re: N/P: Clippers blatantly cheated on salary cap, secretly paying Kawhi $28 million

There are cap errors and there is circumventing the cap to pay $48m over what is a max contract in the league.

How do you figure only $1M?

If he gave Kawhi $48M under the table and he was already paying the luxury tax. All teams don’t get a split of that pot.

Never forget the Knicks got slap on wrist in investigation

https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/nba-gives-knicks-slap-on-the-wrist-for-tampering-with-brunson-take-away-2025-second-round-pick

Clippers might not be the only team . This could be a domino effect?

https://www.theringer.com/2025/09/09/nba/kawhi-leonard-los-angeles-clippers-steve-ballmer-aspiration-salary-cap-circumvention

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At least it is a good explanation. It could be something, it could be hearsay . The NBA won’t make any judgments till they got concrete evidence.

quote:

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Translation: The NBA might not need a smoking gun. But given Silver’s record and temperament, he would surely prefer one before hammering the Clippers and Ballmer. Without direct evidence, the league could open itself up to a lawsuit. And if the NBA voided Leonard’s current contract (a three-year, $152 million deal), as it did with Smith, Leonard could challenge the ruling via the players association and the courts. “Can they prove what Steve Ballmer knew or did not know about Aspiration?” a former team executive said. “Was it direct, was it indirect? Did he know? To me, that’s going to be the crux of the issue. Even if they suspect he knew it, can they prove it? Is there any kind of paper trail? If that’s the case, they need to come down hard.” “It’s a huge test” of Silver, the same former executive said. “If even a fraction of it is true, it’s a fascinating test.”

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I know the Saints BountyGate got tied up in the courts. I think Vilma may have won his case in that mess.

It’s Ballmers money he did nothing illegal.

If we had Ballmer and that creativity with player acquisition we’d be cheering.

The root of this, of course, is the Clippers tying themselves in knots to accommodate Leonard, their "super star." I confess reading the passage below I started to wonder if the Pels made any similar contortions to try and appease Zion and his camp over the years:

"Robertson, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, wanted Leonard to be able to initially live in San Diego rather than in Los Angeles. (Leonard would commute via helicopter. He later moved to Los Angeles.) The Clippers agreed. He wanted Leonard to be able to skip some media obligations and team community events. The Clippers agreed. He wanted the team to promise to market Leonard individually. The Clippers agreed. He wanted Leonard to be able to bring some of his own people into the organization. The Clippers agreed. (A team source disputes the existence of some of these requests and the tone of some others.)

Perhaps most importantly, Robertson said there would need to be a strict protocol about how to talk about Leonard publicly -- and that was to say nothing unless absolutely necessary."