Full quote:

“I’m a big fan of treating adults like adults. Kawhi Leonard is 35 years old and we have documents, Aspiration contract, in fact, $28 million contract in which his signature is on it. We have the money flows. We have him actually in the NBA report, by the way, specifically. This not Dennis Robertson. This is Mr. Leonard in the report requesting that aspiration flip how they were going to pay him. They initially were like, “We’re going to give you the seven a year in stock and the four and the five a year in salary.”

ESPN has lost any and all credibility. They have shamelessly published unsubstantiated report saying NBA found nothing, defending Ballmer from day one, and even after the NBA's ruling came out, their mouth pieces still going out there doing PR work for Ballmer. I have ZERO respect for this organization.

Source: https://www.pablo.show/p/it-happened

From Pablo Torre:

If you’ve been following our (ongoing) investigation into the Clippers and Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard, you know we’ve been waiting for this day for a year.

We published Part I on September 3rd, 2025.

This, Part 15, we streamed, live, last night — on September 2nd, 2026 — roughly 90 minutes after the NBA announced its punishment and the league’s outside counsel, Wachtell Lipton, dropped a detailed 35-page report.

Accountability for the wealthiest people on Earth is hard to come by.

Thank you for believing in the power of independent reporting to accomplish it.

(And, yes, more to come.)

Take a look.

Some notable stats:

Per game -- Lebron ranks 4th all time in the regular season for assists. 3rd all time in the playoffs. Points? 5th and 6th.

He's scored the 10th most points all time in Lakers history in the regular season. 17th in rebounds. 5th in assists! 7th in defensive rebounds. 2nd in 3-pointers made.

He has scored the 6th most 40+ point games in Lakers history, and the 5th most 50+ point games.

If the only thing he ever did in the NBA was play for the Lakers in the years that he did, at the age that he did, he had a complete, HOF career as a Laker and would/will be remembered amongst the best Lakers of all time.

He was 33 years old in his very first game as a Laker.

Source

“When the NBA came out with that statement denying what was in that [ESPN] story, I called some people over there [league office] and said ‘listen, if you’re denying it this strongly, it’s gotta be more than semantics’… they insisted to me at that time, it was more than that. They weren’t gonna tell me what exactly the punishment was going to be, but they insisted there were real, substantive issues with that reporting and they were right… I like our colleagues over at ESPN, but they just swallowed a big bunch of bullshit that came from the Clippers… I don’t like to get into media stuff because it’s a hard job where sometimes you’re fumbling around in the dark, but you can’t run a story like that when you’re not getting a semblance of the picture from the other side.”

The Wachtell Lipton report details 'endorsement' deals set up by the Clippers to circumvent the cap, in addition to undermining competitive balance they also dodged a massive amount of luxury tax by the income not being counted in their cap allocation.

TLDR: For the 2021-22 season I estimate the Clippers would have to pay an addition $90.5 million dollars in luxury tax if you count the Daktronics and Aspiration payments from that year towards the cap. The Clippers were also over the luxury tax in the other years, I've included my best attempt at estimating the additional 2020-21 tax, another $33.8M.

...

I am not a cap expert and even after reading the WL report I'm not exactly clear on the timeline, but I've done my best to do a back of the envelope calculation of how much the Clippers should have paid in luxury tax in 2021-22 if you counted the money Kawhi received outside of salary for tax purposes. All cap and luxury tax numbers are from Spotrac. If you have more detailed knowledge of the cap and think I'm making a mistake please let me know!

In 21-22, the Clippers cap allocation was $166.2M and the tax line was $136.6M putting them $29.6M over the cap (ignoring Kawhi's tree planting salary). They paid a total of $83.11M in luxury tax.

sportingnews.com conveniently has information on how to calculate the tax for that season, which I've copied below:

• $0-5 million above tax line: $1.50 per dollar (up to $7.5 million)
• $5-10 million above tax line: $1.75 per dollar (up to $8.75 million)
• $10-15 million above tax line: $2.50 per dollar (up to $12.5 million)
• $15-20 million above tax line: $3.25 per dollar (up to $16.25 million).
• For every additional $5 million above tax line beyond $20 million, fees increase by $0.50 per dollar

The tax is progressive, so the first 5 million results in 1.5 * $5M = 7.5M in tax, the second $5M yields 1.75* $5M = 8.75M in tax, etc. Using this formula to calculate the tax on the $29.6M they were over the tax line I find:

1.5 * $5M + 1.75* $5M + 2.5* $5M + 3.25 * $5M + 3.75*$5M + 4.25 * $4.6M = $83.3M

This is within rounding errors is close to the reported $83.11M they paid according to Spotrac.

NHow much more would they pay if they were also taxed on Kawhi's "endorsements"? This gets a little difficult because I'm not sure exactly which tax year which payments go in even after reading the report. I'll have to sort of guess.

The two payments I could somewhat confidently put in the 21-22 season are the 2nd year of the Daktronics deal that was bumped up to $5M and a total of $12M from Aspiration in cash and "equity". Using the tax formula, the total extra tax they should have paid is:

4.25 * $0.4M + 4.75 * $5M + 5.25 * $5M + 5.75 * $5M + 6.25 * $1.6M = $90.5M

I'm less confident in the 2020-21 number, but here's my best guess: The WL report states that Kawhi received $18M by Aug 2021, which would I think still be counted in the 2020-21 season. The luxury tax was reduced by 30% due to the reduced number of games played and decreased revenue from COVID-19.

The tax they paid 0.7 * (1.5*$4.8M) = $5.04 M (they paid $5.15M according to Spotrac).

If we include the $18M reported by WL

0.7* ( 1.5* $0.2M + 1.75 * $5M + 2.5 * $5M + 3.25 * $5M + 3.75* $2.8M) = $33.8 M

It was as powerful a rebuke of an owner and team as a commissioner in any sport has done, really, since the last time Silver acted so decisively. His first major decision as commissioner came in 2014, when he banned then-Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the league for life.

(That it was the Clippers again was a dark coincidence; Sterling is in his own, awful, category.)

It was a move, and this is not said lightly, that David Stern would have done, without blinking, if he believed the evidence laid at his desk.

Silver believed the evidence. He did not blink.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7560303/2026/09/03/adam-silver-clippers-steve-ballmer-kawhi-leonard-punishment/?unlocked_article_code=1.-VA.O6dS.ZAF83nJAsUuo&source=emp_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7561209/2026/09/03/steve-ballmer-clippers-investigation-punishment-kawhi-leonard-deals/

Steve Ballmer spent billions to make Clippers matter, but he brought them more shame

Steve Ballmer was supposed to scrub Donald Sterling’s stain from the LA Clippers. Instead, he left one of his own.

Their offenses are not morally equivalent. Sterling disgraced the franchise with his racism; Ballmer corrupted its integrity.

Both men made ownership the organization’s greatest source of shame. Ballmer’s fall for using the team’s business relationships to obtain millions of dollars for Kawhi Leonard through salary-cap circumvention is especially jarring because he arrived as the antidote to everything Sterling poisoned.

Sterling spent decades turning the Clippers into the NBA’s cheapest, most incompetent and most disgraceful organization. By the time his racist comments forced him out, everything about the franchise felt contaminated.

Ballmer arrived as the cleanser.

He spent $2 billion not to buy a basketball team in 2014. He was performing an exorcism.

He had more money than he could ever spend and more enthusiasm than he could contain. He screamed at games, bounded across stages and attacked the Clippers’ irrelevance with the same intensity he once used to climb to the top of Microsoft.

He spent on players, coaches, executives and facilities. He built Intuit Dome, a $2 billion basketball palace and an 18,000-seat shrine to technological excess, finally freeing the Clippers from feeling like squatters in the Lakers’ arena and giving them a home meant to embody everything Sterling never did.

Sterling was cheap. Ballmer was lavish.

Sterling was indifferent. Ballmer was obsessed.

Sterling made the Clippers embarrassing. Ballmer made them relevant.

Now 12 years later, Ballmer is another disgrace in a franchise history overrun with them.

The way that the league and Wachtell approached this punishment and the release yesterday was brilliantly executed. If you read the report, you will notice that there is no mention of Ballmer and Wong's incredibly suspicious investments in Aspiration. This is a brilliant, strategic choice. It removed Ballmer's principle defense and argument; that Aspiration scammed him. Instead, the report is focused on how the team induced companies into making the no-show deals in the first place.

When you read the report, Wachtell does not start with Aspiration, instead it focused primarily on Daktronics. Daktronics is a respected company that runs a legitimate business and has done so for over five decades. The report explains, with great detail, how the Clippers induced Daktronics into their no-show endorsement deal with Leonard and how the Clippers negotiated Kwahi's compensation. Because Daktronics is a reputable company, that has no motive to fabricate any of the information it offered to Wachtell, the reader sees a credible example of how the Clippers executed their schemes.

Then, when we finally get to Aspiration, we see the same pattern of behavior with Aspiration. This too is supplemented by external sources (the business manager Zucker contacted), emails and texts. Thus, when we get to what Sanberg said happened, not only are his statements corroborated by contemporaneous documentary evidence, but outside witnesses. This is how prosecutors use jailhouse informants; they discount what the informant says until it can be validated by corroborative evidence. But, the focus on Aspiration in the report was the Forum deal, not the shady investments. Again, this removed the fraud element from Ballmer's defense. He approached Aspiration about the Forum carbon credits, not other way around AND Wachtell had contemporaneous emails that showed that the board was only placated because the deal was "cash flow neutral." Plus the interview with the entity responsible for the carbon review that explained he was given the budget by the Clippers, not the other way around.

Finally, we get to the NBA side of things. Ballmer and the Clippers are the big fish; they are the ones who the league wanted to hammer to provide useful deterrence against such chicanery in the future. After all, cap circumvention is primarily an ownership concern as it drives up the costs of the other owners and off-the-books money does not go into the luxury tax pot. So, the league approached Leonard, and settled with him. Though 700k is a large amount of money; given the money Leonard received from these deals, it was well-worth it from his perspective. He gets to move on to Toronto and he still made considerable profit. The league, by not voiding his contract, by not voiding his Bird rights, and settling to this slap on the wrist, never had to fight the union. Because the league and union settled, the findings by Wachtell cannot go to arbitration. Thus, the Clippers lost their only meaningful avenue to challenge the findings as they would be able to assist Kwahi in his defense.

Because the NBA is a voluntary association governed by an extensively negotiated CBA, pushing this case into federal court (Ballmer's only remaining option), is almost certainly a losing proposition. The federal court would only examine whether or not the league acted arbitrarily or capriciously in enforcing its agreed upon rules. It is unlikely that the federal court would even examine the merits of the findings from the report. Plus, with a federal lawsuit as the Clippers only remaining avenue to seek relief, the league ensured that the Clippers would have to submit themselves to civil discovery. This would grant the NBA power it did not have during the investigation: subpoena power. I expect that the message in the report indicating that Wachtell has much more information it COULD investigate is a warning to Ballmer that he does NOT want the league to keep going.

Shams Charania:

Just in: Houston Rockets' Amen Thompson has agreed to a five-year, $208 million rookie-scale contract extension with the franchise, sources tell ESPN. The new deal includes a 10% trade kicker.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/848148952e0e0

Source

The 21st overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, drafted by the Celtics, played there for several seasons.

He played another 11 games with the Toronto Raptors before moving to play in China (then South Korea, Puerto Rico, and then China again).

His announcement:

"For those who struggle to read what is written in the photo (the graphic resolution is low, I could barely read):

After a lifetime of giving everything I have to this game, it’s time for me to officially step away from playing basketball. What a journey it has been. From a kid with a dream in Columbus, Ohio, to wearing an Ohio State jersey, hearing my name called on NBA Draft night, representing the Boston Celtics, and having the honor of putting on jerseys for teams across the world — every city, province, country, community, teammate, coach, fan, and organization became a part of my story. I want to thank my family and friends who stood beside me through every high and low. Most importantly, thank you to my father, Satch, for laying the foundation and teaching me what this game — and life — is really about. To my beautiful mother: THANK YOU.

You are the rock of my foundation. To my big brothers, Jay and Jules, thank you for pushing me, protecting me, and helping shape me into the man I am today.

To Coach Thad Matta, thank you for believing in me, challenging me, and helping prepare me for everything that came after Ohio State. To the Boston Celtics, thank you for taking a chance on me and allowing a childhood dream to become reality. And to every organization I had the honor of representing throughout my career: thank you for trusting me to wear your name across my chest.

To my beautiful wife, DeAire — none of this happens without you. Thank you for your unwavering love, patience, sacrifice, and support through every season, every move, every win, every loss, and everything in between. To my greatest accomplishments, my children — Jared Jr, Jemma, and Jayce — Daddy hopes this journey showed you that dreams are worth chasing, but who you become along the way will always matter more than what you accomplish.

Basketball has given me more than I could ever repay, but while one chapter ends, another one begins. I’m beyond grateful and proud to announce that I’ll be joining The Ohio State University staff — a dream of mine from the moment I knew coaching would be in my future. I get to come home, pour into the next generation, represent the Scarlet and Gray again, and give back to the place that gave so much to me. I’m hanging up the jersey, but I’m not walking away from the game. I’m just changing seats.

Forever a Buckeye. ❤️Jared Sullinger"

Specifically: "Beyond the Clippers’ relationships with the three companies as potential partners in lucrative services agreements, Ms. Zucker had personal relationships at two of the companies. At one, her husband was chair of the board of directors during the relevant time period, and she also had a 30-year working relationship with that company’s CEO. At another, Ms. Zucker had a longstanding relationship with the company’s president (the person who signed the company’s endorsement deal with Mr. Leonard), and she recommended him as “really good people” in an email to an internal colleague charged with the process of securing services for the Clippers in this area."