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

[Larry Ellison]

I wonder if this is more common than imagined. Most billionaires have connects and resources that we cannot fathom. They can have a friend who sign an athlete for endorsements while getting subsidized by the team owners. Or they can pay the players’ family/friends as consultants in those companies.

There are so many creative ways, this may be one of the few times NBA caught the wrongdoing.

This is kind of my point. It happens all the time, you are right. Clips making a referral to Aspiration for a possible endorsement (we don't know if the team did that, but let's just assume it did) does not prove Clips wrongdoing. Aspiration was run by an admitted fraudster and Uncle Dennis is a grifter, but the company was a third party. Is there evidence that Clips were involved in the negotiation of the agreement between Kawhi and Aspiration?

Ballmer is much smarter than Glen Taylor. I doubt there is any NBA punishment.

[Curmudgeon]

People seem to think this is a legal matter. It isn't. Suppose Baller decided to gift Kawhi $50M. Nothing illegal about that so long as Ballmer paid the associated gift tax. But is it circumvention? Sure. Circumvention is a business matter. How can small market teams compete if wealthy owners are allowed to funnel extra money to their players that does not count against the cap?

The last time we saw this was when Kirilenko signed an under market contract with the Nets when Prokhorov owned the team. But the league looked the other way because the extra payments were made in Russia and Stern did not want to open that can of worms.

I can't find a circumvention provision in the CBA. Circumvention and tampering are covered in the NBA constitution under "conduct detrimental to the association."

[Larry Ellison]

The punishment is going to be insane.

Only if proven. Which seems unlikely. Anonymous sources on a podcast repeating hearsay statements from witnesses whose reliability and personal knowledge of the facts has NOT been corroborated isn't going to cut it. Too many people are rushing to judgment. My money is on Ballmer's lawyers.

They have documents.

What documents? The content of these documents kind of matters.

[levon]

Only if proven. Which seems unlikely. Anonymous sources on a podcast repeating hearsay statements from witnesses whose reliability and personal knowledge of the facts has NOT been corroborated isn't going to cut it. Too many people are rushing to judgment. My money is on Ballmer's lawyers.

They have documents.

What documents? The content of these documents kind of matters.

Okay? I'm just saying it's clearly not just hearsay. There's been hearsay around Kawhi and the Clippers for years now. I feel like you presumed that all they had was the anonymized whistleblower, but that's the least compelling part of the reporting.

[Slade3]

If the allegations are determined to be true then the Clippers are going to lose 2 second round draft picks. That’ll teach every other owner.

I'd be more worried if the fraud starts a criminal investigation by the authorities. That's more serious than anything the NBA could do. If convicted it could lead to jail time and significant fines.

[Sofia]

Well Kawhi might need to plant some trees then

AI is improving too quickly, his hands aren’t all **** up and weird like they are in real life.

[sp6r=underrated]

This will be genuinely unpopular on this board but I oppose salary caps and players draft so I'm fine with them not being honored as them not being honored will eventually bring about their collapse.

Salary caps, BRI caps, players draft are all about lowering player compensation to the benefit of the owners. Hard pass. European leagues built around promotion relegation are far better.

That said hats off to Pablo Torre for the journalism here. I know we are moving to an all video society but I really wish there was a column version of this report.

[SFrush]

The punishment is going to be insane.

If there is even an investigation. I doubt Silver has interest in pursuing this.

What do you mean If?

Read on Twitter

[/tweet]

[Larry Ellison]

People seem to think this is a legal matter. It isn't. Suppose Baller decided to gift Kawhi $50M. Nothing illegal about that so long as Ballmer paid the associated gift tax. But is it circumvention? Sure. Circumvention is a business matter. How can small market teams compete if wealthy owners are allowed to funnel extra money to their players that does not count against the cap?

The last time we saw this was when Kirilenko signed an under market contract with the Nets when Prokhorov owned the team. But the league looked the other way because the extra payments were made in Russia and Stern did not want to open that can of worms.

I can't find a circumvention provision in the CBA. Circumvention and tampering are covered in the NBA constitution under "conduct detrimental to the association."

It's a legal matter, but with different rules than might apply in court. Teams don't have the same appeal rights that players negotiated into the CBA. The league is a joint venture and the Commissioner has broad authority to act in the best interests of the league, so it is difficult for owners to win in court if they sue. At the same time, certain principles that are codified in the evidentiary rules that would apply in court, while not technically applicable to NBA investigations, are rules for a reason. NBA Commissioner is not going to want to set a precedent by imposing discipline on the Clips without evidence of direct wrongdoing coming from reliable sources. Anonymous witnesses on podcasts? Not good enough. I mean, just look at what happened with Josh Giddey - he indisputably committed a crime but the girl would not cooperate = no evidence, no suspension. I do not want to derail the discussion and debate what Giddey did. This isn't about Giddey. He is just an example of how evidence matters even in NBA investigations.

[Memories]

Probably already posted, but...

Read on Twitter

Ruh roh...

If this is a pretty widespread problem, could this tank Adam Silver as commissioner?

The NBA coming out full heel is what I Liv for.

F these corrupt clowns

100% agree.

I want these scumbags gone. Full chaos. Silver, Ballmer, all the corrupt and bought out refs rigging games, owners like Dan Gilbert, James Dolan, the Adelsons, etc. GONE. Get rid of the clear corruption that has plagued this league. Get rid of the stupid ads on jerseys. Just ban them all.

[sp6r=underrated]

Well Kawhi might need to plant some trees then

AI is improving too quickly, his hands aren’t all **** up and weird like they are in real life.

OT: I'm mystified at people who aren't impressed by AI. If you showed me this tech in 2009, I would think it is something out of Star Trek.

[ForeverTFC]

I wonder if this is more common than imagined. Most billionaires have connects and resources that we cannot fathom. They can have a friend who sign an athlete for endorsements while getting subsidized by the team owners. Or they can pay the players’ family/friends as consultants in those companies.

There are so many creative ways, this may be one of the few times NBA caught the wrongdoing.

This is kind of my point. It happens all the time, you are right. Clips making a referral to Aspiration for a possible endorsement (we don't know if the team did that, but let's just assume it did) does not prove Clips wrongdoing. Aspiration was run by an admitted fraudster and Uncle Dennis is a grifter, but the company was a third party. Is there evidence that Clips were involved in the negotiation of the agreement between Kawhi and Aspiration?

Ballmer is much smarter than Glen Taylor. I doubt there is any NBA punishment.

You're missing some important details that give the accusation more credibility:

1. Kawhi registers KL2 Aspire LLC on November 22nd 2021
2. Aspiration announces a $315 million financing led by Oaktree and “investment affiliates of Steve Ballmer,” including a $50 million mandatorily-convertible stake on December 15, 2021
3. Aspire enters into a Marketing/endorsement agreement with Kawhi to begin in 2022 and run four years, with only stipulation that Kawhi must be playing for the Clippers
4. There is no record of any marketing or endorsements of Aspiration by Kawhi Leonard through the term of the contract up to bankruptcy
5. An anonymous whistle blower goes on the pod and claims he was told the contract was cap circumvention

As you point out, there is no proof yet. But there is more fuel here than a simple referral which I agree with you must happen all the time in the league.

[iggymcfrack]

The punishment is going to be insane.

Only if proven. Which seems unlikely. Anonymous sources on a podcast repeating hearsay statements from witnesses whose reliability and personal knowledge of the facts has NOT been corroborated isn't going to cut it. Too many people are rushing to judgment. My money is on Ballmer's lawyers.

There’s tons of documentation though. Yeah, the person who worked at the company who said explicitly that it was salary cap circumvention was anoynmous, but the contract that said Kawhi didn’t have to do anything to receive the money except play for the Clippers isn’t. The documents Ballmer saw before “investing” $50 million that showed 90% of Aspiration’s clients were phony are public. The inter-office emails at Aspiration have documentation. The payments have documentation.

There might not be strong enough evidence for the feds to charge Ballmer for helping Aspiration defraud investors, but there’s more than enough evidence for the league to levy their own punishment. People regularly get convicted of murder on evidence that’s much more circumstantial than this.

[seren]

I am not surprised, this kind of stuff probbly happens pretty often, teams have a massive incentive to circumvent the cap for the top superstars since max contract are so far below the market value.

I disagree. The amount mentioned here is extremely high. The steps they took to get him the money might escalate to federal criminal charges. I would say this is most likely a very unique case and should have big repercussions.

[Ckay]

AI is improving too quickly, his hands aren’t all **** up and weird like they are in real life.

OT: I'm mystified at people who aren't impressed by AI. If you showed me this tech in 2009, I would think it is something out of Star Trek.

It’s definitely gotten WAY better.

If boomers see this, they will believe it’s real. lol

[PushDaRock]

AI is improving too quickly, his hands aren’t all **** up and weird like they are in real life.

OT: I'm mystified at people who aren't impressed by AI. If you showed me this tech in 2009, I would think it is something out of Star Trek.

It’s definitely gotten WAY better.

If boomers see this, they will believe it’s real. lol

I'm pretty sure that's a real picture.

[SNPA]

Silver will only do something if the other owners force him or the DOJ gets involved over taxes. Otherwise, he’ll go the Aspire is the sole bad guy route like Stern did to Donaghy.

[Dominator83]

They’ll punish the hell out of the clippers since it isn’t the Lakers, but they could free Kawhi from his contract and get him to sign with a team of their choice. NBA gets to help their favorites and also pretend they take hard stances on cheating. Win/win

I can guarantee they don't want to hand out a severe punishment. This isn't a Jontay Porter situation where it's a nobody they can make an example out of. Ballmer is a big part of the reason for why NBA valuations have gone through the roof which has helped everyone in the NBA, nobody wants to get on his bad side. They can't do nothing because the optics look so bad here, but I don't see an overly harsh punishment happening either. It will likely be a punishment that Ballmer agrees to. I would lean towards it being more of a heavy monetary fine since that's something Ballmer would probably be more willing to eat.

They pretty much have to at least dock draft picks. Fines aren’t a real punishment at all.

Owners like Reinsdorf would rather be docked picks than to pay a fine anyday

[mtcan]

AI is improving too quickly, his hands aren’t all **** up and weird like they are in real life.

OT: I'm mystified at people who aren't impressed by AI. If you showed me this tech in 2009, I would think it is something out of Star Trek.

It’s definitely gotten WAY better.

If boomers see this, they will believe it’s real. lol

His hands are too small.

[Johnny Bball]

Leave it to the Clippers. They finally get out from under the carcass of PG13 and then the season implodes on itself before the start.