The NBA commissioner Adam Silver fell on Wednesday the reins when the allegations revolved on the Mower annoying The salary ceiling by orchestrating an approval agreement for Star Forward 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.
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“The burden is on the league if we will discipline a team, a owner, a player or any constituent member of the League”. Silver said. “I think that, as for any process that requires a feeling of fundamental equity, the burden should be on the party which, in substance, brings these accusations. …
“I think that as a fundamental equity, I would be reluctant to act if there was only a simple appearance of irregularity.”
The mowers and the boulèrers are Under the investigation league After being presumed last week PABLO TORRE PODCAST The fact that Leonard was paid $ 28 million for an approval role in doing nothing, a sustainable development company which had agreed with a sponsorship agreement of $ 330 million with the Clippers and had offered $ 1 billion to appoint the rights of the arena which became the Intuit Dome.
The aspiration has proven to be a fraudulent company, and the co-founder Joseph Sanberg has accepted to plead guilty to defraud several investors and lenders.
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Find out more: Clippers planned to appoint the dome after a bankrupt business at the Kawhi Leonard allegations center
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 McCannAn expert in sports law and guest teacher at Harvard. “Investigators have training in the work of prosecution, an overview of the documents to be asked 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.
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Ballmer is embarrassed by the allegations and on its apparent craze for the aspiration – which concluded a sponsorship arrangement of $ 330 million with the Clippers and was Almost attributed the names of name to what has become the Intuit DomeTo be revealed as a fraudulent company led by crooks.
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 aspiration employee saying that someone else in the company told them that the approval agreement “was to get around 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.
Find out more: Questions about Kawhi Leonard’s payments focus on the NBA wage ceiling
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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 corporate sponsors, the media networks that distribute the content,” said David Carter, A USC sports professor and director of Sports 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 at doing 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 led the Raptors of Toronto to 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.
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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 in 2019. No reprehensible act was found, although this week the week Toronto Star reported That Robertson made requests from Raptors in 2019 “which almost align what Leonard would have obtained from the aspiration”.
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.
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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 audience, 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, or treated in the same way that I would like to be treated if people made allegations against me.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
