

This is what we’re going to show a jury, all of it, this is how we’re going to tie it together

And by the end they work out a plea deal that saves everyone time and money.

All that to say, maybe Ballmer will fight, but without the result of the investigation it’s all speculation. If the investigation shows they have him dead to rights he might want to settle it quickly.

“Only if they figure out how I did it! Otherwise I’m pleading NBA equivalent of the 5th!”

This guy is such a penis lmao

Kick Ballmer and Silver out

FUCK STEVE BALLMER 👏👏 👏👏👏

Silver has created such a terrible environment that I feel like every level of legitimacy has been stripped from the league. I don’t have faith in the owners, the players, the coaches, the officials, or the leadership.

It feels like some parts have had rocky moments here and there over the years during various scandals. Now it’s almost like the entire NBA is a scandal.

Gotta listen to your boss, Silver

what are these responses? do you really expect Ballmer to roll over and accept punishment? if the league feels the evidence is strong enough, they should be willing to go to arbitration. what’s the issue here?

The funniest thing about this whole debacle is this would be a front page news story if the clippers had accomplished anything with this team lmfao

Now, im not saying Adam silver would do anything regardless, but if the clippers won a championship this would be a much larger story outside of just hardcore NBA fans

Just take it to arbitration then. Even if he somehow wins it (which he shouldn’t because all they need is circumstantial evidence, which there is a lot of), it hurts his image

Then let him bring it to arbitration?

Sounds like a man with confidence he can bribe an arbitrator.

If Silver doesn’t punish Ballmer unilaterally, something he has the authority to do to an almost unlimited extent (requires a 3/4th vote pf governors to ban/force a sale), then he is agreeing to a dilution of his own power for nothing in return (assuming no hidden quod pro quo). It would be incredibly stupid no matter how hard Steve chooses to fight, no matter what he views as the correct resolution. Pushing back on the commissioners power should always be a red-line for his office. Anything else it total capitulation. Further, if the other owners go along, it shows they were clearly complicit. And if the don’t, it’s starting an nba civil war.

Was ballmer this much of a dick when he got done for cap circumvention in 2015. What smoking gun did they have then?

What’s wrong with going through arbitration?

Adam Silver: can I punish you Steve?

Steve Ballmar: fuck no

The two professional basketball leagues in our country are fighting for the supreme dumbass title

Hey Steve…how does one arbitrate facts?

He would lose in arbitration. The evidence is strong. 

so pathetic. man this is just so pathetic.

“If I wanted accountability or consequences I wouldn’t have become a billionaire!”

“The filthy rich intend to break the rules and cheat and get away with it because they can outlast you in a legal battle of attrition”…dogshit fucking society allows this type of shit honestly 

Corrupt to the bone

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I hope he does take it to arbitration, the discovery would be fun!

You can buy time with money. And with infinite time, you can theoretically control anything.

“When Iam rich NOOO ONE WILL QUESTION MEEEEE!”

I would be fascinated to see what someone independent of this would come up with in regards to the evidence.  Let’s keep the drama going, could be fun!

Shove it up your fucking ass Ballmer

This was always going to end in “we have investigated ourselves, and found d that we have done nothing wrong.

If he did that and it was ruled in his favor, whatever respect owners and fans have left of Silver would be completely obliterated

“I would be reluctant to act if there was sort of a mere appearance of impropriety…”. Uhhhh, isn’t that in the CBA that the “appearance” is good enough to be guilty? Seems like Pablo has shown that a few times.

League needs to show it has balls or else it’s a joke. If the teams can get away with cap circumvention there is no point of a cap. 

So go to arbitration. i would love to hear a reasonable explanation offered for what happened.

Ballmer is such a fucking pussy, do it then bitch lol

Then arbitrate, you cowards! FFS, just do it already, the result would have far more legitimacy than any penalty that Ballmer willingly agreed to.

Why does the god damn NBA needs his permission to punish him? Thats not at all the way that should work. No one should give a fuck if he “accepts” the punishment or not

Billionaires can deny anything and get away with anything. They have the money to buy influence and propaganda. 

Nothing will happen. Us poors should just move on I guess. 

This is why the league needs an ironclad case and I’m okay with the investigation taking as long as it needs. These cases are always messy and may result in ultimately going to CAS. The league needs really solid evidence to really prosecute this case.