There can be no doubt that the NBA is taking accusations against Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers seriously. In their latest course of action, the league has partnered with Wachtell, Lipton, Rose and Katz, along with their own private investigator, to determine the nature of Kawhi Leonard’s suspicious endorsement deal with Aspiration.
“The NBA has hired New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct an investigation into allegations that LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard’s endorsement deal with a now-bankrupt environmental company was made to help his team and its billionaire owner, Steve Ballmer, circumvent the salary cap,” reported The Athletic.
Going to these lengths shows that the NBA is not messing around and that its investigation will be thorough. Interestingly, this is the same strategy that was used to investigate Robert Sarver and Donald Sterling, two disgraced owners who faced major penalties for their actions.
“Wachtell Lipton is the same law firm the NBA used to investigate two high-profile cases of misconduct by team owners, both of whom were later forced to sell their teams.”
Cap circumvention violations are the cardinal sin for NBA teams, and clearly, the league is sparing no expense to discover the truth of the situation. In the case of Donald Sterling, Wachtell Lipton was directly involved in his exit from the league after accusations of racially insensitive comments. For Sarver, they shed some light on his history of inappropriate behavior, which eventually led to him selling the team.
While this ongoing controversy against the Clippers does not involve any inappropriate remarks, the punishment could rival or even exceed what was given to those franchises, considering that the Clippers have been penalized for breaking similar CBA rules already (fined $250,000 in August 2015).
While there is no “smoking gun” against Ballmer and the Clippers, there is enough circumstantial evidence to warrant a serious investigation, and some executives believe there is already enough for the NBA to declare them guilty.
Between Kawhi’s history of illegal demands, the details of his “no-show” contract, and Ballmer’s involvement with Aspiration, it certainly doesn’t look good for the Clippers. The fact that Kawhi Leonard essentially got paid $28 million from a sham company bankrolled by his team’s owner is more than suspicious; it’s almost incriminating. That doesn’t even mention the convenient timing of it all, with Kawhi’s Aspiration endorsement deal coming just a few months after Ballmer invested $50 million into the company.
It all builds a pretty damning case against the Clippers, but the severity of the punishment (if one is given) will depend on how much concrete evidence they’re able to uncover. Joe Smith and the Timberwolves set the precedent years ago on how the league would respond, but there was irrefutable evidence against the Timberwolves.
In this case, while the league is likely to take some action, the Clippers may get off easy if the investigation yields no hard proof that they orchestrated this payment scheme. So far, nothing can prove or disprove the accusations with certainty, and we can expect a long and thorough investigation to gather as many details as possible.
