Adam Silver: NBA needs hard evidence Clippers broke salary cap rules

The NBA commissioner Adam Silver fell the reins while the allegations swirled on the clippers bypassing the salary ceiling by orchestrating an approval agreement for the star striker Kawhi Leonard.

Silver, addressing the media after a previously planned meeting of the 30 team owners in New York, said that the NBA survey should reveal clear evidence that the Clippers have violated the rules for the owner Steve Ballmer.

“The burden is on the league if we will discipline a team, an owner, a player or any constituent member of the league,” said Silver. “I think that, as for any process that requires a feeling of fundamental equity, the burden should fall to the part that brings these accusations in substance. …

“I think that as a question of fundamental equity, I would be reluctant to act if there was only a simple appearance of irregularity.”

The Clippers and Ballmer are under investigation into the League after being presumed last week on the Pablo Torre podcast that Leonard was paid $ 28 million for an approval role to do nothing, a sustainability company which had agreed with a revocation agreement of 330 million dollars with the Clippers and which had offered a billion dollars for the name become instead of the Clippers.

The aspiration has proven to be a fraudulent company, and the co-founder Joseph Sanberg agreed to plead guilty of having frauded several investors and lenders.

Silver said that he would hesitate to take measures against the clippers if even an outburst of doubt about the situation remains following the investigation, which will be carried out by a law firm experienced in his vast dissatisfaction by sports franchises, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz.

“The contribution of a company specializing in internal surveys adds a level of expertise and creates a separation between the League and the survey on a team,” said Michael McCann, sports law expert and guest teacher at Harvard. “Investigators have training in the work of prosecution, an overview of the documents to ask and questions to ask.”

McCann and other legal experts said that the survey would focus on the question of whether the investment of $ 50 million in the aspiration was a counterpart for the company to turn and give Leonard 28 million dollars in cash and $ 20 million in suction stocks to do nothing.

Ballmer is embarrassed by the allegations and on its apparent craze for the aspiration – which has concluded a sponsorship arrangement of $ 330 million with the Clippers and almost received rights to naming what has become the Intuit Dome, only to be revealed as a fraudulent company led by artists.

McCann said the investigation should reveal concrete evidence that Ballmer or someone else representing the Clippers ordered the aspiration to conclude the agreement with Leonard. The only evidence presented on the Torre podcast was hearing – an audio clip of a former anonymous employee of the aspiration saying that someone else in the company told them that the approval agreement “was to bypass the salary ceiling, lol. There were a lot of lol when things were shared. ”

LOL is generally used in written communication, so if the allegation was made in an email or SMS, the next step for investigators would be to interview the person who wrote it and to determine if Ballmer was involved.

The investigation will probably examine all of this. Money tends to be methodical when conducting a probe and should act on what can be proven, not on the perception of reprehensible acts. But he is also responsible for protecting and growing franchise values. Anything that could affect the integrity of the league would be a huge concern for him and the team owners.

“Money has a lot of very interesting relationships to protect and feed: other owners, its business sponsors, the media networks that distribute the content,” said David Carter, sports professor and director of business group. “Everyone attached to the League is interested in going to the bottom of this. He must therefore balance different interests of the stakeholders and he is very good to do so.

“So I have the feeling that he – by working with the law firm – will arrive at the bottom of it, then decide to what extent if a punishment is justified. He will do so with the intention of ensuring that he protects the interests of other owners. ”

Leonard joined the Clippers in July 2019 on a $ 103 million contract over three years after carrying out the Raptors of Toronto in the NBA title. The 6 -inch 7 -inch striker of Moreno Valley signed an extension of $ 176.3 million over four years in 2021, when the aspiration concluded his sponsorship agreement with the Clippers and Ballmer invested and became minority owners in the company.

After having signed an extension of $ 153 million over three years a year ago, Leonard was paid or will be under contract for $ 375 million in career salary over 14 years with three teams.

The NBA examined the allegations according to which the Clippers paid Leonard or his representative and uncle, Dennis Robertson, a parallel agreement when he joined the team for the first time in 2019. No reprehensible act was found, although this week, the Toronto star reported that Robertson had made aspiration requests. “”

The star said Robertson demanded $ 10 million a year in sponsorship income, but Leonard did not want to do anything for money. The Raptors rejected the request and Leonard signed with the Clippers.

If the mowers were recognized as guilty of having circumvented the salary ceiling, they could be forced to lose draft choices and make a fine. Ballmer and other team leaders could be suspended, and perhaps Leonard’s contract could be canceled.

The money will take place carefully.

“The goal of a complete investigation is whether there was really an irregularity,” he said. “In a sport oriented towards the public, the public sometimes reaches the conclusions which are later revealed completely false. I would like someone else in the situation either in the situation, or Kawhi Leonard, be treated in the same way I would like to be treated if people were allegations against me. ”