What's new
By:

Clippers be cheating

TheGoldStandard said:
That would make it worse, especially if Ballmer was behind it. NDAs won't prevent what is already out of the bag.
Click to expand...
I would assume they would hide the hush money a bit better than the Kawhi money. Nothing is truly out of the bag with the employees yet anyway. It was all anonymous. May not be a hush money situation but maybe just a huge threat of lawsuit that would stop any employees from disclosing info to the nba. There is a big reason they all want to be anonymous. What’s the incentive to say it on the record with your name on it?
 
Listened to Zach Lowe on this topic and he covered it well. Some points that don't necessarily align with the comments here:

- This isn't happening all the time. Front offices are careful with this stuff.
- The other teams are very upset about this, this is a very big deal.
- Per the CBA the Clippers can be penalized even if they never find concrete evidence that Balmer was directly involved. They only need circumstantial evidence.

Zach theorized that there will be an extremely thorough investigation and even if they can't uncover anything more than what has been reported then then LAC will be penalized, but obviously will be much more if they can prove this is cap circumvention.
 
Last edited:
SoberasHotRod said:
Listened to Zach Lowe on this topic and he covered it well. Some points that don't necessarily align with the comments here:

- This isn't happening all the time. Front offices are careful with this stuff.
- The other teams are very upset about this, this is a very big deal.
- Per the CBA the Clippers can be penalized even if they never find concrete evidence that Balmer was directly involved. They only need circumstantial evidence.

Zach theorized that there will be an extremely thorough investigation and even if they can't uncover anything more than what has been reported then then LAC will be penalized, but obviously will be much more if they can prove this is cap circumvention.
Click to expand...
There seems to be some mixed messaging between guys like Zach and ESPN which seems to downplay things.

I think this stuff is happening... Toronto had 15M lined up in other sponsorships for example. I don't see that as all that much different. Of course teams are saying that this stuff doesn't happen... it would be self incriminating to say this stuff is rampant. I think it doesn't happen this directly and in this egregious amount.

I do expect the teams to make a big show of how mad they are... similar to the "hold me back" tough guys. Talk big until its time to throw punches.

I just have zero confidence that the league will get tough on a powerful owner in a huge market. I need to see it to believe it.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
There seems to be some mixed messaging between guys like Zach and ESPN which seems to downplay things.

I think this stuff is happening... Toronto had 15M lined up in other sponsorships for example. I don't see that as all that much different. Of course teams are saying that this stuff doesn't happen... it would be self incriminating to say this stuff is rampant. I think it doesn't happen this directly and in this egregious amount.

I do expect the teams to make a big show of how mad they are... similar to the "hold me back" tough guys. Talk big until its time to throw punches.

I just have zero confidence that the league will get tough on a powerful owner in a huge market. I need to see it to believe it.
Click to expand...
I'm not really sure, you could be right. The point that Zach made is that the penalties are so stiff and that the evidence doesn't have to be great, so most teams are too scared to do anything.

I don't know if the league is really scared of Balmer though. The second apron rules were basically designed with him in mind. If there is real evidence out there that Balmer is tied to this, then I think they have to drop the hammer.

I'm guessing this will end with the league not finding anything and LAC only receiving a minor penalty. This will further fuel the conspiracy theories, but could be equally likely that Balmer isn't stupid enough to leave any evidence.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
I'm not really sure, you could be right. The point that Zach made is that the penalties are so stiff and that the evidence doesn't have to be great, so most teams are too scared to do anything.

I don't know if the league is really scared of Balmer though. The second apron rules were basically designed with him in mind. If there is real evidence out there that Balmer is tied to this, then I think they have to drop the hammer.

I'm guessing this will end with the league not finding anything and LAC only receiving a minor penalty. This will further fuel the conspiracy theories, but could be equally likely that Balmer isn't stupid enough to leave any evidence.
Click to expand...
His non-denial denial was pretty good.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Listened to Zach Lowe on this topic and he covered it well. Some points that don't necessarily align with the comments here:

- This isn't happening all the time. Front offices are careful with this stuff.
- The other teams are very upset about this, this is a very big deal.
- Per the CBA the Clippers can be penalized even if they never find concrete evidence that Balmer was directly involved. They only need circumstantial evidence.

Zach theorized that there will be an extremely thorough investigation and even if they can't uncover anything more than what has been reported then then LAC will be penalized, but obviously will be much more if they can prove this is cap circumvention.
Click to expand...
Any team or owner doing things above board would have to be upset at this. If you can dole out 10 of millions under the table with no consequence it 100% invalidates the salary cap.
 
gomretat said:
Any team or owner doing things above board would have to be upset at this. If you can dole out 10 of millions under the table with no consequence it 100% invalidates the salary cap.
Click to expand...
I'm also sure there's some jealousy among the other owners over how rich Balmer is. I think they will want to see him taken down a notch or two. I mean the new CBA was basically designed for the LT thing so the hyper rich owners like Balmer can't forever spend
 
So apparently it was the original 28 million plus another 20 million that was given to Leonard. Balmer's original investment in aspiration: 50 million.

Balmer also went on tv last night to double down on not knowing anything about it.

This could be an insane penalty on the Clippers (and should be) but does the NBA pony up on one of the richest owners in the NBA?

EDIT: Here he is from last night

"These are guys who committed fraud. How would I be able — look, they conned me. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys, thinking it was on the up and up, and they con me. At this stage, I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”
 
Can someone explain why this is a violation. I’m not defending what happened just trying to understand why it’s a violation. Kawhi Leonard signed a big contract that will pay him 50 something million dollars a year. That money goes towards the salary cap so how is this a salary cap violation? Just trying to understand how this is a salary, cap circumvention violation.
 
Thee Jazz Fan said:
Can someone explain why this is a violation. I’m not defending what happened just trying to understand why it’s a violation. Kawhi Leonard signed a big contract that will pay him 50 something million dollars a year. That money goes towards the salary cap so how is this a salary cap violation? Just trying to understand how this is a salary, cap circumvention violation.
Click to expand...

Balmer is being accused of giving Kawhi an extra $28Million under the table that did not go on the Clippers books and didn't count towards the cap.
 
I watched the Cuban-Torre follow up. Both agree that Leonard was paid by scam tree company to play for the Clippers. The disagreement comes from whether or not Ballmer and the Clippers knew about it and the extent of their involvement. Cuban says scam tree company circumvented the cap on their own to increase the value of their sponsorship and Ballmer had no idea about this despite investing in the company. Cuban's argument is basically, "Ballmer isn't that dumb, if he were to do it he wouldn't do it this way". Torre says of course he freaking knows about it and through his investigative reporting says that the (innocent) employees knew the were involved in some kind of scheme with the Clippers.

The irony of this situation is that Ballmer has already been fined for doing something similar with Deandre Jordan, where Cuban and the Mavs were the victims lol.

Seems kind of insane that any shell company can pay any player X amount of money and nothing happens if the team says "we didn't know about it". Even more insane if that shell company is a direct partner of said team and the team owner is giving that company money. So if LVT pays a player $50M to play for the Jazz and Ryan Smith gives them $50M, it's ok as long as Ryan Smith pleads ignorance and says he doesn't know what's going on?
 
Last edited:
Here's what will happen. The NBA will determine that scam tree company acted alone and did not collaborate with Ballmer or the Clippers. However, the NBA will fine Ballmer for negligence. The fine will be the equivalent of any of us buying a pack of gum.
 
KqWIN said:
I watched the Cuban-Torre follow up. Both agree that Leonard was paid by scam tree company to play for the Clippers. The disagreement comes from whether or not Ballmer and the Clippers knew about it. Cuban says scam tree company circumvented the cap on their own to increase the value of their sponsorship and Ballmer had no idea about this despite investing in the company. Cuban's argument is basically, "Ballmer isn't that dumb, if he were to do it he wouldn't do it this way". Torre says of course he freaking knows about it and through his investigative reporting says that the (innocent) employees knew the were involved in some kind of scheme with the Clippers.

Seems kind of insane that any shell company can pay any player X amount of money and nothing happens if the team says "we didn't know about it". Even more insane if that shell company is a direct partner of said team and the team owner is giving that company money. So if LVT pays a player $50M to play for the Jazz and Ryan Smith gives them $50M, it's ok as long as Ryan Smith pleads ignorance and says he doesn't know what's going on?
Click to expand...

Can you explain to me again why the scamming company would want to pay someone to play for the Clippers? How would this "increase the value of their sponsorship"?

I know this isn't your explanation, just trying to understand what is meant by that, if you know.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Can you explain to me again why the scamming company would want to pay someone to play for the Clippers? How would this "increase the value of their sponsorship"?

I know this isn't your explanation, just trying to understand what is meant by that, if you know.
Click to expand...

They were a sponsor of the Clippers, IIRC they were actually the jersey sponsor for the Clippers. So if Kawhi is on the Clippers (and thus the team is better w/more attention), the value the scam tree company gets from their sponsorship is greater.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top