Free Steve Ballmer

First off, let me say that I'm not an expert on the Aspiration scandal, nor would I probably ever be, as I now have limited interest outside of hoping that Ballmer and co. are able to get their punishment - "the harshest penalties in league history" - minimized.  This isn't something I really care to do deep research on, someone else's dirty laundry.

When I was kid, my moms used to be like 'keep your nose out of other people's business', and that's kinda how I feel in this case.  I know none of this stuff is really private, like looking in someone's window.  But still, there are some fundamental, let's say preliminary questions that I'm still having a hard time, in my own limited wisdom, processing.

WHY PUT YOUR LIFE ON THE LINE OVER SOMETHING LIKE THIS?

This question is aimed specifically at Pablo Torre, the journalist who broke the story.

Now, let's be frank.  If the Clippers really do end up having to pay $30mil(!), besides Ballmer and a couple of high-ranking executives being suspended (without pay), besides the team losing five 1st round picks(!), you have to presume that some rich, powerful people are going to be pissed off, maybe.  I've already speculated that if Kawhi was getting money under the table, Ballmer must've been receiving some too.  So maybe he'll just take it like 'okay, I jacked the money, so let me pay it back, no love loss', even though the penalty exceeds what's reportedly been paid to Kawhi.

But if not, I would believe that Torre, if he's wise, will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.  And I mean okay, he's a journalist and an investigative one, obviously.   I remember once reading something like, out of every profession where a person doesn't put his life in direct danger (like a cop, fireman, etc.), journalism is the most dangerous.  So there are inherent risks, which of course Pablo is cognizant of.  But that brings me to my second question.

Why, as a journalist, out of all the things to potentially put your life on the line for, would it be a professional athlete receiving money under the table?  Like, aren't there more pertinent conspiracies going on?  What about forced vaccinations and AI and datacenters and shit like that?

What I'm imagining is that maybe dude is a superfan.  You know what I mean?  Like the implication here, from what I can gather, i.e. the rationale behind not allowing players to receive money in roundabout ways is because then richer teams can enlist someone, say they're paying them one thing but actually giving him more.  And that would adversely affect the organizations with less money, obviously.  So if that kinda shit becomes pervasive, there goes the parity.

If Torre feels like that, okay.  If he's, say, a Raptors' fan and is like 'hell no, we could've kept Kawhi if not for that Aspiration sh*t', then okay, I understand.  But if not, I mean yeah, I'm kinda wondering why he was compelled to blow up the spot.

You would have to presume he did it in the name of professional advancement.  But that said, Tim Donaghy was a more ethical whistleblower, if you will.  He exposed something that affects everybody, not just some single, already rich dude receiving extra dough - but how players and fans alike were being gypped.

BALLMER ALREADY F*CKED UP ANYWAY

So okay, Uncle Dennis and all considered, what's being implied here is that LAC wanted Kawhi, but he wanted more money than they could legally offer, so they tacked on the Aspiration deal.  If that's the case, it can be said that Steve Ballmer has already been punished because, oh shit, despite that extra $20mil+, the team still sucked.

In fact, the Kawhi + PG13 + plus eventually Beard experiment has promptly gone down in history as one of the worst superteams ever.  And, double-oh shit, Leonard missed almost half the games during his tenure with the Clippers.

They didn't like super suck but were mediocre as all damn.  Meanwhile, Kawhi didn't contribute to winning in any type of noteworthy way, nor was he present consistently enough for fans to feel confident they would see him if they bought tickets.

Please Mr. Silver, Ballmer has already been punished enough.  Why would you pay an extra $20mil+ just to make the play-ins?  LOL.  But maybe, the NBA knows something I don't.

KAWHI LEONARD - YOU HAVE TO LOVE TO HATE HIM

Since we're on the subject of Kawhi, let me get this off my chest.  The first year I've begun watching the NBA was in 1991, the postseason to be exact.  I remember because that was when the Bulls won their first championship.  They beat the Lakers and then, a week later, Magic was like 'I have HIV'.  Talk about excuses.

So now, 35 years later, let me say there's only once I ever got emotional upon a player leaving a team, and that was when Kawhi forced himself out of San Antonio in 2018.  Now let me say, I'm definitely a fan, but I don't necessarily favor Leonard or the Spurs, not like that, that I particularly care about their transactions more than anyone else's.  But the reason this bothered me, even more than Kawhi playing diva (which was the rage circa 2020), is that he singlehandedly destroyed the greatest dynasty in NBA history.

Up until that point, the Spurs were the only organization, again in NBA history, to be considered contenders for 20 years straight.  And that's besides their reputation of finding diamonds outside of the lottery and developing them into superstars, like Kawhi.

So let's imagine, even if Leonard had stuck around, San Antonio still got Wemby.  After all, they did get Duncan with Robinson already on the roster.  This would have now been the fourth decade straight they were contenders.  It was Kawhi leaving that broke that streak, even though dudes were still kinda competitive after he bounced.

And I mean, in hindsight I definitely get it.  He wanted the full Lebron/KD treatment.  I didn't fully appreciate his disgruntlement at the time, but more recently, I came to empathize.

Kawhi won Finals MVP, at age 22, after only three years in the league, over a prime Lebron and D-Wade.  Let me repeat that - over a prime Lebron and D-Wade, and dude wasn't even an allstar that season.  Btw, Wade also has the distinction of winning Finals MVP in just his third season.  But it ain't like the team he was up against, the 2005-06 Mavericks, were super.

Kawhi remained with the Spurs a few more years - eventually reaching undisputed alpha status - but never won another championship with them.  However, he put doubters to rest when he replicated the feat, i.e. leading a team to the mountaintop, with the Raptors.

Leonard's stock was higher than ever, and if I remember correctly, the Raptors were in a position to pay him more than anyone else.  So all of that considered, I understand how Ballmer may have thought he was worth an extra $20mil+.  

So presumably, the reason we don't see Kawhi consistently mentioned in the same conversation as Steph, LBJ and other undeniable greats of the day is most likely due to injuries.  All of these injuries he's suffered since going to Los Angeles, if they're really real, I would have to imagine is some kinda karma, because after Toronto, he was truly on his way to being considered an all-time great.  And what is fate punishing him for?  Sh*tting on the Spurs, of course.

Or as a wise woman once told me, 'it's not what you ask for but how you ask for it'.  If you felt the organization was undervaluing you, okay.  But deserting your teammates and shit like that, especially when you're the best player on the team, isn't a good look.  It ain't like dude was a free agent, like, say, Lebron when he left Miami.  Kawhi was just like 'fukit, I quit'.

So yeah, I do believe sometimes that the powers-that-be aren't too fond of dude and perhaps don't want him to become more influential.  But I don't believe those feelings have anything to do with the Aspiration probe per se.  But if you have to stick to anyone for doing something grimy, why not Kawhi?  This is yet another strike against his legacy.

CONCLUSION

Dear Commissioner Silver, yeah, we get it.  Lebron, the most-popular player in the NBA, just signed a deal for only $4mil/year, and by gosh, that's all he's gonna get.  We can't have organizations going around, circumventing and shit.  The struggle for parity is real, and there will be casualties.

But that said, in this case, who really gives AF?  By the looks of things, the Clippers already shot themselves in the foot, paying an extra $20mil+ for a player who, as far as I know, hasn't won jackshit for the franchise.  If that is solely the case, then this has to rank amongst the dumbest braintrust moves in NBA history, which is punishment enough.  We don't want to see dudes (continue to) suck for the next five years.  What are you trying to do, turn them back into the Clippers of old?

Is the NBA Rigged?

I still remember Game 1 of the 2018 Finals between the Cavs and Warriors - the one where JR Smith dumbed out and more or less lost the game - and some would say the extension the series - for the Cavs.  That incident has been referred to using colorful language like "the biggest mistake made in NBA Finals history".  Well, the way my mind tends to work is that I instantly concluded someone higher up on the totem pole instructed JR to throw the game.  In other words, I thought that the contest was rigged in favor of the Dubs, who again if they had lost Game 1 at home probably would have lost the series but instead went on to sweep the Cavs.

So then I brought the matter up to my big brother.  He's is someone who has been deeply and formally involved in the game of basketball for decades, way prior to myself becoming interested in the NBA.  In other words, he's someone who knows so much about the intricacies of the sport that I'd be playing myself trying to argue with him on the subject.  And every once in awhile, he'll even drop some deep B-ball jewels on me.

So I was like, 'damn, look at the way JR threw that game'.  And his response was basically twofold.  First, he told me that he didn't believe that Smith threw the game, as he's 'always been a knucklehead' (something with JR himself confirmed in explaining the blunder).  And secondly - and this is something I'll never forget.  Big bro then proceeded to very plainly state that 'the NBA has always been rigged'.

Little did he know that when he said that, my mind was blown.  Yes, I know some rigging has occurred in the past.  For instance, I remember almost shedding tears for the Portland Trailblazers players while watching Game 7 of the 2000 WCFs.  And I also knew that the NBA had a tendency to favor Michael Jordan back the day.  But concerning the latter, I used to rationalize the rigging by saying to myself 'if anybody deserves some favoritism, it's His Airness'.  And then of course there's Tim Donaghy, whose really like the only whistleblower in NBA history.

So the way I interpreted my brother's statement is that you really must possess a trained eye - having experience as a referee or coach - to pick up on some of the minutiae of NBA rigging.  But you see, the thing is this.  As it becomes more widely known and accepted that an institution is rigged, then those who run the institution become even bolder in rigging.  So for instance we had the 2021 Playoffs, which was filled with enough twists, turns and blunders to make a conspiracy theorist's head spin.  So at the end of the day, the question isn't whether or not the NBA is rigged.  Rather, it's more like just how rigged is it?

And the reason I'm even bringing this up is because recently I was watching a couple of Mavs games that had me scratching my head in the sense that a team would go on a spell where they're continually committing turnovers in succession.  The first was a couple of weeks ago in Dallas, if I remember correctly when the Mavs were playing the Knicks.  I can't remember which team in particular did that , like kept turning the ball over.  But then it happened again about a week ago when the Mavs were playing in Boston.

The Celtics came out hot and were on the verge of blowing the game wide open in like the first five minutes of play.  Then they committed three turnovers in a row.  And mind you, it wasn't like they were playing against the 1990s Bulls pressure defense or any pressure defense for that matter.  Instead, they were turning the ball over on like some Laurel and Hardy type shit, which is very unbefitting for 'the best basketball players in the world'.  And in the process, they actually kept the Mavs in the game.

But then what really got me more suspicious, besides the same thing happening in the previous game, is that the Celtics coach didn't even call a timeout, as is standard when your team loses composure, if that's how you want to call it.  And now that I think about it, the Mavs have really been on a roll as of late, even though, in reality, they aren't that good of a team.

CONCLUSION

I don't really care if the NBA is rigged or not.  Ultimately, there's more important things to dedicate one's thought processes to than how someone else decides to conduct their business.  And even concerning being sympathetic of teams on the losing end of rigging, it's kinda hard to really sorry for these dudes considering that they make millions of dollars anyway.  And regardless of how rigged things may or may not be, at least for now the NBA hasn't reached WWE levels of "sports entertainment", where everything appears to be pre-scripted.  What I will say though, as someone who considers himself a bit of an NBA handicapper, is that there's more involved in predicting which teams will win, especially in playoff series, than simply going with the one that is better overall. 

Also, as illustrated by the current plight of LBJ, there's also a downside to being the beneficiary of rigging, as in once the league decides not to rig for you anymore, you may have grown so accustomed to favoritism that you're not able to promptly adjust.