ATL - Wemby dominates, Billups arrested in gambling probe

[MickeyDavis]

Last thread maxed

[jakecronus8]

Kawhi will be on leave during the investigation period, will then be suspended for one year, appeal, ends up with like a 15 game suspension.

[BroncoBuck]

My favorite part of all this is that the whole carbon offset thing is a King of the Hill plotline from years ago, right down to them (Dale and Bud Strickland) not actually planting the trees.

[Plossum]

Ballmer has a literal army of lawyers to deal with things like this. It’ll be interesting to see if the evidence holds up.

[Baddy Chuck]

Adam Silver will do a full investigation and punish them less than the Bogdan fiasco.

[MickeyDavis]

Let the spin begin

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[stellation]

Can't believe people are still practicing the barbarism of circumvention in this day and age.

[MickeyDavis]

I think Brunson got a deal with Four Seasons Landscaping.

[paulpressey25]

Watched the whole Pablo thing now in depth. On circumstantial evidence he’s got Ballmer and the Clippers dead to rights.

But can the NBA lay down a heavy punishment on all three parties (Ballmer, Kawhi, Clippers) without a direct smoking gun? In the Joe Smith case they literally had the new contract drafted and signed sitting in a drawer for release a year later.

What I’d like to see are the contracts and dollar amounts for the other endorsers and what those contracts required. Pablo may not have those, otherwise he’d have produced them. Looks like he’s only going off the informants testimony. I’d feel like the smoking gun for the NBA would be if say Robert Downey, Jr was only paid $500k and had to produce three commercials for the company.

At that point you put Kawhi’s $28mm contract, which requires no work, next to Downey’s for comparison.

[paulpressey25]

If you don’t want to watch the full show, Pablo does a nice six-minute summary breakdown with Dan Patrick.

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[MikeIsGood]

From a year ago:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/41984045/ex-clippers-staffer-sues-says-was-fired-kawhi-concerns

A former LA Clippers strength and conditioning coach who says he was hired in 2019 as part of a years-long campaign to recruit Kawhi Leonard has sued the team and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, alleging wrongful termination in part for raising concerns about the management of Leonard's health and injuries.

Shelton alleges that the Clippers' recruiting efforts were in "disregard for the NBA's prohibitions on tampering." Article 35 of the NBA's constitution prohibits teams from "directly or indirectly" attempting to entice players under contract with one team to join a different team.

[jschligs]

Mark Cuban really going to bat for his buddy Palmer. Going to talk with Pablo about it.

[ReasonablySober]

Lowe's pod this afternoon with Goldsberry was good and informative.

Lowe pointed this out, from the CBA:

A violation of Section 2(a) or 2(b) above may be proven by direct or circumstantial evidence, including, but not limited to, evidence that a Player Contract or any term or provision thereof cannot rationally be explained in the absence of conduct violative of Section 2(a) or 2(b).

Its hard to look at the circumstantial evidence already brought to light by Pablo's reporting and determine that they hadn't already reached that bar to hurdle.

[paulpressey25]

Karalis isn’t known as an insider or reporter so I’m taking this one cautiously until corroborated. But, if true they’ve now matched Ballmer’s $50 against Kawhi’s $48.

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[Licensed to Il]

Do other team owners hate Ballmer? Hard to see a guy with that much money get beat in court. The league would have to have a lot of guys that don’t like him, for this to get traction, IMO. Also possible he has smoking gun dirt on other owners, and then everyone looks bad.

I guess no matter what happens to Ballmer, he’s a better Clips owner than Sterling.

I do hope they get punished severely. Seems pretty obvious they set this up and benefitted from clear cheating.

[ReasonablySober]

Do other team owners hate Ballmer? Hard to see a guy with that much money get beat in court. The league would have to have a lot of guys that don’t like him, for this to get traction, IMO. Also possible he has smoking gun dirt on other owners, and then everyone looks bad.

I guess no matter what happens to Ballmer, he’s a better Clips owner than Sterling.

I do hope they get punished severely. Seems pretty obvious they set this up and benefitted from clear cheating.

This isn't a legal issue. All that matters is whether or not other owners who aren't richer than God want to see the Clippers hit with the NBA's equivalent of the Death Penalty and get docked, like, five first round picks.

[MikeIsGood]

At this point I'm expecting something will come of it, but they'll find a fall guy somewhere to take the brunt of it.

[paulpressey25]

At this point I'm expecting something will come of it, but they'll find a fall guy somewhere to take the brunt of it.

Hard part is you can’t find a fall guy since it was really a deal directly between Kawhi and Ballmer. Ballmer wrote the $50 million check. Kawhi and Uncle Dennis accepted the $28mm contract and $20mm in stock. It’s not like Ballmer’s car dealer ‘accidentally’ gave Kawhi BMW or something. This was a massive deal.

[paulpressey25]

Need to talk about penalties for Kawhi. He’s owed $50 million this year and $50 million next year. Arguably you’d void that contract and make him a FA. He’d likely lose money then as most teams don’t have cap room to offer him anything close to that.

Then suspend Ballmer from team operations and attending games for an entire year. Fine the team $20 million. Dock them two future firsts.

That all feels about right to me.

[ReasonablySober]

Need to talk about penalties for Kawhi. He’s owed $50 million this year and $50 million next year. Arguably you’d void that contract and make him a FA. He’d likely lose money then as most teams don’t have cap room to offer him anything close to that.

Then suspend Ballmer from team operations and attending games for an entire year. Fine the team $20 million. Dock them two future firsts.

That all feels about right to me.

I don't think that's punitive enough. Not being able to attend games is nothing. Most owners aren't showing up regularly anyway. $20 million is chump change to these guys. Two first picks would sting but not enough to keep other organizations from trying this again.

They need to come down with something crippling.