Pablo Torre: Kawhi/Clippers/Ballmer/Aspiration Thread (part 2)

[pepe1991]

Nothing in nba killed my interest in a League like this thing. Because it involves all the things that are harmful for any league:
corrupted owner
corrupted player
corrupted agent

Rules of a League that are being violated, complete silence of people who supposed to protect league, mouthpeaces from NBA media (ESPN= owned by DIsney, same Disney who now paid 76 BILLION dollars for rights ) like puppets they are, are being manipulated to defend "poor little Ballmer who never knew nothing".

League is as transparent as North Korea.

It's same league that rushed to publish that NBA cleared Terry Rozier for fixing games. Yet in same time they "forgot" that FBI to this date, still didn't clear him for same thing. So in NBA you have active player who is being investigated for fixing games within same league plays.
It's same league where Odom admited being on cocaine and crack for a decade but never failed dopping test.

Owners are either too afraid of Ballmer or too deep into all this salary cap frauds to voice their opinion , Adam Silver is either most corrupted person in sports or dumb as bricks.

If Ballmer / Kawhi remain in a League why in a blue hell would anybody be naive enough to watch league where most obvious cheating isn't being punished ? Salary cap cheating is fine? Okey. What about draft? Or it's just another smokescreens play for naive fans? How about championships? Are they planned and voted among owners as well ? What's the point of watching "sport" that isn't sport but scripted tv show ? I'm too old to watch WWE /basketball edition.

[SNPA]

Ballmer is an idiot and Microsoft sucks.

This dummy could have just bought gold via the LLC of an LLC and given it to KL over time. Melt it -can get a torch at any head shop- and it’s totally untraceable. No one can force him to show them his gold and if the feds ever came knocking (they wouldn’t) he could claim it’s misplaced in one of his mansions. This could have been done with one assistant who wouldn’t need to know what was up.

For all the NBA owners reading this…you’re welcome. This is how you circumvent the cap and never get caught. DM me for more quality advise (fees apply).

[TinmanZBoy]

Money can't buy championships...

[Tha Cynic]

the scary thing is literally every day since the story broke more and more and more incriminating evidence is being discovered...and every day the league and silva is getting quieter and quieter about it

I’ve said this before but there’s no way the NBA didn’t know the clippers and other teams use funny business tactics.

The fact that the Clippers are also very united in saying no makes me wonder if they have confidence that the NBA will try to help make this go away

[SkyBill40]

the scary thing is literally every day since the story broke more and more and more incriminating evidence is being discovered...and every day the league and silva is getting quieter and quieter about it

I’ve said this before but there’s no way the NBA didn’t know the clippers and other teams use funny business tactics.

The fact that the Clippers are also very united in saying no makes me wonder if they have confidence that the NBA will try to help make this go away

It's out in the great wide open now, so there's not really going to be any chance of a slick brush under the rug. Doing so puts their fan base at risk of turning away from the game and seeing the league is probably at their height of it's popularity, having a disastrous scandal would be a near death blow to Silver and his tenure as commissioner. There's way too much scrutiny on this to just have it go away. But bet your ass Silver is going to do everything and anything he can to minimize the damage.

[madmaxmedia]

the scary thing is literally every day since the story broke more and more and more incriminating evidence is being discovered...and every day the league and silva is getting quieter and quieter about it

I’ve said this before but there’s no way the NBA didn’t know the clippers and other teams use funny business tactics.

The fact that the Clippers are also very united in saying no makes me wonder if they have confidence that the NBA will try to help make this go away

It's out in the great wide open now, so there's not really going to be any chance of a slick brush under the rug. Doing so puts their fan base at risk of turning away from the game and seeing the league is probably at their height of it's popularity, having a disastrous scandal would be a near death blow to Silver and his tenure as commissioner. There's way too much scrutiny on this to just have it go away. But bet your ass Silver is going to do everything and anything he can to minimize the damage.

I would say it's in his (and the league's) best interest to both maintain competitive balance and minimize stigma to the game- both are relevant for maintaining ratings and popularity of the sport. Pablo has turned up so much that completely sweeping under the rug is going to be difficult IMO, even half-assing a light slap on the wrist is going to invite a lot of questions and blowback. But we'll see what happens. I'm assuming that everything Pablo has reported will more or less be confirmed, but we don't even know about that yet.

It's not surprising to me they are not speaking out about it, they need to get a complete report from the investigation before coming to any conclusions or even expressing opinions on it. Saying something now could only hurt them if they retract later. So I don't think their silence tells us anything about what their final judgement is going to be.

[madmaxmedia]

Few WTF moments for me:
1. Kawhi doesn't remember, nor can anyone find online, any proof or documented example of his most lucrative endorsement (his New Balance deal from 2018 was reportedly $5.5M yearly - and he had to put quite some work to get that money, including shooting promo videos)

2. Kawhi expecting to get paid more as the company collapses (put options) - all that for providing endorsement services, which, in most cases not involving Aspiration- or KL, are expected to promote the company, and hopefully to increase its value.
Once again for Cuban and ESPN:
There is an endorsement agreement. A Player is expected to promote the company, make it better, more valued.
But his payment will decline the better job he does. And his payment will increase the worse job he does.
Well, sounds legit, for sure. Where can I sign up for something similar?

How tall are you? Can you play at both ends of the court?

[madmaxmedia]

If the fines and punishment are anything less than the Joe Smith incident, the media and fans will uproar

I don't think Adam Silver has the balls to void Kawhi's contract

I feel voiding his contract is the easiest part of the Joe Smith punishment package. He'll simply be a free agent and can sign elsewhere. OTOH Ballmer is the richest owner in the NBA and just built an arena with his own money. The question is whether he'd take away as many as 5 1st round picks and suspend Ballmer for a year.

If Silver hypothetically really wanted to put the hammer down on a team in the Clippers' situation, he would have the pick suspensions start AFTER their future pick swaps. That would hurt a lot more than starting with the immediate next 2 picks (2027 swapped to OKC, 2029 swap with Sixers.) I don't think that will happen though.

[Slava]

This is such a shameful look for the NBA media that beyond failing to lay a glove on the clippers with all that material Pablo has given them, they are out there running defense for them.

[Old_Blue]

Steve Ballmer is an extremely wealthy and powerful man. Few would be able to deny him if he offered to cake them with Crisco and roll them in piles of sweet Microsoft money. Some might actually enjoy it. But, I digress. In the end, it might all be just too much for Adam Silver to ignore. He could just say "Nosferatu needs a new crib baby. Show me the money!"

Watch on YouTube

[SkyBill40]

If the fines and punishment are anything less than the Joe Smith incident, the media and fans will uproar

I don't think Adam Silver has the balls to void Kawhi's contract

I feel voiding his contract is the easiest part of the Joe Smith punishment package. He'll simply be a free agent and can sign elsewhere. OTOH Ballmer is the richest owner in the NBA and just built an arena with his own money. The question is whether he'd take away as many as 5 1st round picks and suspend Ballmer for a year.

If Silver hypothetically really wanted to put the hammer down on a team in the Clippers' situation, he would have the pick suspensions start AFTER their future pick swaps. That would hurt a lot more than starting with the immediate next 2 picks (2027 swapped to OKC, 2029 swap with Sixers.) I don't think that will happen though.

If Leonard's contract was voided, him signing for a decent sum is going to be super slim pickings seeing that many of the top teams don't have the cap or are either over or close to a tax apron. Not to mention that bringing Leonard onboard guarantees nothing... except scrutiny and drama. Uncle Dennis will certainly see to that.

[jscott]

If the fines and punishment are anything less than the Joe Smith incident, the media and fans will uproar

I don't think Adam Silver has the balls to void Kawhi's contract

I feel voiding his contract is the easiest part of the Joe Smith punishment package. He'll simply be a free agent and can sign elsewhere. OTOH Ballmer is the richest owner in the NBA and just built an arena with his own money. The question is whether he'd take away as many as 5 1st round picks and suspend Ballmer for a year.

If Silver hypothetically really wanted to put the hammer down on a team in the Clippers' situation, he would have the pick suspensions start AFTER their future pick swaps. That would hurt a lot more than starting with the immediate next 2 picks (2027 swapped to OKC, 2029 swap with Sixers.) I don't think that will happen though.

I don’t think just voiding the deal is enough. Then what, he signs with some major market contender? That doesn’t seem fair to the rest of the league. He needs to sit out until Free Agency opens at the very least.

[Sixers in 4]

If the fines and punishment are anything less than the Joe Smith incident, the media and fans will uproar

I don't think Adam Silver has the balls to void Kawhi's contract

I feel voiding his contract is the easiest part of the Joe Smith punishment package. He'll simply be a free agent and can sign elsewhere. OTOH Ballmer is the richest owner in the NBA and just built an arena with his own money. The question is whether he'd take away as many as 5 1st round picks and suspend Ballmer for a year.

If Silver hypothetically really wanted to put the hammer down on a team in the Clippers' situation, he would have the pick suspensions start AFTER their future pick swaps. That would hurt a lot more than starting with the immediate next 2 picks (2027 swapped to OKC, 2029 swap with Sixers.) I don't think that will happen though.

I don’t think just voiding the deal is enough. Then what, he signs with some major market contender? That doesn’t seem fair to the rest of the league. He needs to sit out until Free Agency opens at the very least.

Rules are he pays back the endorsement contract which would be 28M + 20M stock options (the fact the company went belly up means nothing).

Also voiding his contract and banning him from signing another contract with LAC for a year would be a huge punishment to Kawhi. He'd probably be forced to get the MLE from some team and never see the money.

Ideally the fine should be 48M x 4.25 per dollar which is the max luxury tax the Clippers faced on the money = 204M fine

If the fines and punishment are anything less than the Joe Smith incident, the media and fans will uproar

I don't think Adam Silver has the balls to void Kawhi's contract

I feel voiding his contract is the easiest part of the Joe Smith punishment package. He'll simply be a free agent and can sign elsewhere. OTOH Ballmer is the richest owner in the NBA and just built an arena with his own money. The question is whether he'd take away as many as 5 1st round picks and suspend Ballmer for a year.

If Silver hypothetically really wanted to put the hammer down on a team in the Clippers' situation, he would have the pick suspensions start AFTER their future pick swaps. That would hurt a lot more than starting with the immediate next 2 picks (2027 swapped to OKC, 2029 swap with Sixers.) I don't think that will happen though.

The Stephien rule doesn't apply. They can take away all their recent picks then go as far into the future as he wants. The door is completely open to Silver

[RyderMike]

One thing Pablo has said in his interview with the source is "The people at Aspiration loved to email each other'

Pablo definitely has an email that confirms and used the words cap circumvention. But he's done a masterclass, letting them deny and then proving their denials false. Watch NBA Opening Day, he drops that bomb.

[In-N-Out 247]

My prediction is that Silver will come up with some carefully worded statement where he acknowledges that the Clippers did something wrong and that he is "punishing them" to the maximum the CBA allows. Which I think for cap circumvention is like a $7.5M fine and the loss of some future draft picks. I don't see him voiding Kawhi's contract because from what I understand this whole Aspire thing was done as part of his previous extension - not the current one. So basically Balmer gets a slap on the wrist and Kawhi walks away scot-free.

[SNPA]

My prediction is that Silver will come up with some carefully worded statement where he acknowledges that the Clippers did something wrong and that he is "punishing them" to the maximum the CBA allows. Which I think for cap circumvention is like a $7.5M fine and the loss of some future draft picks. I don't see him voiding Kawhi's contract because from what I understand this whole Aspire thing was done as part of his previous extension - not the current one. So basically Balmer gets a slap on the wrist and Kawhi walks away scot-free.

And what will Silver do when the next owner is inevitably caught cheating in a few years? Once you open up a cheating lane where the risk is worth the potential reward…

[p0peye]

My prediction is that Silver will come up with some carefully worded statement where he acknowledges that the Clippers did something wrong and that he is "punishing them" to the maximum the CBA allows. Which I think for cap circumvention is like a $7.5M fine and the loss of some future draft picks. I don't see him voiding Kawhi's contract because from what I understand this whole Aspire thing was done as part of his previous extension - not the current one. So basically Balmer gets a slap on the wrist and Kawhi walks away scot-free.

And what will Silver do when the next owner is inevitably caught cheating in a few years? Once you open up a cheating lane where the risk is worth the potential reward…

I strongly believe this thing with Clippers is not exactly a secret among owners, at least some of them, and they are fine because they themselves have done it or plan to do it when situation asks.

More interesting question, what happens if Clippers by any chance win the title this year? This presumes Kawhi plays and referees don't prevent this from happening, aka fair play (if such thing exists in NBA).

[ciueli]

The Stephien rule doesn't apply. They can take away all their recent picks then go as far into the future as he wants. The door is completely open to Silver

The Stephien rule? Is that the one where if you have an aging Steph Curry on your team you have to waste draft picks on players who don't pan out when there are still stars on the board?

[In-N-Out 247]

My prediction is that Silver will come up with some carefully worded statement where he acknowledges that the Clippers did something wrong and that he is "punishing them" to the maximum the CBA allows. Which I think for cap circumvention is like a $7.5M fine and the loss of some future draft picks. I don't see him voiding Kawhi's contract because from what I understand this whole Aspire thing was done as part of his previous extension - not the current one. So basically Balmer gets a slap on the wrist and Kawhi walks away scot-free.

And what will Silver do when the next owner is inevitably caught cheating in a few years? Once you open up a cheating lane where the risk is worth the potential reward…

Easy - he will promise to strengthen the rules and increase the severity of the punishment for cap circumvention moving forward.

[In-N-Out 247]

The Stephien rule doesn't apply. They can take away all their recent picks then go as far into the future as he wants. The door is completely open to Silver

The Stephien rule? Is that the one where if you have an aging Steph Curry on your team you have to waste draft picks on players who don't pan out when there are still stars on the board?

Stepien rule just means you can't trade future 1st round picks in back to back years.