09-10-2025, 11:35 PM
(09-10-2025, 09:52 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: Considering he asked the Raptors in 2019 for several things that were very similar to this Aspiration deal such as asking for up to 15 million match in sponsorship deals and ownership stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs, that already establishes a pattern of behavior with Leonard asking for more than he can/should in FA.
But I don't think the NBA needs this as a smoking gun or even a pattern of behavior. This just LOOKS bad. The optics alone are enough to call into question the entirety of the NBA. If there is no steep punishment, why wouldn't other teams do something very similar to circumvent the cap? Why have a cap at all?
Alone, Kawhi and the Clippers have created a situation that pokes holes into the very foundation of the cap and the respect of the rules. And that assumes that we are buying this story that this shell corporation actually duped Steve Balmer by the tune of 50 million, and in that very same month gave Kawhi a 20 mil advance for signing and a 28 mil bogus promotional deal.
It's ridiculous. I know we throw around hyperbole all the time but Silver is by far and away the worst commissioner of the 4 major sports in America. Since he's come in, the NBA has gotten harder to watch, more expensive to attend, ads on jerseys, and so many scandals that have gotten off easy. If Silver overlooks this it'd be yet another referendum of how he truly doesn't understand how to run the NBA.
100% correct up until the Silver part.