Won’t someone think of the poor billionaire owners?

That’s very capitalistic of you.

Yes, player empowerment is the problem, not PE buying teams for > $10B.

Not really

As opposed to what exactly?

I understand the perspective of this, but it’s also still true that from a value perspective, star players are actually still underpaid for the value they bring to a team as well as the money they generate for the NBA and all the orbiting/fringe/leech entities affected by their influence. Taylor Swift for example is an entire financial ecosystem that follows her from city to city. Markets are altered by her presence, just as an example. It’s silly to think that 60mill per year could be underpaid, but from a certain point of view, it’s very much true.

I’m glad he’s still playing. If one day he retires from the NBA and becomes a comedian, we’ll be in truffle.

well that’s probably because he didn’t have his wallet tied to THE GODDAMN ESPLANADE

He owns stock in Webistics

He was gay?

Your comment reminds of some a random comment on read on worldnews one time. Went something along the lines “Trump is bombing Iran for financial gain. Bush was bombing the middle east for the love of the game”

Whatever happened THERE????!

WHATEVER HAPPENED THERE!???

Kawhi has him stored in his phone under “Scammin Azz Dennis”

No why would you possibly bring that up?!?

They’re still good. The man was great at his job. He asked and they said yes. The Clips could have said no, other teams did. And made sure they kept their word and paid up. When stuff gut real, he took a hit to cover Leonard. We all deserve an Uncle Dennis.

It is short for Live Action Role Playing.

“live action role playing”

No idea why people have been saying it constantly recently though

Believe it means live action role playing.

Isn’t that what uncles are for

By giving Kawhi a slap on the wrist, there was no incentive for him to fight the NBA’s punishment.

This in turn handcuffed Ballmer and the Clippers. Without Kawhi appealing they couldn’t fight the punishment either, as only the players have the power to appeal.

Right after the Clippers / ESPN article came out, the league basically said “oh you’re going to play like that? Fuck you then” and went to Kawhi and did a deal with him without telling the clippers. That’s how it feels to me

Because ultimately 99% of the onus is on the owner/franchise. A player can ask for the world of they want but ultimately the team has final say in everything. Also, the Joe Smith incident set the precedent, he didn’t get punished either.

It’s all theater. Adam Silver doesn’t want to actually get Balmer in real trouble with the Feds, so even though Ballmer was all “we’ll appeal this and fight this and that”…his lack of trying beyond those initial statements tells me he also doesn’t want any more attention than this has already brought. Kawahi knows Uncle Dennis also probably helped facilitate or pressured someone into committing securities fraud, so less focus on the “distraction” means maybe his uncle skates free too from too much Fed heat.

Too bad there’s Pablo Torre out there continuing to look into things and point out how the report about it all doesn’t fully address everything that Kawahi, Uncle Dennis, and the Clippers did during that time to skirt not only NBA rules, but major financial laws.

Couldn’t prove he knew anything about it at the time. Its obvious he did but theyd have to fight the nbapa without something airtight and from the sound of it he just threw his uncle under the bus.

cause the NBA is all about the players lmao, the franchises don’t mean shit.

“I don’t understand the thing that I’ve spent no time and effort into researching”

NBA union would make it very difficult process, and Union agree with NBA to do least punishment for Kawhii.

Silver serves the owners not the players, so the team had to be punished as harsh as possible to keep owners from being on the hook for any other player who wants this same deal Kawhi got. Kawhi got a slap on the wrist to keep the union for forcing an arbitration which could have affected the punishemtb the clips got

Which guy

Which might actually be a reality knowing that those close to him are PDF’s and probably cheat on their wives with hookers as well (hello Bill)

Who considers him top 15 all time let alone top 10?

His body was also steadily breaking down and his conditions for signing there were to give up the franchise’s future for a co-star & circumvent the cap to pay him. Clips were also actively tampering with him when he was in Toronto.

Great reminder that this dude is one of the most overrated players of all time lmao

It’s a private business. I hope the feds never investigate. There is much worse that goes on at banks and stuff. Not a single person went to prison during the subprime mortgage scam crisis. Nobody on the Epstein list will be investigated either. Like I said, much bigger fish to fry.

What federal law was broken by Kawhi? Genuinely asking.

The deals were illegal by NBA cap standards but I’m pretty sure Daktronics and Aspiration are allowed to do whatever they want with their money and paying Kawhi to no show is fair game.

Tax evasion if he tried to hide the money from the IRS is all I can think of…

> on our dime

man yall are idiotic acting like he finessed your tax money when all he did was get paid under the table by the 10th richest man on earth lmao

They need to put their resources elsewhere where it truly matters. Laws weren’t broken here.

The DOJ and SEC are after the companies, not Kawhi

Let’s hope they don’t. I don’t even live in your country but using public funds to investigate this shit sounds insane to me. On a grand scale, this impact nobody.

He wasn’t paid with tax money dumbass

Makes me wonder if my little tree bro really wanted to rekindle the magic with the Raptors or if he was looking to move to the only non-U.S. based NBA team.

Leaf and Load management will never have him leaving Canada.

They’ll fire Hegseth and replace him with Kawhi for Sec Def

It’s always the guy that secured an absolute bag saying it.

Flashbacks to Uro yelling at Yuta

Ain’t no way Kawhi plays 162 games in 2 seasons haha. He’s making a million a game at least.

It’s always funny that people will watch millionaires play basketball while simultaneously expressing bitterness and anger at them being millionaires.

Then why sign a massive extension? Sign a much smaller amount and the team will be better around you

I appreciate ballmer preventing a lebron/kawhi/AD team on the lakers. He had to do what he had to do.

Nobody forced Kawhi to ask for more money either tf you talking about

Wouldn’t be surprised if most teams do this. They just got caught and then wouldn’t admit it.

Real question, is what Kawhi did worst than being a stakeholder and promoter of poly market or Kalshi or some military weapons company or being a dangerously reckless driver or deadbeat father or woman abuser or lobby against affordable housing just cause it touches his compound or refuse to sign a petition against a genocide in Sudan cause it conflicted with a business dealing or speak out in favour of the Chinese government or publicly support a rapist?

Honestly, yeah. But also because it’s specifically Steve Ballmer. That guy deserves all this and more for Windows 8.

rip off the US Military

Military Industrial Complex been doing that for years when they charge like $200 for basic screws/bolts for their vehicles.

Not saying it’s fully okay but it’s likely something that Ballmer funneled regardless

I mean you say that like I’m supposed to be upset about some billionaires and a trillion dollar industry lmao

I can seperate the basketball player from the man and be entertained by the on court product. Doesnt mean im a sheep but comitting like 6 hours a week watching games does not mean i need to stand on a high horse for something that the league handled

I get where you’re coming from but let’s not kid ourselves, Kawhi would take a deal from a betting company if the offer was there. Athletes that we think of as superhumans are realllllly good at what they do and it’s partially because they are exceptionally selfish. That doesn’t change when it comes to increasing their wealth.

But who tf really knows. I’m am an old ass cynic that lost all faith once Giannis took that stake in kalshi

what he did was still shady af and he blamed his uncle in the end; absolute dbag

I think Kawhi wanted the money and Dennis probably told him he’ll handle it and to stay out

“Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed: everything else is public relations.” - George Orwell

This take is waaaay too nuanced for the average poster on this sub lmao. They have an agenda to hate him, so they will conveniently ignore all of this.

Have fun with that

I hope we win the chip this year just to make the haters in this thread lose their minds.

This whole thing put at risk the fairness of the league, so yeah, he did scam all of the NBA. Everyone agree to play with the same rules, you have to respect it, that’s it.