What is the next place in the NBA survey on Kawhi Leonard’s “No Show” approval contract?

Next week, the Council of Governors of the NBA – better known as 30 Team owners – will meet in New York and we know what the topic of hot discussion will be now.

The NBA opened an investigation According to which the Clippers and the owner of Los Angeles Steve Ballmer have circumvented the salary limit to ensure that Kawhi Leonard another 28 million dollars through an now banking company, Reporting made by Pablo Torre and Team for Pablo Torre discovers the podcast (PTFO).

While the NBA League office, under the guidance of Commissioner Adam Silver, will lead the investigations, are the other 29 owners who should vote on any penalties or punishments. Right now, there are more questions than answers.

There are two key topics for waiting investigations. First of all, what did Ballmer and Clipper know, and when did they know? Secondly, depending on the results (especially if the evidence is all circumstantials), how long are the other 29 owners arrange to go hard alone? There is a lot to arrive, we break down everything in the list points.

Circumstantial tests against pistol smoke

• PTFO presented a worrying temporal sequence conquered through the judicial registers and former aspiration employees (a “green bank” whose model was to make large quantities of trees plantations to earn carbon credits for its corporate customers, a company that since then has presented bankruptcy request and has declared its CEO guilty of Fraud).

This time sequence: in September 2021, Ballmer made a personal investment of $ 50 million in the aspiration. A couple of weeks later, Leonard signed an extension of the four -year contract of $ 176 million with the clippers. On the media day of the Clippers in September 2021, Ballmer announced a partnership of $ 300 million with the aspiration as part of the realization of “Green” intuit dome (one of his priorities). Shortly thereafter, Kawhi Leonard signed a 28 million dollar approval agreement with the aspiration.

• That 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 did he publish anything on social media on aspiration (as others had done that had marches with the company, such as Robert Downey Jr.). Leonard has just collected the controls, using a clause in his approval agreement that allowed him to get out of everything he did not believe in (who apparently was everything).

• Multiple aspiration employees told PTFO was said not to question Leonard’s approval and that it was a way to clipper to get around the limit of the salary. It does not help the case of the clippers that the consultant, the commercial partner and uncle of Leonard, Dennis Robertson – who notoriously did unreasonable requests As sponsorship agreements, a house, a call plane and more when the teams were recruiting Leonard in 2019 – it is involved and helping Leonard to collect those checks.

• Here’s where it becomes complicated for the investigators of the League: all this is a circumstantial proof.

• Ballmer investing in a green company that turned out to be a scam? He was not the only bilked billionaire from aspiration and his CEO. Leonard signs an approval agreement with the aspiration? Star players who sign independent approval contracts with sponsors of the team are quite common. The employees of the aspiration with which PTFO spoke said that it was “said” that this was to circumvent the limit of the NBA salary, which can be swept away as rumors in the office if there is no and -mail or conversation recorded with Ballmer or a leader of Clippers who says exactly this.

• The Clippers deny everything, saying that they were scammed like everyone else and that they had nothing to do with Leonard’s approval agreement and the way he worked. Here is the longest declaration of the clippers on the accusations, sent to a number of media members.

“Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer have eluded the salary limit. The idea that Steve has invested in the aspiration in order to channel money to Kawhi Leonard is absurd. Steve has invested because the co-founders of the aspiration presented themselves as committed to doing well from their customers while protecting the environment.

“After a long campaign of market manipulation, which has frozen not only Steve, but numerous other investors and sports teams, the aspiration has presented the bankruptcy request. Her co-founder, Joseph Sanberg, recently declared himself guilty of a fraud of $ 243 million. Neither Steve nor the clipper have not had to know a knowledge of the aspiration or his government until he is committed to a government until he is committed to a government. Team. 2021-2022 and 2022 2023 seasons before default on his contract.

“There is nothing unusual or unpleasant in the sponsors of the team that make approval agreements with the players of the same team. Neither Steve nor the Clippers organization have had any supervision of the independent approval agreement of Kawhi with the aspiration. To say that otherwise it is incorrect.

“The clippers take very seriously NBA compliance, fully respect the rules of the League and welcome its investigations relating to aspiration. The clippers will also continue to cooperate with the police in its investigations on the clearly fraudulent activity of the aspiration.”

• The defense of the clippers is the same that politicians always use: plausible deniedness. Leonard and his representatives have not yet commented at all.

• This is where the owner of the minority of Mavericks Mark Cuban comes into play: he says that Ballmer has been scammed, but even if he wanted to get around the wage hood, he is too intelligent to leave a paper track.

Crime and punishment

• A Lot of Fans and Media Members Pointed To 2000, When the Minnesota Timberwolves Were Caught Circumventing The Salary Cap With Free Agent Joe Smith (Promising Him A Larger Second Contract If He Signed A Lower-Priceed One-Year First One): Five First-Round Picks Taken Away (Two Were Later Returned), $ 3.5m Fine (equivalent to a $ 6.7 Million Fine Now), Timberwolves Owner Glen Taylor Was Suspend for A Year, Team GM Kevin MCHALE was forced to take a absence leave and Joe Smith’s contract was torn. I have seen online speculation now that the League could force Ballmer to sell the team.

• Nothing anything but serious is happening. Firstly, the sale of the team is out of the table: the only time the League pushed an owner was due to the repercussions to the comments and racist actions of the former owner of Clippers Donald Sterling and the misogynist reclument in the workplace to the former owner of Suns Robert Sarver. Whatever the NBA investigation finds with Ballmer, it is at most the salary wand, which is not close to the severity of the other issues.

• In the case Joe Smith/Minnesota, there was a paper track: the parties agreed in writing. Once again, whatever you think of Ballmer and what he did here, Cuban is right: it’s not so stupid.

• Which leads to the great question for the other owners: assuming that the investigation ends with many circumstantial coincidences and evidence, but no steaming gun, and the clipper deny vehemently nothing unpleasant, how difficult are they going to get off from one of them?

• The answer to this question begins with what exactly this investigation by the League finds. There is still a lot that we don’t know, and the clipper have a lot of explanation to make the League beyond this statement. Even without difficult tests that Ballmer and Clipper knew what was going on, if the investigation finds more circumstantial tests, it is not good for the clippers.

• The NBA CBA states that the owners can be punished for “direct or circumstantial tests”, Something that Ringer’s Zach Lowe has studied for his podcast. From the NBA CBA, article 13, section 2: the circumstance of the CAP “can be demonstrated by direct or circumstantial tests, including, but not limited to, evidence that a contract of players or any term or disposition cannot be explained rationally in another way. It could be difficult for Leonard and clipper explain his $ 28 million for not having done anything.

• Almost certainly there will be a certain level of punishment for the Clippers-E will not be the Knicks’ slap-on-the-wrists, losing a choice of the second round after the League found New York tampered with the recruiting Jalen Brunson. What the other owners and the offici fronts have taken away from the punishment of the Knicks is that if the price to be tampered with with an elite player is only a choice of the second round, it is worth it. The last thing that the League wants is that the owners take the same lesson on the elimination of the salary limit, observes something Lowe.

• Despite what some have tried to say online, circumventing the limit in this way is not common throughout the League. Pretending that it never happens is naive, but it is not a common practice. The other owners who have followed the rules will not allow a richer one to start breaking them to his advantage.

• Having said that, do not expect the league and other owners completely bring the hammer to the clippers in a truly in franchise way.

• The punishment phase of this will not happen for a long time. The first is the investigation of the League and what he finds. This will give the tone.