re: NBA drops hammer on the Clippers over the Kawhi investigation. Strips 5 1st round picks

If Ballmer had ever used a racial slur they would force him to sell.

The prior precedent in this case (Joe Smith and Timberwolves) only established stripping picks, major fines, and suspending team owners and officials.

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Not really. Pretty much no explanation why he was paid 7x Leo Dicaprio, Drake, or Robert Downey Jr. but never did anything.

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sure but Ballmer was able to say with some conviction they were con men that defrauded me and everyone else

but there is nothing to defend the video board deal

yahoo article

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Dangerous precedent to set. I’m sure the owners (who actually run the league, not Adam Silver or the NBA office) aren’t super keen on a ruling that makes them sell their team.

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How do you think Ballmer acquired the clippers?

Bobby Marks
@BobbyMarks42
CBA rules broken by the Clippers (per NBA):

Affirmatively initiating off-court income opportunities between Mr. Leonard and four companies doing business with the team: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance;

Facilitating endorsement agreements between these companies and Mr. Leonard;

Inducing the companies to enter into these agreements by offering them business from the team;

Paying personal expenses on behalf of Mr. Leonard and his representatives; and

Failing to report improper solicitations for off-court income opportunities made on Mr. Leonard’s behalf through his then-business manager, Dennis Robertson.

Uncle Dennis is tGOAT.

Their drafts are going to be worse than the Pelicans'. Very possibly.

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How do you think Ballmer acquired the clippers?

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That was a racist owner being faced with the real prospect of the team boycotting a playoff game. Much different than someone playing loose with the salary cap.

Giving that Daktronics is now getting an a probe from the SEC there's bound to be more reporting on this. And the league itself stated in the report they just got new documents in the last week so there is still reporting to be done on a few aspects of this:


1. RIFC soccer team wasn't mentioned in the initial report at all. This may be a line of public corruption charges given the Rhode Island governor got flown to a Clippers game like a groupie but could be a cap circumventing issue too if more documents show up. It may have been excluded as it's more circumstantial but it's clear Uncle Dennis and the Clippers were involved with that.

2. Clippers minority owner gave Aspiration $2 million right before everything blew up and his daughter worked for the company. I suppose the NBA wanted someone to run the team while Balmer is suspended but could also be a criminal tissue oo and less cap circumventing.

3. Boingo Wireless. Pablo mentioned in his podcast that he knew about them but wasn't ready to report on them yet cause he lacked corroboration. More needs to be known here to known here. He probably has a podcast lined up for them once they get more information.

4. The insurance company. Pablo had no information from them and they have stonewalled both him and the NBA lawyers from finding out about that deal.

5. Other execs- Pablo mentioned Doc was one person who sat with the investigation. More importantly other league people like the current Wizards GM was with the Clippers during all of this. Given they weren't mentioned at all I imagined they knew nothing, but I would think the GM at least should've been aware of all of this unless Ballmer and crew cut him out to keep the people who knew small. There's also another Clippers player that was in talks with a similar deal with Aspiration ( I'd guess Paul George since he also signed that summer) that hasn't been identified yet.

There's still a few aspects of this to look into. Unless there's a smoking gun email or text from Kawhi himself I don't see his penalty changing much as the CBA is pretty clear on how to punish players. Ballmer however is in a corner, and while he may have an endless amount of money I don't think he has any real recourse. League has real evidence with emails, texts, etc. If he continues to lie to the media through his sock puppet Ramona Silver will dig in a not lower the penalties at all unlike David Stern. The other owners will want to shut it down especially since this is the second time he's done this imo.

How long will the league want to keep this going? One would think they'd want everything finalized before the season starts especially with Kawhi getting traded but who knows.