s. Steve Ballmer was so severe about turning the Los Angeles Clippers right into a severe franchise for the primary time of their existence that he wished to verify no fan ever waited in an extended line to make use of the lavatory when the workforce opened its new area. Ballmer’s drive to win finally led the Clippers to courting Kawhi Leonard in free company, recent off main the Toronto Raptors to a 2019 NBA championship. Leonard wished to dwell in Los Angeles, sure, however he additionally wished Paul George as his working mate, so r to get him.
Leonard’s folks additionally made it recognized that their shopper wished the kind of huge endorsement offers his off-putting, robotic persona couldn’t land legitimately. Leonard’s now notorious s to those Kawhi’s contemporaries like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant have been touchdown on their very own accord, and leaks of his calls for circulated as quickly as Leonard hit free company.
The Clippers turned so entangled in pleasing Leonard that it n, first reported by investigative journalist Pablo Torre. The NBA discovered sufficient proof supporting Torre’s claims that it y, stripping 5 future first-round draft picks, suspending executives together with Ballmer, and extra. That figured to be the tip of the story, with s. Torre continued to trace that there was one other shoe to drop, and now that it’s right here, the Clippers may be in a lot greater hassle than anybody first believed.
The Division of Justice has opened a legal investigation into the Clippers, s, and it’s already issued one subpoena. Whereas the scope of the investigation is unclear for now, the truth that the feds are watching the Clippers for under-the-table dealings doubtlessly makes this a a lot greater deal than merely breaking NBA guidelines.
How does breaking NBA guidelines quantity to a federal crime by the Clippers? Whereas there’s rather a lot left to come back out, the principle thought is that the Clippers dedicated some stage of fraud. Daktronics was a publicly traded firm, the one one of many 4 tied up within the Leonard scandal to suit that description, whereas Aspiration, Lockton Insurance coverage, and Boingo Wi-fi weren’t. Publicly traded firms have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders to reveal huge investments, and it positive seems like that by no means occurred when coping with Leonard.
There’s all forms of potential avenues for a federal investigation. It might be securities fraud and deceptive traders. It might be tax fraud in some capability. It might be wire fraud, or labor racketeering. The feds are simply poking round for now, however there are quite a few methods their investigation may go.
It’s simple to query the motives of the DOJ right here. s. Is that this the Trump administration attempting to place further warmth on this as a result of it includes a considerably left-leaning billionaire? Aren’t there extra vital issues to fret about?
Torre mentioned that he was anticipating the federal investigation into the Clippers with the DOJ beforehand wanting into Aspiration, in addition to SEC probes into Aspiration and Daktronics. Watch Torre’s video right here:
There might be on-court ramifications from this, too. s earlier than the NBA issued its penalty. d, and it’s nonetheless on maintain in the mean time as a result of everybody working the Clippers has been suspended. Will Kawhi really play for the Raptors this 12 months? m, and the Clippers positive want the draft picks they obtained again within the deal in the event that they’re ever going to construct a superb workforce once more.
The NBA dropping the hammer on the Clippers felt like an exclamation mark to finish this story. Apparently, there’s a lot that would nonetheless be to come back. The Clippers scandal was at all times a bombshell, and it retains getting greater.
