NBA assumes a law firm to manage the investigations on Kawhi Leonard, Clippers Approvement Deal

As expected, the NBA has taken on an external law firm to investigate whether the Los Angeles Clippers have spoiled the salary limit with a “No-Show” approval agreement for Kawhi Leonard from one of the team sponsors.

The NBA has taken on the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz law firm, reports Joe Vardon, Sam Amick and Mike Vorkunov by The Athletic. This is the same law firm that investigated the situation of Donald Sterling with the Clippers (which in the end led to the sale to the current owner Steve Ballmer) and investigated the relations of a misogynist job under the former Phoenix Suns Robert Sarver owner, who was eventually suspended from the League for a year and sold the team.

This case, if demonstrated with the satisfaction of the other owners (who will vote on any potential punishment), would not lead to a serious result such as the sale of the team (circumventing the salary limit is serious for the NBA, but not at the level of racism and misogynia). However, the list of sanctions prescribed in the CBA NBA includes fines up to $ 7.5 million, the decline of shooting choices and potentially emptying the player’s contract.

This case resolves around An approval agreement with a sponsor clipper discovered by Pablo Torre discovers the podcast. The temporal sequence breaks in this way: in September 2021, Ballmer made an investment of $ 50 million in the aspiration, a “Green Bank” company that stated that it was planting trees to earn credits for carbon emissions that could transmit to its customers. Later that month, Leonard signed an extension of the four -year -old contract of four years and $ 176 million with the clippers. On the media of the Clippers at the end of the same month, Ballmer announced a partnership and a sponsorship of $ 300 million with aspiration that was partly an effort to make the “green” “green” “green”. Not long after, Leonard signed a four-year approval agreement of $ 28 million with the aspiration. separate approval contracts with sponsor of the team, with a clause that the sponsorship ends if they are exchanged/leave the team, are relatively common).

Two things cause this story to take a turning point. The great is that Leonard did nothing for the aspiration, approval was what several aspiration employees told Torre was a “no-show” job. Leonard has never done any public appearance for the company, did not appear in its marketing, nor has it published anything on social media on aspiration. He obtained $ 28 million for not having done anything (Leonards LLC formed for this approval is one of the creditors in the failure of the aspiration, as well as the clippers). The other turning point is that the aspiration has proved to be a fraudulent company, which is under federal investigation, presented a bankruptcy request and its CEO declared himself guilty of framing investors of $ 248 million.

Steve Ballmer and Clippers have vehemently denied the accusations and said they did nothing wrong. Ballmer said in an interview with Espn that he was “deceived” For aspiration and its CEO, as well as many other rich investors and celebrities. The Clippers said this in a declaration:

“Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer have elusive the salary limit. The idea that Steve has invested in the aspiration in order to channel money to Kawhi Leonard is absurd. Steve invested Steve because the aspiration co-founders showed up after the fact that they committed themselves after the government, after the fact that they committed themselves with their customers during his activity in the government. team sponsors for the seasons 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 before default on his contract.

Now it is reduced to the investigations of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz and what they find – with the investigations conducted by a law firm and referring to a lawyer himself in the Commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver, the bars for direct, concrete tests will be high. However, there is a flood of circumstantial tests and the Clippers or Leonard that explain a contract without shows will be difficult.

In the end, they are the other owners who will decide the punishment for the Clippers and Ballmer and want to see this relationship. The other owners will not want to slap the punishment of the wrist (like the Knicks have had to tamper Jalen Brunson) who will report that it is good to evade the hood, but how difficult they want to be difficult for one of them in a case in which it claims plausible deniability is another question (those owners can think “there but for the grace of God. A much depends on what this investigation finds.