If you’re an NBA fan hoping to see the Los Angeles Clippers severely punished for their alleged circumvention of the salary cap, you might want to temper your expectations.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed the league’s ongoing investigation into the Clippers, star player Kawhi Leonard, and team owner Steve Ballmer, for the first time on Wednesday.
Ballmer stands accused of funnelling money to a shell company in order to pay Leonard off the books. Former ESPN employee Pablo Torre reported that Leonard received $28M from a no-show job with a tree-planting company named Aspiration.
The company was largely funded by Ballmer, including a suspicious $2M investment just prior to the company paying Leonard $1.75M in backpay.
Adam Silver Doesn’t Sound Confident About The League Punishing The LA Clippers
Despite Torre providing what many are calling a “smoking gun,” Silver says that he’s treating the case with caution.
“I was only quasi-joking with someone earlier, when people talk about a smoking gun, that’s obviously circumstantial. It means the gun is still smoking. It must have been recently fired,” Silver said via Front Office Sports. “I’d say in the case of the league we have our investigators look at the totality of the evidence. I would be reluctant to act if there was a mere appearance of impropriety.”
Additionally, he clarified that the league cannot and will not act unless it’s absolutely sure of what transpired.
“The burden is on the league if we’re going to discipline a team, an owner, a player, or any of our constituent members of the league,” Silver said. “The burden should be on the party that is in essence bringing those charges.”
On one hand, Silver makes a valid point. You can’t punish the Clippers based on the assumption that they did something. But the NBA commissioner went well beyond that.
He’s seemingly setting the bar high, so that when the league inevitably lets the team and Ballmer off easy, he has a simple explanation of why.
Maybe what the Clippers did was so egregious that Silver won’t have a choice. But it sure feels as if he’s giving himself, and the league, an out.
The post NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Sets Table To Let LA Clippers Off Easy For Kawhi Leonard Scandal appeared first on BroBible.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Sets Table To Let LA Clippers Off Easy For Kawhi Leonard Scandal
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