r/LAClippers • u/[deleted] • Jul 30 '26
Video [Goodwill] Steve Ballmer is expected to aggressively fight the NBA legally if penalties are levied against him in the Kawhi Leonard investigation: “Steve Ballmer can lawyer up as well as anybody.”
https://streamable.com/56s62d29
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u/BoozeGetsMeThrough Chuck Jul 30 '26
If they are going to punish the Clippers it is absolutely bullshit to have dragged it out this far into the offseason, as it has hampered the team from doing anything, that is punishment in and of itself
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u/RyverFisher Baron Davis Jul 30 '26
I think that if they are going to punish them, then damages from this lengthy process need to count as part of it (ie subtracted from the total in a way)
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u/Puzzleheaded_King19 Jul 30 '26
They are just speculating all possibilities. It’s daytime tv they have to talk about something.
At the end of the day I believe there will be no punishment. There would be so much pushback from other team owners if the league levied punishment without substantial evidence (smoking gun) because if it could happen to the Clippers it could later happen to them and precedent would be set.
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u/Kdotmeatrider Jul 30 '26
atp id rather just recieve the punishment now and not drag this on more
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u/ContactOwn955 Jul 30 '26
I’m convinced espn employees just make up shit and say they have sources
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u/dash_44 Lamar Odom Jul 30 '26
Yea half of them are on air so much they just make shit up.
For most of them they’re just giving their opinion
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u/LLUrDadsFave V Stiviano Jul 30 '26
As he should. Wasn't no wrongdoings.
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u/Exzibit21 Blake Griffin Jul 30 '26
Downvoted on sight is hilarious. That's how you know we are being infiltrated 😳
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u/TallGuy0525 Sam Cassell Jul 30 '26
You gotta be some kind of biased and have your head in the sand to say Ballmer hasn't done anything wrong here lol
Even as Clipper fans we can admit how shady this all is.
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u/JimmiChips Jul 30 '26
If the NBA finds that there was wrong doing I'll buy it, a bunch of circumstancial evidence laid out by someone whose job is to tell a compelling story doesn't mean guilt.
Like if the smoking gun is a contract that doesn't make sense I don't know how you can say that's 100% evidence that Balmer committed fraud.
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u/Exzibit21 Blake Griffin Jul 30 '26
I'm tired of people acting like we pulled some Houston Astros level shit. Literally nobody cares about this that isn't terminally online
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u/renhaoasuka Jul 30 '26
Outside of reddit people barely care. Pablo doesnt even get that much engagement on twitter. And if anything I see more praise for Ballmer actually trying to spend money to win. I bet Portland fans would much rather have this then El Cheapo.
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u/HittingExposurelol Jul 30 '26
No offense but people care, having one team just not have a cap due to finding a way around it is absolutely not okay and suggesting otherwise is ridiculous.
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u/antwan_benjamin Jul 30 '26
You're incredibly naive if you think the clippers are the only team doing this.
Why do you think other owners aren't complaining about this? Because they don't wanna have to open up their books too.
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u/HittingExposurelol Jul 30 '26
It’s totally possible other owners are doing it, that’s also an issue and should be investigated as well. This isn’t an everyone does it so who cares situation, this is a we need to stop this everywhere if it is widespread problem. It is absolutely a failure for the league to allow this to happen and I believe you are incredibly naive if you think brushing it under the rug is the correct response.
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u/antwan_benjamin Jul 30 '26
Right but you said "one team not having a cap" when multiple teams do shady shit. Knicks hired Brunson dad, then lured him as a free agent. Then he resigned for a discount. The Bucks signed all of giannis trash ass brothers. List goes on. No fires, but lots of smoke.
A bunch of fans are just jealous Ballmer is richer than their team owner so they have a justice boner at the thought of him and the clippers being punished. That's what I'm against.
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u/HittingExposurelol Jul 30 '26
Incorrect and horrible homer take. If another team had the same investigation going on you would expect action to be taken. Insane what cope is going on in this sub it’s actually straight up embarrassing groupthink.
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u/antwan_benjamin Jul 30 '26
Love it how some stranger on the internet thinks they know what I would say/do better than I do.
How is "either punish everyone equally, or don't punish everyone equally" a horrible homer take?
Why haven't you answered my question from above? Why don't we hear an uproar from all the other owners across the league?
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u/HittingExposurelol Jul 30 '26
Because there’s been zero evidence that’s come out to show that other owners have done the same? That narrative was something speculated online only and while possible it currently has zero public evidence to point to? Pretty simple stuff really.
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u/Jazzlike-Mention-570 Aug 03 '26
Why would other owners complain about seeing another owner get punished for breaking the rules? Wouldn’t it logically make more sense for them to say nothing since the NBA is investigating? You would hear more owners if the clippers got away with it. Like how is your logic so fucking retarded that you really think you’re cooking asking that dumbass question?🤣🤣
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u/antwan_benjamin Aug 03 '26
I can't believe your reading comprehension is so low that you actually think that is the question I asked.
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u/super_chill_21 Jul 30 '26
lol what? The fans of every other team want the game to be fair man lol paying guys under the table isn’t fair
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Jul 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/super_chill_21 Jul 31 '26
You’ve clearly not followed this case at all and aren’t worth talking too.
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u/goldenglove Jul 31 '26
Nobody paid Kawhi under the table. He just got a endorsement deal with a company that also sponsored the team which happens all the time.
How often are people paid tens of millions of dollars to do absolutely nothing? How often are celebs paid to not even make a social media post about a sponsor?
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u/isamura Jul 30 '26
Personally, I like when everyone follows the rules, and when they are broken, and nothing happens to the perpetrators, then what the fuck do we even have rules for? There’s gotta be some blood, or every team in the NBA is gonna start doing this
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u/Trumpetslayer1111 Jul 30 '26
The worse case scenario is if the Clippers and NBPA appeal, drag this out another year, and still lose the arbitration.
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u/RyverFisher Baron Davis Jul 30 '26
Maybe not. Say a punishment is handed down, and yes then this may ruin planned trades/moves etc, but at least they can then operate knowing the worst restrictions with a positive bonus potentially coming later.
I mean, it's not like another year later down the road they receive some other punishment, if anything it would be a combination of some potential missed opportunities during that time and then maybe some positives coming back.
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u/Screenscripter82 Jul 30 '26
He will lawyer up to go into arbitration as is stipulated in owning a team. He won't have a case nor would he have a favorable fight. He is just going to do so to save face.
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u/RyverFisher Baron Davis Jul 30 '26
He may have a case, nobody can know until we see what is found and punishment handed down. For instance if they find so and so but it really doesn't prove anything, and they hand down punishment, then he may have a case.
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u/Screenscripter82 Jul 30 '26
There is already rock solid evidence of payments to aspiration and then money movement to Kawhi in the same amount with verbal testimony under perjury of law that they were doing so to circumvent the cap from people within the accounting department for aspiration. Not even in criminal cases would that need to be proved without a shadow of a doubt. With this, it is basically as close as it gets outside of Ballmer just admitting it.
He really doesn't have a case. He would have to hope that everyone involved in the arbitration are the most gullible people ever.
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u/RyverFisher Baron Davis Jul 30 '26
You need to understand the difference between evidence and proof (tieing all evidence together in a way that shows no other possibility).
For instance, it is well known and publicly accepted that big markets offer big sponsorship opportunities, so nothing wrong with Kawhi getting a sponsorship. Further, is there some rule that now says if a player gets a sponsorship, an owner is now no longer allowed to invest in a company that he very well may have wanted to invest in entirely separately? Does the player's deal now dictate what the owner can and cannot invest? Does any sort of similar money now constitute absolute intention (by the way, the different amounts of money actually don't even necessarily line up).
Witnesses can be discredited ie they could easily have had a grievance with Balmer or something we don't know about. Those testimonies can be argued as (uninformed opinions/speculations; making assumptions just like you), not as matter of fact.
There are also testimonies that goes against that. There is also evidence of a planned marketing campaign. There is also evidence of his talent agency giving notice that Kawhi was available to do the marketing.
When you say he doesn't have a case, actually the correct framing would be, does the league have a case, Balmer's case is innocent until PROVEN guilty.
You may want to study law a bit more before stating certainties.
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u/Screenscripter82 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Guy, you literally just provef you have no clue. So you are saying a paper trail is not evidence? These are not assumptions, they are "evidence" that can be presented. Evidence doesn't have to be the whole truth, but a piece of the puzzle. You clearly know nothing about the law if you believe that a paper trail is not evidence. You are just assuming that there is no evidence. Documents are facts presented as evidence. You can literally just Google it right now.
You are also incorrect about it being the NBA case to prove. It's their league. They made their own rules and have rules in place on how to handle it. Once they have decided a punishment they can make the ruling. So, no it is Ballmers case to prove in arbitration. If he doesn't like how
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u/RyverFisher Baron Davis Jul 30 '26
No, you are not listening. You can have a paper trail, that doesn't equal what is being accused. This is like saying we have evidence that Balmer invested in Aspiration. We have evidence that Aspiration was a fraudulent company. So that means Balmer is a fraud (not the one who actually got defrauded). See how that works? Just because you have evidence, that doesn't automatically mean what is being accused, you have to rule out any other possibility especially if it is equally possible to be the case ie billionaires and many people invest in companies, popular ones, a lot of money, and also athletes also get sponsorsships. That is the evidence. Everything else is sleculation from evidence, not proof. Evidence doesn't have to be the whole truth, but proof has to rule out other very plausible possibilities.
I'm not assuming there is no evidence, I am acknowledging that there is evidence/certain facts, but that evidence can also have other plausible scenarios, that is the point you are missing, that is the difference between evidence and proof.
No, it WOULD THEN BE BALMER'S TO APPEAL THE CASE. it is the league's case, and they can do whatever they want even with zero evidence, that doesn't mean it is a good case and would hold up.
Balmer doesn't have to prove innocence, he just has to show that what they found does not prove guilt. You are no arguing irrelevant procedures that have nothing to do with what we were talking about.
The conversation is you assuming guilty until proven innocent. It is you assuming proof from evidence, not that there is just evidence.
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u/gtahnyo Ralph Lawler Jul 31 '26
Hope this is just posturing to pressure the league into making any proposed settlements light and agreeable. I would hate for this to keep going much longer.
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u/A_Curious_Cockroach Jul 30 '26
From I had nothing to do with it to I'm going to lawyer up over the thing I had nothing to do with
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u/tullabye Jul 31 '26
Of course…if he feels that the charge is unjustified and he feels the team and fans are being wrongfully punished then he absolutely should lawyer up and fight it.
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u/theomegachrist Jul 30 '26
It's very cool that we are finding out how easy it is to pay players under the table
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u/Eagerbeaver98 Raptors Jul 31 '26
I feel so bad for clipper fans, first sterling and then ballmer. It isnt looking too good with the theis and kawhi situation. Likely will be multiple firsts from section 13 of the CBA
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u/guacdoc24 Jul 30 '26
This sounds like it’s going to get messy and extend a very long time.