Kawhi Leonard Signed a Secret $28M Deal. Steve Ballmer Funded a Fraud. We Followed the Money. | PTFO

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Post#161 » by levon » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:11 pm

mademan wrote:I thought the scandal was that Kawhi did no work here. If he shot some commercials or some bull like that, this is not a thing.

The scandal is Ballmer directly funded this, Kawhi's only termination clause is no longer being a Clipper, and Kawhi not actually publicly endorsing this company in any way. Which legitimate sponsorship works like this?
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Post#162 » by The4thHorseman » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:11 pm

Flash4thewin wrote:
Celts17Pride wrote:
Domejandro wrote:Should be a massive punishment, but I'm sure it'll be a slap on the wrist that will make my grapes even more sour about the Joe Smith punishment.

If it's not a massive punishment the league will lose all credibility. The NBA will have even bigger problems. Silver has to do something huge whether he likes it or not.


They have to at this point. There is a freaking paper trail. 28 million is hard to look away at. Sure other players like Brunson or Giannis have questionable hirings/signings like a dad to the front office or a brother to the team, none of them are getting paid 28 million dollars. The other thing to remember is that Silver works for the teams not the other way around. All it takes is one team that wants to force this, one team that has a grudge to hold against the Clippers and Kawhi, yeah im look at you Raptors. The amount of #1 draft picks needed to quite the Raptors in this would make an even bigger controversy so they have no choice but to throw down the hammer here.

Brunson's dad has an assistant coaching position not a front office job. He can be seen on the NYK bench all the time.
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Post#163 » by cpower » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:11 pm

league should take over the team and sell to the highest bidder. This is what you get for being corrupted
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Post#164 » by MoneyTalks41890 » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:12 pm

mademan wrote:
LockoutSeason wrote:Ballmer isn’t going down without a fight.

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Read on Twitter


I thought the scandal was that Kawhi did no work here. If he shot some commercials or some bull like that, this is not a thing.


Trees may have been planted.

Read on Twitter
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Post#165 » by iggymcfrack » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:12 pm

mademan wrote:Anything short of a multi year suspension for Kawhi/termination of contract + fines/penalties/lost picks for Clippers would be horribly harmful to the league. A lot of people here think its gonna be a slap on the wrist, but i dunno. This is a league worth 100+billion dollars...you cant let 1 league and 1 player destroy its integrity and put it all at risk.

When did this start? There are other aggrieved parties here (namely Raptors and Lakers who were in play for him in 2020)


Zero chance it’s a slap on the wrist. Ultimately the NBA is a democracy. Silver works for whatever the majority of owners want. All these apron penalties came into play because the majority of owners were worried about the richest owners taking over the league by outspending everyone. I guarantee you the other owners will be MUCH more outraged about this than Joe Lacob going deep into the tax.
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Post#166 » by levon » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:16 pm

mademan wrote:Anything short of a multi year suspension for Kawhi/termination of contract + fines/penalties/lost picks for Clippers would be horribly harmful to the league. A lot of people here think its gonna be a slap on the wrist, but i dunno. This is a league worth 100+billion dollars...you cant let 1 league and 1 player destroy its integrity and put it all at risk.

When did this start? There are other aggrieved parties here (namely Raptors and Lakers who were in play for him in 2020)

Can't speak for the Raptors but on the Lakers front, I wouldn't be surprised if this is related to Magic's ouster. Magic basically admitted he quit because he wasn't allowed to tamper and it was cramping his style. There's no doubt that the LeBron, AD, Kawhi trifecta was what they were going for all along. If I recall correctly, Magic himself said he talked to Uncle Dennis and Kawhi even after stepping down from being PoBO, lol. Since then the Lakers have basically been airtight, maybe because they got spooked by Kawhi's actions and tampering fines, or because they got privately admonished by the league for even entertaining this mode of teambuilding.
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Post#167 » by mademan » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:18 pm

levon wrote:
mademan wrote:Anything short of a multi year suspension for Kawhi/termination of contract + fines/penalties/lost picks for Clippers would be horribly harmful to the league. A lot of people here think its gonna be a slap on the wrist, but i dunno. This is a league worth 100+billion dollars...you cant let 1 league and 1 player destroy its integrity and put it all at risk.

When did this start? There are other aggrieved parties here (namely Raptors and Lakers who were in play for him in 2020)

Can't speak for the Raptors but on the Lakers front, I wouldn't be surprised if this is related to Magic's ouster. Magic basically admitted he quit because he wasn't allowed to tamper and it was cramping his style. There's no doubt that the LeBron, AD, Kawhi trifecta was what they were going for all along. If I recall correctly, Magic himself said he talked to Uncle Dennis and Kawhi even after stepping down from being PoBO, lol. Since then the Lakers have basically been airtight, maybe because they got spooked by Kawhi's actions and tampering fines, or because they got privately admonished by the league for even entertaining this mode of teambuilding.


Ujiri did claim that Uncle Dennis made outrageous demands in negotiations too without ever digging in too deep there.
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Post#168 » by GregOden » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:20 pm

The thing is the league never did anything about the Nets bribing their big 3 during COVID or any of the other handshake deals that happened then. So if they do anything now the message is just dont be 28 million egregious...a few million is okay and won't get the leagues eyes on you.
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Post#169 » by G R E Y » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:21 pm

MoneyTalks41890 wrote:
mademan wrote:
LockoutSeason wrote:Ballmer isn’t going down without a fight.

Image

Read on Twitter


I thought the scandal was that Kawhi did no work here. If he shot some commercials or some bull like that, this is not a thing.


Trees may have been planted.

Read on Twitter

*Will plant*

The Aspiration employee said there was *one* follow up to *one* location from his or her knowledge/time there.

But even so. An endorsement deal with clauses that highest paid sponsored person doesn't have to do anything?!
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Post#170 » by RamonSessions7 » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:21 pm

Yikes, but also doubt the league does much about it.
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Post#171 » by Mavrelous » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:22 pm

ESPN chimes in
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Post#172 » by Rust_Cohle » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:23 pm

GrindCityHustle wrote:Kawhi was given an offer he couldn't refuse to leave Toronto.

The whole "Uncle Dennis and being in LA" wouldn't have mattered if Toronto could have matched this type of money.

In the end it didn't really work out for the Clippers except to fully rid themselves of the Sterling legacy. They are also considered a place franchise players will go to now even though they didn't win a title doing this.


Kawhi always wanted to come to LA, that his onus from day 1 since wanting to leave the Spurs. The additional money was a huge bonus. If anything the raptors would’ve needed to offer twice as much as the Clipps to attempt to keep him
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Post#173 » by G R E Y » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:23 pm

Times like these I miss David Stern.

Ball(mer)'s in Silver's court now. So to speak.
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Post#174 » by levon » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:24 pm

mademan wrote:
levon wrote:
mademan wrote:Anything short of a multi year suspension for Kawhi/termination of contract + fines/penalties/lost picks for Clippers would be horribly harmful to the league. A lot of people here think its gonna be a slap on the wrist, but i dunno. This is a league worth 100+billion dollars...you cant let 1 league and 1 player destroy its integrity and put it all at risk.

When did this start? There are other aggrieved parties here (namely Raptors and Lakers who were in play for him in 2020)

Can't speak for the Raptors but on the Lakers front, I wouldn't be surprised if this is related to Magic's ouster. Magic basically admitted he quit because he wasn't allowed to tamper and it was cramping his style. There's no doubt that the LeBron, AD, Kawhi trifecta was what they were going for all along. If I recall correctly, Magic himself said he talked to Uncle Dennis and Kawhi even after stepping down from being PoBO, lol. Since then the Lakers have basically been airtight, maybe because they got spooked by Kawhi's actions and tampering fines, or because they got privately admonished by the league for even entertaining this mode of teambuilding.


Ujiri did claim that Uncle Dennis made outrageous demands in negotiations too without ever digging in too deep there.

There's a lot of smoke with previously jilted teams like the Spurs and Raptors, but when other teams he was courting (Lakers) also sign on, there's too much smoke to ignore.

Then there was the lawsuit against Jerry West
https://www.clipsnation.com/2022/8/25/23321661/clippers-lawsuit-jerry-west-kawhi-leonard-johnny-wilkes-tampering-investigation

And lest anyone should forget, the Clippers trainer alleging tampering by signing him on to be a Kawhi whisperer as part of a larger scheme. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/ex-clippers-trainer-suing-team-alleges-tampering-and-unsafe-and-illegal-injury-treatment-for-kawhi-leonard/
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Post#175 » by mademan » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:25 pm

Rust_Cohle wrote:
GrindCityHustle wrote:Kawhi was given an offer he couldn't refuse to leave Toronto.

The whole "Uncle Dennis and being in LA" wouldn't have mattered if Toronto could have matched this type of money.

In the end it didn't really work out for the Clippers except to fully rid themselves of the Sterling legacy. They are also considered a place franchise players will go to now even though they didn't win a title doing this.


Kawhi always wanted to come to LA, that his onus from day 1 since wanting to leave the Spurs. The additional money was a huge bonus. If anything the raptors would’ve needed to offer twice as much as the Clipps to attempt to keep him


Raptors had 1 advantage as the team with his bird rights, and that was the ability to offer the most money. Clippers circumventing the cap rules removed that advantage. Maybe Kawhi still takes less to go to the Clips, but the decision wouldve certainly taken more consideration.
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Post#176 » by aj174 » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:28 pm

I'm already losing interest in the NBA with all the gambling ads, and the very clear shameless rigging of Luka to LA to sell the team and flagg to Dallas as payment

But if the punishment for this is anything less than severe, it's gonna be almost equal to WWE for me
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Post#177 » by DreamTeam09 » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:28 pm

Nothing is gonna happen can nothing can actually be proved, a company had a sponsorship with a player, even if the player didn't do anything for the company(apparently he did tho) & the company used his NIL for promotion / even if Balmer owns the company, I still don't see how this isn't a legal loophole. Is it shady, ofcourse, but do I think these high NBA organizations don't know how to circumvent rules & forget to dot their I(s) & cross their T(s), no way
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Post#178 » by ITYSL » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:28 pm

Ballmer: They're saying, "No way. You must've rigged something." I didn't do f****** s***. I didn't rig s***!

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Post#179 » by aj174 » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:30 pm

G R E Y wrote:Times like these I miss David Stern.

Ball(mer)'s in Silver's court now. So to speak.

Funny enough with all the shady stuff Stern did, he was...Stern with the league. He wasn't afraid of anyone and would step up to these things.

The integrity of the league is on the line here, I think silver will have to be serious with this or risk making his league look like a joke
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Post#180 » by ReggiesKnicks » Wed Sep 3, 2025 4:32 pm

aj174 wrote:I'm already losing interest in the NBA with all the gambling ads, and the very clear shameless rigging of Luka to LA to sell the team and flagg to Dallas as payment

But if the punishment for this is anything less than severe, it's gonna be almost equal to WWE for me


The league is rigged and everything is a puppet yet some miraculous way two of the smallest markets in the NBA met in the Finals?

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