SuperDeluxe wrote:Captain_Caveman wrote:https://www.tmz.com/2020/12/14/jerry-west-kawhi-leonard-los-angeles-clippers-lawsuit-2-5-million-free-agency/
A few thoughts on this:
We know for a fact that basically every elite NBA prospect in the last 40 years has gotten paid under the table to choose which college to play at. Even for prep academies. Whether this case has merit or not, or is provable or not, the idea that this practice ends at the pro level is almost certainly ludicrous, especially in light of the restrictions of the salary cap. We know for a fact that literally everything this guy is alleging about West is the norm for the college recruiting of top prospects, and has been for some time.
While I'd bet that it is fairly common practice throughout pro sports in general, this is orders of magnitude worse than anything the Astros did in terms of cheating, which in itself was orders of magnitude worse than anything the Patriots did, which was itself orders of magnitude worse than tampering with soon-to-be free agents or other things that are deemed to adversely impact the notion of fair competition. All of which is also likely fairly common practice within pro sports.
Also kinda makes you wonder about Durant taking an 8-figure number lower than his max to play for the Warriors for a few years, because of the unique "investment opportunities" in Silicon Valley. A decision he came to after talking with Jerry West, who seems to have a pretty unique ability to get superstar players to sign with the teams he is representing.
I'm sure stuff happens under the table every day in this league, but this particular case sounds like a load of BS. It would've taken Jerry West five minutes to connect with both Kawhi and Uncle Dennis without a middleman.
I will preface this by saying that I reported months ahead of time to this board where KD and Kawhi would likely sign. Nearly twice in KD's case, although to be fair, I said Knicks and not Nets on the second one until I amended that just before free agency started. On the other two, there is a pretty relevant nexus to this conversation. Anyhow...
This case may or may not have merit, and would be hard to prove in any event. If it gets that far, discovery could get real interesting, real fast. Through the use of intermediaries, shell companies, rich boosters/superfans, or even offshore accounts, it would be very easy to funnel compensation outside the boundaries of league CBA to Kawhi's family or associates. It may not even be illegal for third parties to hire highly-paid "consultants" in this respect. Which would mean that it would be up to the NBA itself to prove that this took place, which they have zero ability or jurisdiction to do.
As is common with college recruitment, this may even happen for agents or mentors peddling influence over a player's decision, as opposed to anything the player themself is even aware of. With that said, I'm pretty sure a team can't buy Kawhi's uncle a **** house to get his nephew to sign with them. Like, really, really sure.
For his three years in Golden State, Durant took something like $10-15m less than his maximum salary in total. Was talk at the time of his signing of the unique "investment opportunities" in Silicon Valley that were available to him (as there were when he signed with Brooklyn as well). Seems kinda weird that he needed to actually sign in those places to have those same opportunities available.
And now the same guy credited for "closing" the KD to GS signing is apparently being accused of bad practices in a court of law just a few years later on a different superstar signing? That's a little interesting.
FWIW, do I think Red would have done stuff like this? Heh, possibly. Remember that time Bird stayed in school for another year? I have similar questions about anyone who takes less than their max salary. Deion Sanders that year he signed with the Niners, who were run by a couple of mob guys and docked picks a few years later for compensating guys outside of the cap? AD when he passed on the supermax to force a trade to the Lakers? Tom Brady when he famously took less than his market value for years in his prime so the Pats could sign other players?
I'll just reiterate that we know for a fact that basically every elite NBA prospect gets paid to decide where to play in college, or even high school. It's not even an anomaly, it's literally the norm. For like the last 40+ years! But we think this practice somehow magically stops in a league constrained by salary cap rules that is overrun by tampering and other illicit negotiations/agreements?
I guess we are not disagreeing much here, just saying.
