Commissioner Adam Silver said investigators will carry the burden of proof in the NBA’s probe of potential salary cap circumvention by the Clippers, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at his annual preseason news conference following the conclusion of the Board of Governors meeting, Silver said the league needs to focus on “the totality of the evidence” rather than the “mere appearance” of impropriety.
“The burden is on the league if we’re going to discipline a team, an owner, a player or any constituent members of the league,” Silver told reporters. “I think as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is, in essence, bringing those charges.”
The NBA hired a law firm this week to handle the investigation of whether owner Steve Ballmer and the team violated league rules through Kawhi Leonard‘s $28MM “no-show” job with Aspiration. Ballmer was an investor in the green banking company, which has since gone bankrupt.
Sources told Bontemps that Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz plans to conduct a thorough investigation, and no firm deadline has been set to reach a conclusion.
Silver added that he’s “a big believer in due process and fairness,” and said other NBA owners feel the same way about the case.
“At least what’s being said to me is a reservation of judgment,” Silver said. “I think people recognize that that’s what you have a league office for. That’s what you have a commissioner for — someone who is independent of the teams. On one hand, of course, I work collectively for the 30 governors, but I have an independent obligation to be the steward of the brand and the integrity of this league. … To the extent we have had discussions (with the board of governors) — they’ve been limited — we communicated to them that we engaged Wachtell to do this investigation. And maybe I cut off any further conversations and said, ‘Let’s all withhold judgment, let’s do this investigation and then we will come back to you in terms of our findings.'”
Silver addressed a few other topics in today’s news conference:
- He confirmed the new All-Star Game format, which will feature two teams of American-born players and one international team in a round-robin competition. Silver expressed hope that the new approach will help to motivate the players. “I think in the case of the NBA, this is what I’m trying to convey, particularly to younger players, is that All-Star is a big deal,” he said. “There’s been great traditions out there. People have great memories of these All-Star Games. It’s part of the fabric of this league, the excitement that comes from it and the engagement from our players.”
- Discussions are continuing on a potential new NBA-run European league, and Silver said he and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum traveled this summer to Europe, where they met with stakeholders. Silver also denied speculation that the venture in Europe will replace NBA expansion efforts. He called them “completely different entities” and said expansion was discussed at the board meeting, although there’s nothing new to report. “Part of the difficulty in potentially assessing it is a sense of long-term value of the league, and a little bit maybe it’s a high-class problem, but as with some of the recent jumps in franchise valuations, that sort of creates some confusion in the marketplace about how you might even price an expansion franchise,” Silver said. “I’ll only say it’s something that we continue to actively look at.”
- Silver refused to say if there are any limitations on Malik Beasley‘s availability while the league investigates his role in a gambling scandal. “I’ll only say there that the investigation is ongoing,” Silver said. “As I understand it, there’s still a federal investigation that’s ongoing of Malik Beasley as well. We will address whatever is presented to us in his case.”
James harden literally admitted him and the sixers cheated and they did nothing
If the clippers get hammered they are dumb as rocks
Yup, if clips are guilty, they should still be thankful that Stern isn’t around to dole out actual punishment
Theyre dumb if they get caught because harden admitted it and that wasn’t enough
Imagine how bad it would have to be to get hammered
And the Clippers are guilty as heck
Wait what did harden admit? I must have missed that one
Admitted he and the sixers had a deal where he took less money to get paid on the backend
Joe smith style
Oh yeah I remember that now! thanks
@bjbossman
See the new article about the minority owner and vice chairman of the Clippers Dennis Wong “investing” $2 mil in the failing Aspiration company and then Kawhi getting an overdue 1.75 mil payment. Wong’s daughter worked for Aspiration, “imagine that”.
With 2 owners involved, there’s not much left as far as denial for the Clippers to use.
Nba owners are rich dudes who invest in things together
I think 5 or 6 owners share a tequila brand
It doesn’t help but sharing investment opportunities is normal for billionaires
Not a smoking gun
But bad optics for sure
I can’t imagine that this is all one big happy accident. Ballmer’s main defense so far has basically been “oops, I didn’t realize my employees went ahead with this”… I don’t buy it. If the whole house is smoking there has to be a fire somewhere.
There’s already too many damming pieces . Ballmers $50 mil lining up with Kawhi’s $48 mil, the fact that Kawhis $48 drastically dwarfs the $ any other celebrity got, and why tf would they pay him that much to do nothing ??
This development from Adam reeks of the other owners realizing that their own similar hush-hush deals w stars , while for much less $, might also come to light in the wake of this …
I absolutely agree that this isn’t a unique arrangement and no one wants balmer to sue the entire league to get discovery access
@bj
You think Ballmer wants this dragged out in court?
I’m sure all involved would rather this end quietly, though if the Clips can get Leonard’s contract voided and keep penalties to a lesser degree it might work out for them.
Only if they get hammered would he go nuclear
Suspend Leonard for a year no pay ($50 million lost), fine the clippers ($50 million) so they don’t benefit from not paying him, then take 1 or 2 future 1st rounders.
If Silver goes too soft, people will lose confidence in a sport with ongoing gambling investigations, and if he goes too hard his bosses won’t like it.
Everyone with a brain knows the $50 million investment, and $48 million no show deal were cap circumvention. 1 lost season and a $50 million team fine plus draft pick(s) essentially reset things. I personally would go harder on team/player and send a message but Silver isn’t going to do that.
Hear, hear!
That’s a reasonable compromise. Bravo!
Why pull that out of your rear end instead being consistent with punishments issued in the past for similar violations? Balmer cheated the league and taxpayers by pretending he was donating to a charity. He shouldn’t be allowed to be involved with team operations for 5 years, the team should lose 6 first round picks and uncle Dennis should lose his ability to contact teams, be an agent or have any nba job.
You don’t have to cheat, you aren’t allowed to cheat because other people do and when you cheat in a way that endangers other owners because cheating the cba wasn’t enough and you had to also cheat on your taxes (as the 13th richest man in the world) you should be kicked out of the league forever because you’re too stupid to be associated with.
I didn’t post what I think should happen, I went with what I think is likely. The truth is Silver isn’t as strict as Stern was but you should give your opinion to someone in the league office. I would like to see Ballmer and Leonard be made an example of.
“We, the NBA, have hired a team to investigate ourselves. We have found no wrongdoing”.
May as well pre-write this press release a few months ahead of time.
Yeah. The coverage being about how nothing is proven yet instead of how bad this is and what the range of penalties are is a joke. The only real question is if Ballmer knew about it and that isn’t even relevant to anything but Ballmers specific penalty.
yeah, other than a cover story, the Clippers legal issue will be swept under the rug. There are probably several other NBA names, like the Clippers coach, involved as investors or as creditors. If the IRS gets involved the situation then becomes serious. But for now just stupid NBA high jinks.
Doc Rivers did indeed have an endorsement deal with Aspiration! Only difference is he didn’t have an out clause that let him refuse any request.
The “Fair” and best punishment (that likely won’t happen):
-Kawhi and Ballmer banned from the NBA for life
-NBA league takes over the Clippers for 1 year while they sell the team
-Force a snap draft/lottery of all the Clippers current players who aren’t 2way players, suspend salary cap restrictions for these players
-Make the Clippers use all 2way players this season
This will entirely eliminate this ownership’s mess. New owner gets fresh start – that part is honestly going to attract a lot of interest because it rarely happens, there’s always messy trades new owners have to make that enrage fans.
Out of all of the stupidity in this take, I want to focus one point: “New owner gets a fresh start”
You think, even as pea brained as you’ve proven to be, that any potential new owner of an NBA team would be excited to take on a roster of only two way guys and no draft capital?
I cannot fathom that you’re allowed to be outside of the house unsupervised lmao.
@washingtonbc’s… you’re my hero.
Upvoted for “pea brained”.
I dare anyone here to watch how ESPN has covered this Kawhi/Ballmer brouhaha, so far ….. then compare it, to how these same fools covered the Jontay Porter issue when it first came out.
The “benefit of the doubt” was night and day.
It sure is fun to be a billionaire or a star athlete, there are other perks besides the money.
Leonard asking the Raptiors for a side deal before signing with the Clippers is not looking good. Insisting on making no PR appearances just money. So why did the Clippers give him a deal that they knew was illegal?
My guess is because it’s more normal than we care to admit
Correct…which is exactly why nothing happens here. 100% the other owners will be more than happy for curtain practices to remain away from public knowledge. As would Adam Silver.
Well shoot. If its so common to cheat on your taxes the IRS should investigate the entire league.
name them since you claim everyone is doing it.
Do you know what taxes are on $100,000,000?
Espn coverage is sickening. It’s an excuse fest focused on how we shouldn’t assume any of this is true. Marks is pathetic.
Oh stop it ADam
Pablo Torre just dropped a follow-up podcast …….. he has more receipts.
CLIPPERS vice-governor found to have paid the tree-company – which appears to be for a late payment for Kawhi.
Get Pablo and his team on the Epstein files now.