Regardless of the findings of the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard for potential salary cap circumvention, the 2026 All-Star Game won’t be relocated away from Intuit Dome, commissioner Adam Silver confirmed on Monday.
There had been some speculation that taking this season’s All-Star Game away from the Clippers could be one form of punishment for the franchise if the league determines it circumvented the cap by paying Leonard extra money via a no-show endorsement deal. However, there’s no guarantee the investigation will wrap up by mid-February, and even if it does, the All-Star Game won’t be affected, as Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press relays.
“There’s no contemplation of moving the All-Star Game,” Silver said. “Planning for the All-Star Game and the surrounding activities are operating completely independently of the ongoing investigation.”
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Olgun Uluc of ESPN shares his takeaways from the Pelicans‘ two exhibition games in Melbourne over the weekend, noting that projected 2026 first-rounder Dash Daniels (Dyson Daniels‘ younger brother) held his own against NBA competition and that NBL owner Larry Kestelman expects the NBA to return to Australia based on the success of this trip.
- Alex Antetokounmpo, younger brother of Giannis Antetokounmpo, is expected to part ways with the Greek team Aris Thessaloniki and sign a G League contract, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops. The 24-year-old forward has never appeared in an NBA regular season game, but previously signed Exhibit 10 contracts with the Raptors (2021) and the Bucks (2022 and 2023) prior to playing for those teams’ NBAGL affiliates.
- The Athletic’s NBA beat writers pose one burning question facing each of the NBA’s 30 teams, including who will step up in the Celtics‘ frontcourt, whether or not the Magic have enough three-point shooting, and whether the Grizzlies can count on Ja Morant.
- In a pair of stories for ESPN, Tim Bontemps identifies 10 names that could define the 2025/26 NBA season, while Bobby Marks previews trade season for 14 teams well positioned to be active in the coming months.
Your a chump Silver
No reason this investigation needs to travel another 5 months
Lets just be honest here : if this was the Charlotte Hornets we would be shipping the GM out to sea drenched in kerosene bow and arrows drawn
All they’re doing right now is negotiating the “fine.”
Silver wants to back up the brinks truck, but Balmer the business guru is not having it. They’ll find a resolution soon enough.
How long does it take to contact Pablo Torre and ask him for the stacks of financial statements, emails and text messages? Investigating should be pretty easy if the lawyers watch Pablo Torre Finds Out because he has tons of episodes where he goes over the documents and interviews Aspiration accounting department employees. This isn’t the court of law but some of the documents are literally from court proceedings.
Did Kawhi do any work for the tens of millions of dollars? Did Ballmer and Wong give aspiration millions even after they knew it was a failing business? Open and shut case.
Daniels three ball needs some work. Young Dash is ahead of Dyson at the same age for sure. Same defensive attributes and more fearless offensively. Plays with confidence, he’s easily NBA material and worth a lottery pick.