On Wednesday, the NBA shocked many in the basketball industry when it gave the Clippers an effective Death Penalty over its Kawhi Leonard scandal. The Clips were sentenced to a loss of five future first-round picks, plus some other penalties we’ll get into later.
This is now both a big NBA scandal and a fascinating sports media story. On August 17th, ESPN published a multi-bylined article titled, “Sources: NBA has no evidence Ballmer funneled money to Leonard via sponsors.” A lot of people are asking me about this piece today, seeing as it misled many, including myself, into thinking the league was about to go light on Steve Ballmer’s team. Last night, I endeavored to figure out just what the hell happened. There are paradoxes on paradoxes. For one, the NBA’s outside law firm findings are arguably more damning than Pablo Torre’s famously skewering investigative work into how the Clippers benefited Kawhi Leonard outside of the salary cap. We were girded for soft-pedaling right up until the moment NBA commissioner Adam Silver dropped the axe.
So, why was the basketball world’s expectation so out of step with a result that now makes a lot of sense?