The CBA has strictly limitations on player punishment.

The only avenue to challenging Silver’s decision was the player’s union challenging it. He had to get them on board to lower the hammer on Balmer, which meant he had to get Kawhi on board, so Kawhi got to negotiate his penalty.

It’s grossly unjust, but it is what it is.

Because he co-operated & he is a smaller fish than the Clippers themselves.

Clippers a much bigger scalp than a NBA player & the NBA was more protected negotiating a deal with Kawhi than if they did with a whole ass team.

When the NBA commissioner issues discipline, only the NBAPA has the power to appeal the decision. Teams do not.

By getting the PA on his side Silver left the Clippers no recourse except a hopeless lawsuit which they didn’t even bother filing.

Basically, all he did was ask his boss for more money.

They had no evidence Kawhi or his agent knew.

All they had was uncle Dennis asking for things and then evidence of the Clippers doing those things but no actual proof that Kawhi knew about it.

The NBA had no real power to punish him

The legal system is a different story tho

Because he didn’t mastermind any of it? It’s not like he or anyone on his team were the ones scheming how he’s going to get paid. That’s on Ballmer. He’s the kingpin that planned all of it

PEDs and violent crime is the only thing that will make the NBA punish a player. The CBA protects players in situations like this.

I think he must have agreed to corroborate the story and snitched

He apologized by blaming others lol

The power of a labor union and what it can do for you and why they don’t want us to have it

Silver’s biggest motivation behind the investigation is to prevent future occurrence, or deterrence. Deterrence is effectuated most easily when the hammer is swung down as heavily as possible on the owner. The only way to put the hammer down hardest on the owner, without pushback, was to make sure the players’ union did not push back.

So Kawhi is kinda like a mob guy who snitches on the Capo and then gets a plea deal to enter witness protection in Arizona.

Unless all of these leaks are from Uncle Dennis and Kawhi and Pablo is covering for them by saying it is from ex-employees of the affected companies, looks like he may get punished by the DOJ

Adam Silver is afraid of NBAPA.

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Different sport, but I want to see Pablo do a deep dive on Man City 115.

It’s funny because I’m so vindicated in saying “see we’ve been telling you guys how he’s really like all along”, but there kinda comes a point where the sheer amount of  fraud is just becoming comical now.

Impossible to not hear the Kawhi laugh when reading this comment.

No but he’s on a different team now, so everyone should just move on and never talk about anything bad he did with Clippers again /s

Steve Ballmer wants to be like Steve Jobs “one more thing”

It\(, okay. Ab\)olutely nothing worrie$ me.

bro he does not care at all lmao

“So I’ll face no consequences as usual, then.”

What does he care? He got fined less than he made on the shady deals, got traded where he wanted to go, and thr fans there will fellate him.

Uncle Dennis was the real loser in all this. He has to wear disguises to games now.

Pablo Tenacious

It’s not called Pablo Torre Gives Up

Pablor the Relentless

Pablo’s not relentless, he just got the balls to investigate and call this shit out.

The video ends and starts over and it just feels like yet another scandal being exposed. Relentless

Payoff-Finder P

The most corrupt organization in the world.

The US military is the biggest drain on taxpayer dollars. All for death and destruction. Also a huge contributor to climate change. You all really need to rein it in, along with the arms industry.

The Marine Corps has successfully passed an audit. The rest of the branches have not.

Remember rumsfeld on 9 10 2001 ?

I mean, no, not even close even if it is crazy corrupt.

His best asset is the fact that he’s quiet and out of the public eye when not playing basketball. Fans would’ve turned on him a long time ago if he went on podcasts and did interviews all the time like other NBA stars.

There’s not a single person in the world who you can rationally defend deserves 500K+ for an hour spent signing things at a military base. To me, it’d be spitting in my face. I’d rather be given $5 than a signed anything from any of these athletes.

Don’t forget the NBA Player’s Association was fighting this investigation and the only reason Kawhi faced no repercussions is because Adam Silver and the Player’s Association agreed to wipe it away if Kawhi pay back \(700k, none of which came from the \)60mil he made from fraudulent dealings.

You can say Kawhi’s not a good dude but almost all players would take this bag

He’s quiet so we just never knew lol

We could’ve told you that

Seconded

did anyone really get harmed here lol

For what? Making money? It’s funny that before people were shitting on him cause he didn’t do anything for the money he got from Aspiration, and now people are shitting on him for doing something for the endorsement money he’s getting?

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We have known for a decade in San Antonio.

Unlucky for him he competes in the US not Europe, he could easily slide off the radar right now

He gives off Gustavo Fring vibes.

His autism/shy persona is the best PR defense I have ever seen.

That we knew almost 10 years ago lol

it’s not him, it’s the people in charge. they need to be held accountable first and none of this would even be possible. but everyone’s mad at the person at the bottom. Celeberties and athletes are just working class for the elites.

Yes this was obvious before this latest stuff and he gets a completely free pass that I will never understand.

A bad dude even

Only slightly better than his sister.

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When Pablo and Wachtel are finally complete - and that might be not for quite a while - the NBA will surely need to remove more first round picks from the Clippers and increase Ballmer’s suspension.

If investigations turn criminal regarding financial fraud the NBA must enforce a sale of the Clippers.

Who could’ve seen it coming?

/s

it’s basically Chauncey Billups 2.0, just chasing risk because it’s the lifestyle, part of his code.

Nah.

Us Spurs fans were just salty for no reason.

He’s just wants to play ball close to his family.

What gets me is that he has this image of being frugal and living with his parents and driving an old car. He’s borderline anti-social and is never seen with women or being flashy.

But he is somehow more money driven and greedy than anyone to the point of seemingly mindless corruption. None of this stuff was necessary to get 95% of the earnings he has. But he still did all this shit.

Fuck Kawhi!

Fuck Kawhi. I hope bad things come to him for all the shady shit. Prison.

Does he suck or do the people paying him suck? He’s just collecting checks like any other person would.

What am I missing that makes kawhi suck? Because he made money for under the table deals?

I just want to move on from this

or…

I’m sorry if anyone was offended

Kawhi started his press con saying he didn’t want to talk about the Investigation that HE was an active participant of, and the Raptors media all nodded their head and said “okay🫡”

Pretty sure that’s what Trail Blazers fans said when they hired a rapist to be their head coach.

“He said he was soory”

This is all normal. Find a new slant.

I mean what do you want us to do, stay mad forever? At the end of the day I just think there are bigger things in life than how Kawhi did or didn’t get paid.

Life is short, Kawhi is a Raptor you know and next season is gonna be super exciting with many great teams!

I mean, ya kind of haha. Let him retire first maybe???? Is that fair?? 😬

Raptor fans worst fans in the nba. Cheered kds injury what losers. I cried for kd instead

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Most stories got broke by local media. Unfortunately, rich fucks have realized this and bought up small, local stations to prevent real journalism. Pablo is literally a last man standing

Yes there are hundreds of journalists still doing it for the love of the game even tho practically every news media company is basically bought by evil billionaires.

In sports media? Probably not, at least not nationally. But Pablo has also reached a level where people will come to him with information/documents/scoops, so he’s also at the (well earned) part where he will naturally just have more potential to find stories (and juicy ones) than most.

Hope he keeps crushing it

Marines shocked to learn they’ve been fooled into doing something for bad people.

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More like “He’s still alive? Wtf. On to episode 18…”

Definitely got the worst name that’s for sure

Was more social? I think the dude is on the spectrum, any social interaction seems uncomfortable to him.

I mean he got all this money plus more from playing the game.

He won here and I’m increasingly convinced he was absolutely a villain too. Dude knowingly fucked over the integrity of the league. Dude knowingly caused all this and risked the money of the rest of the players.

Kawhi gotta shoot the fade with Pablo

Right America is funny like that

The sponsor got paid back for hiring Kawhi. The Clippers were (indirectly) paying Kawhi to do this (through Boingo) . Boingo had no interest in paying Kawhi this much to do this, but the Clippers funneled them back the money (and who knows how else it affected the other Clippers Boingo business). Logically, there is no rational explanation for this as a business decision of a serious company. Kawhi also agreed to the same rules and specifically signed an addendum in every free agent contract that basically says “I won’t do what the NBA just proved I did”.

The point that it is the same as the Wong payment made from Aspiration. The money was seemingly already guaranteed to Kawhii but aspiration could no longer pretend to pay him. So they set up another shell deal to pay him.

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usually when you pay someone to do a photo shoot you actually post the photos. this was just another way to funnel him money off the books

I guess the big part is that until now there was plausible deniability that it was all Uncle Dennis and Kawhi knew nothing, but since we have proof he “worked” for Boingo we now have proof that he for sure knew he was being paid illegally outside the cap?

Agree with your point, it’s just the internet piling on him for optics. Dude got paid for doing a meet and greet. It’s just bad optics for him to take 2M for a 2hr event for a bunch of marines. But it’s not like that is against any rules.

The whole joke with aspiration was “only if Kawhi took a photo with a tree this could be avoided” now that he actually did take a photo for a sponsor it’s also suspicious? I’m confused on this one lmfao

if you subscribe to Kawhi’s contention that he’s the dumbest person alive and incapable of the most basic forms of deductive reasoning, then sure it’s possible that he was oblivious to the fact that a $1.9 million payment for an hour-long military photoshoot with a team sponsor, in the context of all the other no-show endorsements he had with other team partners, might be a bit shady.

It’s not fraud if the person overpaying you knows they’re doing so.

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Double fraud???

Imperialistic militaries are never about helping the people they are a tool to uphold and expand power of the ruling class. In this case the epstein class.

Cool. Not related to the issue but thanks for chiming in.

Because without the Player’s Union’s support the league couldn’t have hit the Clippers as hard as they did. Because the CBA is a deal between the league (aka the owners) and the players, the rules for arbitration are written that one side needs to invoke it against the other in matters of dispute.

But since the league ruling against the Clippers is (as far as the CBA is concerned) the owners ruling against themselves, to get arbitration to be possible the NBAPA would have had to have a grievance to open up the process.

So Silver went to the PA and said we slap Leonard on the wrist, he makes a general statement alluding to the leagues findings being correct (but not admitting guilt), and you don’t have to worry about a precedence where player’s contracts can be rescinded.

All of this is why, no matter how much the Clippers said they were going to fight it, they ended up doing nothing. Their contract with the league did not allow them to because the NBAPA said “we’re good with this”.

Because the CBA

To expound

Because the owners only care about money in the cba

So the players get a lot of rights

The only recourse the Clippers had for the punishment to the organization legally would have been for Kawhi and the NBPA to go to arbitration over the collective punishment. The NBA got Kawhi to agree to not go to arbitration by giving him a token punishment, and so Ballmer has no chance to have the picks and front office suspensions overturned as a result now.

He did nothing wrong?

The league didn’t do anything when the Raptors FO revealed the asks 7 years ago. Because we didn’t do anything wrong and no advantage was gained. The Clippers would have their picks if they followed suit!

Because he snitched. He took the deal.

Simply because he was cornered by hard evidence by the league and he rat them all out to save himself.

Like anything, it was a negotiation. Player punishments are spelled out in the CBA. If the league tried to come down hard on Kawhi, the union would have tied them up in appeals bc they didn’t really have ground to stand on. The alternative was working with the union to bring the hammer down on Ballmer and the Clippers.

Edit: So with Kawhi’s cooperation, the league avoids a lengthy arbitration process that likely takes the teeth out of any punishment given.

100% unions

A convicted rapist runs your country and you think the league is gonna keep one of its biggest stars from competing…..

Well considering it and all professional sports have always been shady, ya it’ll still exist

Seriously. It actually dumbfounds me that Raptor fans think Kawhi won’t screw over their team too. That man hasn’t changed, he’s just learned he can get away with whatever he wants

I’ve been saying this the whole time and I feel like everyone always responds with pointing out how he’s less liable/punishable. it’s like when I say someone’s being awful and they respond with “it’s a free country.” like ok I guess but I’m allowed to say that sucks.

Least plausible part is Kawhi actually staying in Toronto

I blame everyone else

Dude wanted and stated his demands. How they were met should have been met with a big no sign

You spelled Beijing wrong.

I want more photos of him buying Home Depot packing boxes in Toronto. That was some peak r/nba content.

How is he a slime ball? For getting paid for endorsements? lmao

I think most guys just said no/it wasn’t worth the drama if caught cuz they were already making X and kawhi is first guy recently to say sure and prove it

Balmer is a smart and competitive mother fucker; yeah he has his weird Microsoft dance but he (and the ppl he hired if he’s saying he didn’t know) did everything they can to get Kawhi to help the clippers and did literally everything they could to get him his absolute most money that it took to get him there

Again think it’s like KD/Bron/insert your favorite player here, never really thought it was worth the risk ie why not just take 70m instead of scamming for 100m

Tear the ACL and never play again

Unless Kawhi literally becomes prime Jordan at the ripe age of 35-36, and Scotty becomes pippen (half way there in name I guess), and we would still be missing a few pieces, namely a rodman who can rebound and guard bigs. And our role players all need get a +15% 3ptm-in-playoffs buff, as well as an improvement on defense.

So how tf are we supposed to win it all again? Don’t be ridiculous.

Check the date

He needs to cut the frequency of his episodes. Otherwise its just going to be more and more repeats that spend an hour discussing one new piece of evidence that adds nothing to the story.

I’m expecting 10 more Life Surge or Church or whatever it was called stories, each talking about a new athlete other than Tebow.

i know it’s gonna be my favorite show at the nursing home

No, but its depraved lmao

They have already been exposed lmao

This is extra information about one of the 4 companies that Steve Ballmer (and possibly more) used as shells to circumvent the salary cap. This is more about Ballmer and Clippers exec (possibly Uncle Dennis) than it is about Kawhi although he can be considered complicit if the investigations find more

Boingo ex-staff basically sang like a canary. This isn’t so much about Kawhi getting paid but how he was getting paid

In this one instance of media appearance:

1. Manufactured a trail of interest through emails to get Kawhi’s name in the paper trail

2. Paid Kawhi in full UPFRONT before he even had to pull up to the venue for an amount of $672,000

3. The base officials did NOT know who Kawhi Leonard was and have even asked who he was in an e-mail

4. The deal came together suspiciously after a Teams call with the Clippers (Ballmer) and is information that was leaked by an ex-Boingo staffer

5. ON THE SAME DAY THEY PAID KAWHI IN FULL BEFORE HIS APPEARANCE, a cool $1,213,700 was sent to Boing by the Clippers.

So in short, Boingo is a company that had at total budget for military base operations of $155,000 and had many complaints about asking to increase the budget by employees for stuff like bad internet (and being told it wasn’t possible)

They suddenly get on a Teams call with Ballmer in secret, decide to pay Kawhi for a military appearance of over four times their entire budget for military bases in general and is paid a hefty thank you check on the same day.

On top of that, as the SEC investigation draws near, Boingo as one of the 4 companies being investigated had decided to suddenly work on increasing wifi speeds at that marine corps base. Something that they had ignored for years until they felt that their e-mails may start getting snooped on.

“Publicly traded or tightly regulated entities involved in the arrangement have obligations to disclose material transactions, related-party dealings, or financial dependencies. Failing to accurately disclose the true nature of these “no-show” contracts—where millions were paid out for little to no actual public endorsement work—can be viewed as a material omission designed to deceive shareholders, auditors, and federal regulators”

He was the president of the marlins.

Also fucking terrible at survivor. But he’s on the best season of all time

wait really??? I’ve had this feeling I’ve seen him before since I saw him

Marines are the modern SS, reaching over those bottomfeeders for cash is the 3rd coolest thing he’s ever done behind winning and coming back

Even then he’s made plenty of money throughout his career. These people have more money than god and it’s never enough. It’s just pure greed