Who would have thought that the NBA (National Basketball Association) would deliver one of the harshest punishments in league history this week? Just the other day, they suspended Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for a year and fined Kawhi Leonard $700,000 after finding the franchise circumvented the salary cap.
It came about after the results of an 11-month independent investigation by an independent law firm concluded that the Clippers engaged in “a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations” by helping Leonard secure off-court income to supplement his salary on record.
CLIPS. The Clippers as an organization were hit the hardest as it was slapped with a $30 million fine — the largest team fine in NBA history — and must forfeit first-round draft picks in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033.
Additionally, the franchise also faces five years of league-supervised compliance monitoring.
Now that’s a tough pill to swallow and when it comes to the basketball aspect of it -- this team will really feel the effects of forfeiting those five first round picks, considering that when Kawhi retires, they will be needing those picks to rebuild.
Ballmer was cited for purportedly “seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities.” To recall, the Clips had previously been fined in 2015 over similar issues involving DeAndre Jordan.
KAWHI. To me, their resident superstar got a mere slap on the wrist. Although $700,000 is a huge sum of money, he was not suspended and his contract was not voided. He is off now to a new team where he can easily recoup that loss.
His Uncle Dennis -- a shadowy figure in this fiasco -- received a five-year ban from conducting business with NBA teams on behalf of any player or personnel. Apparently, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association agreed the penalties are final and binding.
DISCOVERY. It all began when a journalist reported on a $28 million endorsement deal between Kawhi and Aspiration, a now-bankrupt company in which Ballmer had invested. Investigators then discovered that the Clippers facilitated similar arrangements with four companies that also did business with the team.
It was also alleged that Kawhi, through his Uncle Dennis, apparently pressured the Clippers for off-court opportunities and after obtaining them did not reimburse the team for expenses.
Kawhi has since then issued a statement accepting “full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle” but to me that’s a cop-out. Nobody really believes he personally didn’t know what he was getting into. That’s akin to our President feigning ignorance of the actuation of his Cabinet members and saying “mahiya naman kayo.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called the violations “flagrant” and stated that the severity of the punishment reflected the seriousness of the misconduct and the franchise’s prior history.
To me that’s a death sentence on this franchise -- at least for the next decade or so. There is no foreseeable path to relevance because they do not have a young star in the fold and cannot get one in the first round until 2034.
LAST ROUND. It’s on my bro, Atty Ramsey Quijano, who celebrates his birthday this week in Melbourne, Australia with wife Rene and daughter Yanna. Cheers, bro!