Clippers be cheating

[KqWIN]

KqWIN is covering how I feel about this basically.

To me Ballmer saying he introduced them and its up to them what happens from there is akin to someone who runs a brothel saying "I matchmake horny guys and hot women and give them a room... what happens there is up to them".

Scam tree companies incentive here... Ballmer gives $50M it helps their scam stay afloat... the parce out 7M a year for Kawhi... the 20m in value was stock that is now worthless... so they get some cash to keep **** afloat.

If Ballmer didn't put it in writing anywhere that he directed this and if there is no pissed off third party that is willing to provide info (they likely have destroyed any real evidence by now) then it will be the hand slap. Not sure anyone on the Aspiration side has documents to disclose... but they wouldn't have to provide them to the NBA anyway.

Playing dumb is an elite strategy for these guys. Cuban did it with his sexual harassment stuff that the Mavs had and it was absolutely laughable.

If the NBA lets this slide, they are basically legalizing circumventing the cap. Any owner can pay any sponsor to pay their athlete a contract that exists if and only if they player for that owner's team. The only thing you can't do is have it on a piece of a paper. Ryan Smith if you're out there, you can funnel $50M through my LLC and I'll give $48M of it to any FA you want!

Ballmer will get away with it and they'll establish some kind of "Ballmer Rule" that supposedly closes up this loophole and fine him pennies.

 

[underdog]

Cuban's defense is also Ballmer's defense. So best case scenario for Ballmer: he gave a company $50M, they gave that money to Kawhi without his knowledge, and the reason they give Kawhi money is because they are also invested in the success of the team because they are sponsors. He is the victim in this whole situation by the way. That $50M went to a company that just happened to give Kawhi $50M to play for his team. Really unfortunate return on investment for him.

IDK about you guys, but it seems completely fked up that you can just say "I didn't know about it" and go on like usual.

Ballmer: Clips 'always done right thing' with Kawhi

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer told ESPN that he would "want the league to investigate" if another owner and another team were accused of circumventing the NBA's salary cap, as the Clippers were in a podcast by Pablo Torre on Wednesday.

www.espn.com.au

Yeah, in that interview, Ballmer said pretty much everything I thought he would say, but when he was asked why Aspiration would pay Kawhi 28 million to do nothing, that’s where he started to stumble. That Cuban's defense is incredibly weak imo.

 

[gomretat]

If the NBA lets this slide, they are basically legalizing circumventing the cap. Any owner can pay any sponsor to pay their athlete a contract that exists if and only if they player for that owner's team. The only thing you can't do is have it on a piece of a paper. Ryan Smith if you're out there, you can funnel $50M through my LLC and I'll give $48M of it to any FA you want!

Ballmer will get away with it and they'll establish some kind of "Ballmer Rule" that supposedly closes up this loophole and fine him pennies.

The credibility hit in letting this slide is huge, both with the fans and other owners. Still might happen but the reverberations of this don't go away by brushing it under the rug.

 

[infection]

Look, there are a lot of things I want to say but this thread is moving faster than I would ever have the time to respond. So with that said, I’d just like to point out that if you’re a number of pages into a thread and @Handlogten's Heros and @KqWIN are going back and forth and more or less agreeing, then yeah, that’s probably the way it is.

 

[infection]

My tl;dr that’s maybe not the most appropriate but I mean it legitimately, is like when people feel they’re in too deep to investigate something with devastating consequences. How many stories have you heard where someone had been sexually abused by a sibling or family member and the parents never did anything about it or pretended it never happened? The league is currently confronted with a situation it doesn’t like. I guarantee you they don’t like what happened and they aren’t “pulling” for Balmer and the Clippers. But they know that going down the pathway of addressing this is a path steeped in difficulty, difficulty that they’re not ready to face. All of us knows what they should do. Hell, even they know what they should do. But the reality of what they will do, or rather, will not do is a totally separate issue.

At the end of the day, they’ll delay and drag out the “investigation” to let the boil cool closer to room temperature. From there, they’ll delay and then reassess, when they’ll have a pretty good cap on things as they can convey a tone through the media that everything is orderly and in control, and that any justice will be served, if needed. When it finalizes, there will be much less interest in it than there is now (which is already quite limited relative to how big a story it really is).

Humans like comfort and reason. Just like the parents not wanting to believe something horrible. When the league comes out with its conclusion and whatever fine or punishment, the calm tone will have already dominated for long enough that most people will assume it was more of a nothing burger than the original “gut feeling” led people to believe. Of any of the people currently doubting that, a critical mass of them will be calmed by then to appeal to what superficially appears “rational” and will accept that, even if there were some mistakes and oversights, that the league did the best they could, within reason, and that even if it were shady, we were probably irrational to let our emotions jump to irrational conclusions because they totally would’ve brought the hammer down if this were what we thought it was. And because they didn’t, we’ll assume it wasn’t.

 

[HermanG]

Important background info:
Apparently during his free agency before joining Clippers Kawhi and his uncle had made "improver requests" to several teams in contract negotiations.

These requests included team ownership stakes, off court endorsement deals, private planes etc all of which went against CBA rules. Clippers were investigates after they got Kawhi to sign with thrm but were cleared back then.

Imo there is literally no chance this wasnt agreed before Kawhi signed the 4 year max deal in 2021. Clippers/Ballmer affiliation with Aspiration was at its strongest then and Kawhi endorsement deal was signed just 3 months after he signed his contract.

 

[fishonjazz]

Look, there are a lot of things I want to say but this thread is moving faster than I would ever have the time to respond. So with that said, I’d just like to point out that if you’re a number of pages into a thread and @Handlogten's Heros and @KqWIN are going back and forth and more or less agreeing, then yeah, that’s probably the way it is.

Lol good point

Sent from my OPD2203 using Tapatalk

 

[gomretat]

Look, there are a lot of things I want to say but this thread is moving faster than I would ever have the time to respond. So with that said, I’d just like to point out that if you’re a number of pages into a thread and @Handlogten's Heros and @KqWIN are going back and forth and more or less agreeing, then yeah, that’s probably the way it is.

They may be correct but it does not change the fact that this will cause issues. You have a declining viewership as well as a number of people who think the draft and games are manipulated. I cant figure out why anyone would be a fan who thinks games are fixed but that is another topic. When the salary cap publicly becomes fake, it is one more strike.

 

[infection]

They may be correct but it does not change the fact that this will cause issues. You have a declining viewership as well as a number of people who think the draft and games are manipulated. I cant figure out why anyone would be a fan who thinks games are fixed but that is another topic. When the salary cap publicly becomes fake, it is one more strike.

Whether it causes issues is really a separate issue all together. I don’t think anyone would disagree that it’s an issue. What people are saying is that, just because it’s an issue doesn’t mean the league will act in a particular way.

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

No billionaire just pays out $50 million without knowing it. That is ludicrous. People that are wealthy are very conscious of their wealth.

Claiming ignorance very likely spits in the face of his weekly meeting with his financial team that updates him on everything. $50 million dollar payouts surely require a capital call under normal circumstances. If they met about how to fandangle this one on a yacht then no notes were taken... however if the clippers or any other biz he owns authorized a $50 million dollar purchase without his authority normally it would be comical. No business runs that way without approvals by an authorized figure. If aspiration does and the rest of Ballmers businesses dont it is inconsistent and shows an intent to shield activity.

In short... EAT ALL THE BILLIONAIRES!

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

I had a legal fight with a billionaire over a housing project.

The shenanigans that went on were disgusting throughout the entire course of events.

He threatened to take my house along eith 14 grandmas who signed a petition for a referendum. The city threatened me with millions in damages. They had 50 top lawyers on their side and we had a pretty rag tag group of grassroots funded peeps.

If I hadn't have won that battle at the court level then we would have been on the street to the pleasure of a guy wanting to cram 100 people per acre while living with his wife and himself in a mansion on 6 acres.

500 million dollar project with GOBS of profits to be made make people force things to get their way. Money corrupts.

Billionaires blow.

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

But that billionaire was VERY aware of the money he was spending to fight us and it wasnt even close to $50 million.