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causal_fan wrote:Steve Balmer and the Clippers are important stakeholders in the NBA, so I'm expecting it will be a "tap on the wrist" punishment if any - a few millions fine - If it were an unimportant franchise, then a harsher penalty would be applied like what Minnesota received in the Joe Smith case.
Thaddy wrote:causal_fan wrote:Steve Balmer and the Clippers are important stakeholders in the NBA, so I'm expecting it will be a "tap on the wrist" punishment if any - a few millions fine - If it were an unimportant franchise, then a harsher penalty would be applied like what Minnesota received in the Joe Smith case.
The NBA existed before Balmer. Why is he important?
Steelo Green wrote:Even though you know somehow we all gotta go, as long as we believin' thievin' we'll be leavin' with some kind of dough.
Thaddy wrote:causal_fan wrote:Steve Balmer and the Clippers are important stakeholders in the NBA, so I'm expecting it will be a "tap on the wrist" punishment if any - a few millions fine - If it were an unimportant franchise, then a harsher penalty would be applied like what Minnesota received in the Joe Smith case.
The NBA existed before Balmer. Why is he important?
brownbobcat wrote:Thaddy wrote:causal_fan wrote:Steve Balmer and the Clippers are important stakeholders in the NBA, so I'm expecting it will be a "tap on the wrist" punishment if any - a few millions fine - If it were an unimportant franchise, then a harsher penalty would be applied like what Minnesota received in the Joe Smith case.
The NBA existed before Balmer. Why is he important?
1. He's extremely rich - worth as much or more than all franchises combined.
2. He's otherwise been very good for the NBA, investing a lot of cash into the stadium and operates in a marquee market.
It's a no-win situation for the NBA. They don't want to bring the hammer down, and yet it would be really hard to walk away without doing something.
Imagine if LeBron was found placing bets on NBA games he wasn't playing in or something like that.
brownbobcat wrote:Thaddy wrote:causal_fan wrote:Steve Balmer and the Clippers are important stakeholders in the NBA, so I'm expecting it will be a "tap on the wrist" punishment if any - a few millions fine - If it were an unimportant franchise, then a harsher penalty would be applied like what Minnesota received in the Joe Smith case.
The NBA existed before Balmer. Why is he important?
1. He's extremely rich - worth as much or more than all franchises combined.
2. He's otherwise been very good for the NBA, investing a lot of cash into the stadium and operates in a marquee market.
It's a no-win situation for the NBA. They don't want to bring the hammer down, and yet it would be really hard to walk away without doing something.
Imagine if LeBron was found placing bets on NBA games he wasn't playing in or something like that.
WuTang_CMB wrote:
inonba wrote:NBA Sheady wrote:Aspire posted on IG using Kawhi's image to promote their brand. I wonder if any parties involved will try to use that as a defense. Essentially try to claim that the single post was worth 48M.
I'll answer your question with an analogy : The Cleveland Cavaliers can hire LeBron entire entourage and pay them a babysitter's wage, but can't hire his wife and pay her 100 million dollars.
The difference is, the CBA recognizes paying the players and close associates above market value as a form of cap circumvention.
Even if Kawhi did some work, it could give him some deniability, but likely, the contract terms and compensation amount would be enough to conclude cap evasion. The amount of money is just too outrageously large to be considered fair market value, especially for a company having to cook the books to survive.
And the extra 2M was the transaction fee for making it happening....causal_fan wrote:Interesting, I read somewhere that Balmer invested $50m into the company and that Kawhi's contract was $28m to be paid over 4 years plus $20 worth of stocks = $48 in total which is strikingly close to Balmer's investment.
Honestly I really don't want Kawhi back. I'm happy for the championship but all the drama that he has caused since then is not worth it. It's been a miserable experience for clippers fans ever since he's got there.YogurtProducer wrote:WuTang_CMB wrote:
If this happens, it better also mean Kawhi's salary + the under the table incentives are still on the Clippers capsheet for salary cap and luxury tax purposes.
Imagine Kawhi signs here for 2025-26
WuTang_CMB wrote:Uncle dennis and kawhi were trying to shake down toronto and clippers. Ballmer “won” lol.
Too much smoke here now. Theres going to be punishment. Question is how much.
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OakleyDokely wrote:And the extra 2M was the transaction fee for making it happening....causal_fan wrote:Interesting, I read somewhere that Balmer invested $50m into the company and that Kawhi's contract was $28m to be paid over 4 years plus $20 worth of stocks = $48 in total which is strikingly close to Balmer's investment.
WuTang_CMB wrote:Uncle dennis and kawhi were trying to shake down toronto and clippers. Ballmer “won” lol.
Too much smoke here now. Theres going to be punishment. Question is how much.
?s=46&t=0YpMScWXY2zRUqR8fH-usg
As the Kawhi Leonard salary cap scandal sweeps the NBA, certain questions hang in the air like a Game 7-buzzer beater. Why would a Los Angeles Clippers sponsor beset by secretly troubling financials pay Leonard $7 million (all terms U.S.) per year for no services rendered, on a deal that was never announced? Why would the one-time Raptors superstar also secretly receive shares in the company, a since-bankrupt climate finance firm called Aspiration, worth a reported $20 million?
And why would all this happen after Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $50 million in the company? On the surface, it looks like a relatively clear case of the most significant salary cap circumvention in NBA history. What else could it be?
So far, the Clippers have tried various lines of defence: they called the allegations “provably false” before that language vanished in later statements; Ballmer went on ESPN to deny he or his team violated the league’s salary cap; Ballmer explained his investment by saying he had been scammed, and disputed he had any influence over Aspiration at all.
The most likely explanation is the simplest: that this is exactly what it looks like. As first reported last week by respected investigative podcaster Pablo Torre, Aspiration in 2021 or 2022 agreed to pay Leonard at least $28 million for what was explicitly, contractually, a no-show job. The Boston Sports Journal then reported an additional $20 million was paid to Leonard in shares of the company, again for no discernible return; Torre confirmed the reporting. If directed by the Clippers, both would be clear and serious violations of the NBA’s salary cap.
“I want to say one thing very clearly: We, the Clippers, have abided by the salary cap circumvention rules because that’s the right thing to do,” Ballmer said to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne last week.
Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer sat down with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne to discuss podcaster Pablo Torre's report his team paid Kawhi Leonard through a now-bankrupt company in which Ballmer invested.
It’s possible this scandal dates to at least 2019. After the Raptors won the NBA title, Leonard became a free agent and chose between Los Angeles and Toronto. The Raptors believed there was a real chance he would return instead of going to the Clippers despite the lure of Leonard’s home state of California. Leonard didn’t want to play with LeBron James, so the Lakers were a third wheel in the sweepstakes. Jimmy Butler, a preferred partner, was headed to Miami. And Leonard recognized that Toronto was the best basketball situation, all told.
So without a Paul George trade from Oklahoma City, Leonard was not going to L.A. And of course, the Clippers were desperate enough to make a league-altering trade.
But multiple sources with knowledge of Toronto’s contract negotiations with Leonard in 2019 told the Star that Leonard’s uncle and representative, Dennis Robertson, made demands that line up almost perfectly with what Leonard reportedly got from Aspiration. According to those sources, who were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about the negotiations, Robertson’s list was long, and absurd. It included a trade for George, which featured an exorbitant price tag. It included a slice of ownership of the Toronto Maple Leafs, which Robertson was told was impossible.
Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard, centre, poses with his uncle, Dennis Robertson, as his mom holds his MVP trophy after the Raptors won the NBA title in 2019.
But two details stand out, in retrospect. One, Robertson asked for ownership stakes in outside companies: not just the Leafs, which he seemed to believe was separate, but with other companies with whom MLSE had a relationship. And two, the Raptors were told they needed to match at least $10 million per year in extra sponsorship income. Teams are allowed to introduce players to team sponsors; teams cannot negotiate deals, and MLSE was aware of that fact.
But it didn’t end there. As one source put it, when told about all the corporate sponsors in Toronto who would be happy to have Leonard as a pitchman, his camp said, “We don’t want to do anything.” Raptors representatives said any sponsor would want to shoot ads or arrange appearances; Robertson reiterated Leonard didn’t want to do anything for the money.
That’s when the Raptors realized Leonard wasn’t asking to be introduced to Toronto’s lucrative corporate community; they were being asked to arrange no-show jobs, and arrange no-investment investments. MLSE rejected both proposals.
Neither Robertson nor Leonard’s agent, Mitch Frankel, responded to requests for comment.
Despite his degenerative quadriceps and knee issues, Leonard’s camp did not seem interested in the extra fifth year the Raptors could offer for a maximum of $190 million, and signed with the Clippers for three years and $103 million with a player option that set up a more lucrative extension. (Over the first five years post-2019, Leonard made $196 million from the Clippers.) And the combination of extra money and stock that Leonard asked for from Toronto is exactly what he reportedly received from Aspiration.
Then came the Aspiration deal Torre unearthed. Leonard signed a four-year contract extension with the Clippers in August 2021; Ballmer invested $50 million in the company in September 2021; the Clippers announced Aspiration as a major sponsor in September 2021; Leonard registered his LLC in November 2021; Aspiration agreed to pay Leonard $7 million per year over four years — far and above Aspiration celebrity endorsers like Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., or Drake, per Torre’s reporting — starting in April 2022, with a clause excusing Leonard from doing any work. And Aspiration gave Leonard shares in the company, which became worthless when the company declared bankruptcy.
Again: the Leonard deal with Aspiration was never even announced to the public.
Look, there have been minor cap contravention cases in the past. When Antonio Davis was a Raptor between 1999 and 2004, he was told his wife Kendra couldn’t work for Raptors TV because it might violate the cap. More and more, the Leonard scandal looks like a more serious case of cap circumvention than the famous Joe Smith deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1998, which resulted in some of the most significant franchise penalties in NBA history.
Of course, there remains the question of proof: if a cap contravention deal is conducted outside the bounds of official team communications, how could the NBA even find a paper trail? But the league’s CBA says circumvention “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 (cap circumvention).” Similarly, any contract by a team or team sponsor can be deemed a violation if the compensation “is substantially in excess of the fair market value of any services to be rendered by the player."
In other words, the NBA should already be there. And given how much money was moving silently outside the salary cap, and how this deal started two years after the Raptors were asked for much the same impermissible benefits, you have to ask: If the Clippers did give Leonard everything he asked for in 2021, why wouldn’t they have done so in 2019?
The safe bet is more information will come out. In 2019, the Clippers won the Leonard sweepstakes, and everything that came with it: injuries, three playoff series wins in six seasons, and questions about how they do business. More than ever, it feels like they lost.
YogurtProducer wrote:WuTang_CMB wrote:
If this happens, it better also mean Kawhi's salary + the under the table incentives are still on the Clippers capsheet for salary cap and luxury tax purposes.
Imagine Kawhi signs here for 2025-26
