Kawhi "no-show job" that paid $28M

[SharoneWright]

Speaking of payment packages,,, full credit to Pablo Torre for reporting this as journalism. He could’ve waived his research under Ballmer’s‘s nose and agreed to remain silent for almost any price.

[maternal85]

Just do us the Dallas Mavericks favour. Give us the 1st overall pick when a can't miss prospect is in it. I'd be happy

[shmoosicle]

Speaking of payment packages,,, full credit to Pablo Torre for reporting this as journalism. He could’ve waived his research under Ballmer’s‘s nose and agreed to remain silent for almost any price.

Wouldn't that be blackmail and illegal?

[DelAbbot]

No one outside of Raptors' fandom mentions Raptors as a victim in all of this. Don't be delusional expecting some compensation coming to the Raptors, for losing Kawhi in FA

[Duffman100]

No one outside of Raptors' fandom mentions Raptors as a victim in all of this. Don't be delusional expecting some compensation coming to the Raptors, for losing Kawhi in FA

I was thinking about this and how it would be hard for the Raptors to claim damages. Someone on FB was saying the Raptors should sue.

But what if Kawhi was like "I was never going back there, it wasn't even really a consideration". The Raptors lawsuit is then pretty null no? He was a UFA and had no ties to anyone.

[grimlock]

Speaking of payment packages,,, full credit to Pablo Torre for reporting this as journalism. He could’ve waived his research under Ballmer’s‘s nose and agreed to remain silent for almost any price.

Wouldn't that be blackmail and illegal?

Its called a catch and kill

[StopitLeo]

So Ballmer's going to spend another $100 million on another tree planting company just to show those payments were totally legit?

Are carbon offsets the planting of trees? Because that reeks scam from the start.

[brownbobcat]

If you're running the NBA, Ballmer is a DREAM get for an owner.

He just PERSONALLY funded the construction of a 2 Billion Dollar arena. The biggest and best? arena in the NBA now. He's adding major infrastructure to your league and funding it with his own personnel wealth.

He's not just another billionaire. He's worth 106 billion. These other guys are worth 2-3 billion.
Think of the difference between being worth 2million to 100million. It's massive. This is the same and no, at that level it still makes a huge difference.

Not only that, Ballmer is extremely powerful and connected with his background as ex-CEO of Microsoft.

Ballmer took on a distressed asset in the LA Clippers and did everything he could to make them a real contender and PRIME-TIME showpiece for the league and TV audiences.

This is why Silver is trying to minimize this. He loves Ballmer. He loves having a guy with that kind of juice.

Ballmer is pretty much the biggest of the big fish and he loves to throw money around. It doesn't get better than that for the NBA.

[inonba]

So Ballmer's going to spend another $100 million on another tree planting company just to show those payments were totally legit?

Are carbon offsets the planting of trees? Because that reeks scam from the start.

Yes.

[brownbobcat]

So Ballmer's going to spend another $100 million on another tree planting company just to show those payments were totally legit?

Are carbon offsets the planting of trees? Because that reeks scam from the start.

Not exclusively, but yes. The economic logic goes something like this:

Carbon emissions/pollution are externalities that are not properly costed back to the emitter.
For example, companies that dump waste into the lakes/wherever without regulation are actually avoiding the cost of proper disposal.
Carbon emission is much broader and hard to regulate, so then let's construct a free market solution that sets a price for carbon.
Then, the idea is that we simultaneously promote ventures that capture carbon without abandoning those emit carbon.

This is analogous to creating conditions that allow for a waste disposal industry. For obvious reasons, it's a lot more susceptible to scams. Garbage has to go somewhere and people will eventually notice if it's not being properly disposed of. Carbon is basically invisible.

[deeps6x]

Speaking of payment packages,,, full credit to Pablo Torre for reporting this as journalism. He could’ve waived his research under Ballmer’s‘s nose and agreed to remain silent for almost any price.

Wouldn't that be blackmail and illegal?

First I have to say, thank you Pablo. Some people wouldn't even think of trying to extort Balmer for money. I didn't even think of that option. Props to Pablo.

Second, what if Pablo had gone to Ballmer with his research/discovery asking for a comment for a story he was about to publish. Just phrase it exactly like that. Then if Ballmer offered him gobs of cash to kill the story, would that have been at all illegal if Pablo would have taken the money and killed the story? For either party?

[tecumseh18]

Speaking of payment packages,,, full credit to Pablo Torre for reporting this as journalism. He could’ve waived his research under Ballmer’s‘s nose and agreed to remain silent for almost any price.

Wouldn't that be blackmail and illegal?

First I have to say, thank you Pablo. Some people wouldn't even think of trying to extort Balmer for money. I didn't even think of that option. Props to Pablo.

Second, what if Pablo had gone to Ballmer with his research/discovery asking for a comment for a story he was about to publish. Just phrase it exactly like that. Then if Ballmer offered him gobs of cash to kill the story, would that have been at all illegal if Pablo would have taken the money and killed the story? For either party?

There's another possible outcome of doing it that way, that wouldn't have worked out so well for Pablo.

But it depends on how cynical you are about this current billionaire-run culture.

[maternal85]

No one outside of Raptors' fandom mentions Raptors as a victim in all of this. Don't be delusional expecting some compensation coming to the Raptors, for losing Kawhi in FA

I was thinking about this and how it would be hard for the Raptors to claim damages. Someone on FB was saying the Raptors should sue.

But what if Kawhi was like "I was never going back there, it wasn't even really a consideration". The Raptors lawsuit is then pretty null no? He was a UFA and had no ties to anyone.

What else would he say now they're caught ? The fact is in the CBA, the team he was on before becoming a UFA should have the advantage. Due to corruption and the NBA neglect to investigate uncle Dennis, such an advantage was taken away from us. If I'm MLSE I'm filling something against the NBA. If the Clippers lose their picks, it should go to us. Or Adam can give us the Dallas Mavericks Cooper treatment.

[Duffman100]

No one outside of Raptors' fandom mentions Raptors as a victim in all of this. Don't be delusional expecting some compensation coming to the Raptors, for losing Kawhi in FA

I was thinking about this and how it would be hard for the Raptors to claim damages. Someone on FB was saying the Raptors should sue.

But what if Kawhi was like "I was never going back there, it wasn't even really a consideration". The Raptors lawsuit is then pretty null no? He was a UFA and had no ties to anyone.

What else would he say now they're caught ? The fact is in the CBA, the team he was on before becoming a UFA should have the advantage. Due to corruption and the NBA neglect to investigate uncle Dennis, such an advantage was taken away from us. If I'm MLSE I'm filling something against the NBA. If the Clippers lose their picks, it should go to us. Or Adam can give us the Dallas Mavericks Cooper treatment.

Agreed in principle. But this ambiguous "advantage" in this situation wouldn't hold much weight legally.

[Purple Fever]

Corrupt league won’t do anything of real consequence. David Stern rolling in his grave.

[TGM]

I think give this a month or two and the whistle blowers start to surface. A group of people and employees got screwed at Aspiration. There is always a trail somewhere. Someone with even a text message can just sell it to the media and get paid.

People keep comparing this to Sterling, but its quite different, Sterling's racist actions was a direct attack to more than half the players in the league. Imagine players boycotting games during the playoffs. It was one of those where there was no way to spin it. The Ballmer one will be a joke if they let him off, but should be nailed as hard and he should be booted as an owner. If Jontay gets banned for life for gambling. Don't see how a owner that cheats has anytime claim to stick around. However, Ballmer is going to make his calls around the league to save his backside.

The fact is the law favors the rich. Look at Sam Bankman Fried. The guy was clearly guilty. He was still awarded bail at the time and had a lot of prominent people try to pull strings for him. My bet is Sam gets a pardon within the next two presidential elections. Look at Hunter Biden.

I'll say this, makes the NBA season a lot more interesting.

[StopitLeo]

I may have missed if someone already pointed out how Pablo's slow-roll of the evidence caught Silver lying through his teeth. If not, here are the quotes:

In an initial press conference Silver said:

.....When the podcast came out it was news to me. Frankly, never heard of the company Aspiration before and I'd never heard a whiff of anything...around engagement with the Los Angeles Clippers. So it was all news to me.

Then at the Front Office Sports conference he was being interviewed and was basically called out about his claim of not being aware of Aspiration or their $300M deal with the Clippers. Silver responded:

.....Just to be clear, I'm not sure if I said I never. If I said I never heard of it, I meant in the context of the accusations here. I mean, I certainly was aware of the brand...

When people lie they often give too many details. He could have just said "It was news to me." but he had to vehemently deny that he had any knowledge of the company.

What a joke. If I was an owner I would want his removed from his commissioner role.

[causal_fan]

What a joke. If I was an owner I would want his removed from his commissioner role.[/quote]

No owner wants Silver removed - what they care about is the finances - the NBA just signed the richest media rights contract in their history by a wide margin and franchise value continue to go up substantially - owners are happy, only fans really care about integrity and fairness.