Despite the latest revelations of Dennis Wong's investment into Aspiration over the weekend and other breadcrumbs found by Pablo Torre, Adam Silver will assume the Clippers are innocent until proven guilty:"I'm a lawyer. I believe in due process. I believe in fairness. We will… pic.twitter.com/C2HRh0zBw5— APHoops (@APH00PS) September 16, 2025
Can’t return the money to Aspiration, they’re in chapter 11 so their assets are owned by creditors now….so if money goes that way….creditors and banks that are involved in the bankruptcy would get the money……I say “sounds okay to me….have Kawhi (if guilty) pay $48 million that direction….to creditors and banks…….and fine Steve “I got toilets” Ballmer $50 million (at least….and yes that’s huge compared to the Joe Smith fine in 2001, but we all know Ballmer has the wallet to pay. Strip 5 first round picks, even though it’ll take to 2032 or so cuz Clippers have traded away plenty of 1st picks. If everyone guilty, suspend them for a year, Kawhi (aka KL2 LLC???), GM, Ballmer (well, at least I’m not saying he should be forced to sell the team…if so, maybe LeBron would want in on the action when he retires)….. Likely the league won’t or can’t conclude their investigation and address appeal attempts til season underway….but cancel out the next season contract of Kawhi and suspend him for next season. I think the fines are spelled out in CBA and are $350K for the player and $7.5 million against the team…so what I feel should happen will not happen. Forcing Ballmer to sell the team is a more possible outcome than the fines I suggest.
As a Formula One fan, I recall the 2007 season incident involving McLaren…. “In 2007, McLaren was fined $100 million (approximately £49.2 million) by the FIA due to their involvement in the Formula One espionage scandal, popularly known as “Spygate.” This was the largest fine in sporting history. The fine was partly offset by the prize money and TV revenue McLaren lost due to being stripped of all points in the 2007 Constructors’ Championship, resulting in an estimated net payment closer to $31 million. The penalty also included exclusion from the Constructors’ Championship, but their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were allowed to retain their points and compete for the Drivers’ Championship, as they were granted immunity for cooperating with the investigation.” (I used Perplexity AI to scrounge for info, take with as many grains of salt as needed)