NBA teams are out for blood as the Los Angeles Clippers face backlash on the ongoing Kawhi Leonard scandal.
Sports journalist Pablo Torre’s explosive exposé on the Clippers’ allegedly paying Leonard money under the table has dominated headlines over the past few weeks. Torre piled on even more evidence Thursday, linking Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong to a payment to now-bankrupt company, Aspiration, that appears to have been funneled into Leonard’s bank account.
While the Clippers have denied any wrongdoing, NBA executives are reportedly expecting league commissioner Adam Silver to make an example out of the Clippers.
NBA reporter Jake Fischer spoke to multiple team executives who, with their chests “puffed out,” have called for the Clippers to be punished in one of two ways: either LAC gets “docked multiple first-round picks” or Leonard’s contract is voided while still counting toward the team’s salary cap — or both.
If that does not happen, teams would reportedly feel “emboldened to seek out their own version of shell companies” similar to what the Clippers allegedly did to pay Leonard more money.
Such a response to the ongoing Clippers saga is hardly surprising. Team owner Steve Ballmer is the richest owner in the NBA by a wide margin. Without the currently set salary cap rules — and teams abiding by said rules — Ballmer could virtually pay his way to a championship. That holds especially true in the NBA, where signing a Finals-MVP-caliber player like Leonard could drastically alter the landscape of the league.