[Pablo Torre] Steve Balmer paid Kawhi Leonard under the table to avoid salary cap

Voiding the contract is no punishment to either the team or the player.

It's like if a thief is caught stealing, the only punishment is forcing him to return what he has stolen--and has not spent yet.

 

Hey babe, wake up, new Pablo video dropped.

 

“I heard it could be 3 first round picks… and then it’s gonna be a lot of money…More than $30 million, I’ve heard.”

Source: SiriusXM NBA Radio, The Starting Lineup morning show aired on 3/12/2026

 

That seems about right...then add in a 1 year ban for Balmer and Kawhi

 

Saw that Kawhi's deals had an alledged $48M in value with stock. That is basically Kawhi's contract next season. Kawhi's punishment (assuming 1 year ban) would basically be that he ends up with the same amount of money if he followed the rules except he gets to no-show his work for the NBA. Sounds like that is the type of deal Kawhi likes.

If the NBA goes to the trouble of punishing Kawhi, the punishment needs to be worse than if he followed the rules.

 

OK (I was thinking more from the "punish the Clips" angle)...then he's suspended without pay and fined some percentage of however much he was paid.

This $48M in stock, what was it stock in? Does he still own it? Is it still worth anything?

 

It was $28M in cash money and $20M in Aspiration stock or equivalent compensation, allegedly. Not sure if he still owns the stock, but likely is worth nothing now if he does.

 

Absolutely mindblowing that they’re gonna do this to the clips after doing nothing to the heat for years of cheating and circumventing the cap.

 

Taking away FRP is fine. But if they really want to go for a cruel and unusual punishment:

When the time comes for expansion teams taking players... Instead of protecting up to 8 players, they can only protect 3.​

 

Right...I assumed the stock is now worthless, and if he sold it that should be a part of his fine.

If the SEC doesn't send him to federal court first.

 

Imagine if the picks the Clippers have to surrender are the Thunder picks?

 

The value of the stock dropping once in Kawhi's possession is not the NBA's concern.

Funny thing is I think Kawhi would have actually had to promote Aspiration for the SEC to care. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

My guess here is that Ballmer-Silver are tryign to get some way for the Clippers to take a plea bargain and losing Kawhi (which was going to happen anyway due to rebuild/contract expiration) is the baseline for that plea.

 

Yeah...call me when they actually do something. The league wants to save face, so suspending is not happening, Clippers will walk away with just a slap on the wrist and maybe Kawhi gets some millions in a fine. Big whoop.