SILVER SHOULD AGREE WITH CUBAN AS PABLO TORRE WANTS THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Thankfully, many media outlets are avoiding the tug-of-war, knowing the NBA commissioner is probing the Clippers with lawyers who will tighten up endorsement prohibition and agree with Mark Cuban
The Los Angeles Times ran one story, eight days ago. The Associated Press also ran one story, 13 days ago. Do not orchestrate the Adam Silver vs. Pablo Torre tug-of-war — with Steve Ballmer still in heavy denial mode — as placing a smothering grip on the American masses. Torre continues to view himself as the GOAT podcaster. Silver says elite attorneys are probing the Kawhi Leonard endorsement case and an oddballish firm called Aspiration.
The Athletic sports site, which broadcasts “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” suggests each day that Leonard’s contract could be voided and Ballmer could be tossed into the ocean with other whales. Silver said this week, “I don’t know anything about Kawhi’s deal. Show, no show. We’ll certainly find out. Yes, this investigation will take time. I mean, we want to be as complete and thorough as possible, and it’s my sense from being involved in these things in the past, we will get to the bottom of this.”
Otherwise, some of us wonder if Silver will protect the Los Angeles Clippers owner by determining Leonard signed a legal $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration. At some point, the commissioner suggested Ballmer could invest money at Pepsi, which could turn around and sign Leonard to another agreement. The issue is whether Leonard’s complete contract circumvented the league’s salary cap rules. This is what Torre screams as he tries to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Said Silver: “If the building is called the Pepsi Center, it makes sense for a player to have a deal with Pepsi.”
If the commissioner and his lawyers determine that is exactly what Leonard did, the possibility exists Torre will find out his underwear is on backwards again. If Silver and the attorneys decide Ballmer was trying a tech-world scheme, he could join Donald Sterling as the second Clippers owner to be banned in 11 years. I have a hard time believing Ballmer and his $155 billion will be rubbed out, just so Torre can be appeased.
Here is evidence, from Silver’s appearance at a Front Office Sports conference: “We have rules now and we have lines, but there’s not a complete prohibition. It’s based on the amount each owns in those entities, but the value is getting much higher, and the world is getting more complicated. Those are things we’re gonna look at.”
And: “We will bring all the resources we need to bear on this investigation. I don’t know anything more yet, as I’ve been very public about it. I’d be saying this to anybody who has been accused of anything. I’m a lawyer. I believe in due process. I believe in fairness. We will begin with a presumption of innocence, not a presumption of guilt, which is what I keep reading about. We will follow the facts.”
Chances are, the league will slap Ballmer on the hand and complete the prohibition. And Leonard will finish a disturbing career, far from the two championships he won in Toronto and San Antonio. Torre will keep babbling. And Mark Cuban won’t leave him alone.
“In this case, (Torre) has nothing conclusive," Cuban wrote on X in his final comment on the topic. "I truly am not making this personal. He found sources and documents, but I truly believe he doesn't understand the business or the deal side. … He should have had better information before coming after (Ballmer).”
Cal Raleigh has 56 home runs, the same number as Ken Griffey Jr. He is seven from shattering Aaron Judge’s record and broke Mickey Mantle’s mark as a switch-hitter. He is enjoying the greatest catching season of all time. He also might win the World Series in Seattle. "I feel like my name shouldn't even be in the same sentence with those guys, Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey, Jr.,” Raleigh said. “I don't really have words for it. … I'm sure one day it will set in.”
Let’s help him acknowledge it. Ignore Adam vs. Pablo.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.