I don’t know if this is THE smoking gun, if only because it isn’t Ballmer.But it’s much, much more of a smoking gun than I expected to be found, and Pablo found it in a week. https://t.co/VB172tSA5S— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) September 11, 2025
Kawhi Situation Getting Worse For Clippers
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September 11, 2025 10 Comments
Starting to smell the smoke and see the fire.
This is going to be damning for the Clippers.
But to me, Kawhi should also go down and
be punished. Can’t let him re-sign and win a ring.
Mother s/b banned for at least a year.
Here’s the thing: you have to somehow provide a smoking gun that Ballmer knew his money would go to Kawhi. The fact that the business caved soon thereafter gives him some form of cover, now matter how BS we all think it may be (is), because for all anyone knows he was just investing in something and no knowledge his money might have redirected to one of his players.
Here’s another wrinkle: what if Ballmer isn’t the only owner who invested in this thing? What if it comes out Matt Ishiba, for example, also floated them 20 mil or whatever but none of his players are listed? There’s nothing that I can see in the CBA that precludes owners from investing in anything they want.
This is going to be a messy, slippery slope for everyone. NBA has some work to do here.
This is the part I get hung up on….if Balmer went through this elaborate scheme to funnel money to Kawhi, then why would he allow the business to fall into bankruptcy and cause all their books to be opened up and expose all their inner workings? Just cut em another check and keep the charade going.
As for Kawhi…dude…you couldn’t spend a coupla days shooting a few commercials and making some print ads for Asspiration to even somewhat legitimize all that money they gave you? That’s just dumb….
Whatever the case, I don’t anticipate the penalties will be anywhere near as harsh as some are calling for. We talk about “The League” but we have to remember who it is: it’s the Owners. And who ultimately pays Adam Silver: the Owners. At the end of the day, they will protect themselves and not set precedents that will harm them if it’s ever their own tit that gets caught in the wringer.
The REAL interesting part will be if the Government, IRS, & Law Enforcement decides to get involved when tax evasion, money laundering, & corruption enter the conversation.
Agreed, sloppy like a bad bank heist.
Silver is already putting a spin on this that we didn’t see in Minny with Joe Smith because, in that case, there was a pretty damning smoking gun from the get-go.
Kawhi to his agent: “Ok, let’s do it, but put in there I don’t have to do anything, cuz I’ll be too busy rehabbing.” And then it got past the lawyers. Gotta be a better way to work the system.