The NBA has ruled on the Los Angeles Clippers in for salary cap circumvention investigations on Kawhi Leonard after yearlong probe – stripping the franchise of 5 first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to owner Steve Ballmer and suspensions for Ballmer, Lawrence Frank and Gillian Zucker, sources tell ESPN. Kawhi Leonard will have to pay $700,000 in restitution for improper benefits by the Clippers for his uncle and former business rep, Dennis Robertson.

  • burble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    22 hours ago

    Wow. Clippers sent to the shadow realm. Fantastic.

    I just wish that Kawhi also got his contract voided and suspended for a few years.

    • TrippyFocus@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
      2·
      19 hours ago

      From my understanding the CBA doesn’t give silver the power to suspend players for this so the contract voiding is really the only thing he could’ve done and I think they went a little light on Kawhi so he doesn’t appeal which leaves Ballmer little options to fight this.

      It was light enough that Kawhi even admitted people around him (I.e. his uncle) did this which really seals the clippers fate here.

  • WhiteRabbit@lemmy.todayEnglish
    10·
    2 days ago

    ESPN is so shady. They put out that report a few weeks ago that there was no wrongdoing found. Meanwhile, the NBA almost immediately refuted the report and here we are a few weeks later with this huge punishment. I wonder how much Ballmer paid them to make the Clippers look good so they could still make free agent signings without them realizing the shitstorm that was coming lol.

  • TrippyFocus@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
    101·
    3 days ago

    Wow really glad they threw the book at Ballmer and the Clippers.

    Would have really lost my interest in the league if they had let this slide since it just makes the richest teams have a massive advantage. Really glad they did this.

    • TAG@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      Would have really lost my interest in the league if they had let this slide since it just makes the richest teams have a massive advantage. Really glad they did this.

      One of the great things about the NBA is that owners cannot simply buy a championship. It did not work for Prokhorov and the Nets and it has not worked for Balmer with the Clippers.

      Obviously the inverse is true. Plenty of teams fell out of championship contention because the owner tried to cut payroll.

    • RandAlThor@lemmy.caMEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Yeah league’s credibility was on the line with me for sure. There was too much shit out already and if they try to paper it over, man I would have been done.