NOTE: The New York Mets are 14-12 since the MLB Trade Deadline and just 10.5 games out of a Wild Card spot with 25 games to go. Ya Gotta Believe. Now on to today’s thingy.
TINSELTOWN, CA – Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has plenty of money. Apparently, he has plenty of lawyers, too. What he does not have anymore is five first-round draft picks.
That is what makes the Kawhi Leonard salary-cap scandal such a big deal.
The NBA’s investigation concluded that the Clippers improperly created off-court income opportunities for Leonard, including a $28 million endorsement arrangement with Aspiration, a company connected to Ballmer. The league determined that the arrangements amounted to salary-cap circumvention. The punishment was historic: a $30 million fine, a one-year suspension for Ballmer and, most painfully, the loss of five first-round picks from 2029 through 2033. Leonard was fined $700,000.
Five first-round picks!
Think about that. The Clippers didn’t merely lose some money. They lost a significant chunk of their future. That is some serious sh*t, people! The 700K fine to Leonard, though, is a f*cking joke. Still, some impressive stuff from Adam Silver & Co.
And that’s precisely why this matters to the entire NBA.
The salary cap exists to prevent the richest and most aggressive owners from simply buying whatever talent they want. If a billionaire can pay a superstar the maximum salary on the books and then quietly find another $10 million, $20 million or $30 million through friendly corporations, what’s the point of having a cap?
The Clippers’ alleged arrangements threatened to create exactly that loophole.
And the timing makes it even more fascinating. Leonard was already scheduled to make $50.3 million this season, according to current contract figures. The Clippers weren’t dealing with some fringe player. They were dealing with one of the NBA’s biggest stars.
The league therefore had to send a message: You can’t have a salary cap for everybody else and a salary suggestion for Steve Ballmer.
That’s also why the five draft picks hurt so much. The Clippers are already trying to transition away from the Leonard era. Now they have to do it without five valuable pieces of future currency.
And there’s a delicious irony here.
Ballmer spent billions trying to turn the Clippers into a powerhouse. He built the spectacular Intuit Dome, paid enormous salaries and assembled stars. Yet the franchise never reached the NBA Finals with Leonard.
Now the most expensive part of the whole experiment may be the future.
The Clippers say they disagree with the NBA’s findings and intend to challenge the penalties.
Good luck.
Because this isn’t really about Kawhi Leonard anymore.
It’s about whether the NBA’s rules mean anything when a billionaire really, really wants to win.
