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Kawhi Leonard's situation is getting crazier by the day... · Kenny For Real

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This Kawhi Leonard salary caps circumvention story continues to get crazier, y'all.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Another big piece of evidence dropped this morning, and it
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: pretty much eliminates all all skepticism you could have potentially
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: had on the original post. Now, if you've been living
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: under rock, I'll give you the spark Notes version of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: what the hell is going on Pablo Torre and Pablo
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Torrey finds out put together an episode of his podcast
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: basically accusing the Clippers of paying Kawhi Leonard under the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: table right through a company named Aspiration. It was original
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: reported that he was given a little over twenty million dollars.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: That number got all the way up to our forty
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: eight million dollars under the table. If you did not know,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: that is completely illegal. Kawhi Leonard accused of having this
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: no call, no show job that gave him almost an
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: additional fifty million dollars. Now, this entire story is so
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: much longer than I could give you in a spark
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Notes version. I'll put the linked in the description to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: it's basically three full hour podcast episodes. But that's what
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you need to know at this point. Now, what happened
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: after that is Steve Bama went onto ESPN and honestly
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: didn't really say too much. I was really excited to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: potent see how he would defend himself. He basically just said, hey,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I was conned. I am more of a victim than
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the person that is doing the illegal things. Cool, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: when that reason came out, everybody gave their own opinions.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: But one thing that I remember hearing a thousand times
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: through podcasts, through reading people with a lot of opinions
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: that are way smarter than me, especially in the legal world.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: The one thing that I kept hearing with there's no
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: smoking gun. There's no smoking gun, And I'm like, obviously
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I've heard that before, but am I having to know
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the smoking gun? Is basically, there's no irrefutable evidence that
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: this has happened for the Clippers.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: So Steve Bomber can just claim ignorance.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: He could just say, hey, I didn't know this was
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: going on, and Adam Silver.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Can basically do what he want.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: He can say that this is not enough evidence to
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: do anything, and maybe it's a bit of money. Boom,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the Clippers get fined a million dollars. Boom, here's two
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: second round pigs.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Boom. Here's that.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: But the smoking gun thing is kind of dead because
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Pablo just dropped a new episode giving you that smoking gun. Now.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I never really understood the smoking gun thing, mostly because
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: this is not I don't know the American judicial system.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: This is not one of the things that you need
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  Speaker 1: irrefutable evidence for somebody to be guilty. Adam Silver has
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  Speaker 1: the ability to just with the smallest amount of evidence,
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  Speaker 1: to enforce something, to give somebody slap on the wrists, hell,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: to ban somebody, honestly, and I thought that what Pablo
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: did in his initial report would have been enough for
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Adam Silver to, you know, do something again. I'm not
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: asking for people to get banned. But there's one thing
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: that bothered me the most about the story, if it
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: is again, assuming that it's true, is that it completely
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: gets rid of the integrity around this league. If a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: team who has one of the most richest people in
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: all of the world, I think he's the seventh richest
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: person in the entire world, if he can pay people
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: under the table, what about the other teams that don't
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: have that type of money to.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Do such things.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I said it on the podcast, like we're obviously talking
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: about billionaires or we're talking about the owners of NBA
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: teams or all of these guys that filthy amount of money.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: But there's level to being a billionaire. Of course, again,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: see bomb being a seventh most rich person in the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: entire world versus whoever the hell is running the Memphis Grizzlies.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: They can't afford to go fifty million dollars under the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: table to acquire some type of talent. The competitive nature
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: in the integrity of the league is completely over if
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: we as a as a league allowed us to happen. Right, So,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Adam Silver, you have to do something. That was my
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: initial thing, but everybody kept saying no smoking gun, no
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: smoking gun. So if he does do something, it will
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: be something relatively light. This morning, oh boy, and Pablo's
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: piece this morning, he brings proof that the minority owner
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of the Clippers and minority owners like he owns one
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  Speaker 1: percent of the Clipper. See Boma got ninety a percent.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: This guy's got one percent.
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  Speaker 2: Dennis J.
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  Speaker 1: Wong, he is a chairman of the Clippers, and he
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: invested two million dollars in Aspiration. That is the I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: won't call it fake company, but the company that the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: money been going through to get Kawhi Leonard his money, right,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: he gave two million dollars, just invested two million for us,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: has a lot of money for him, maybe not so much.
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  Speaker 1: At that point in time, Aspiration was said to be
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: a struggling company financially, so invested in the company that
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: everybody knew he was failing is a bit weird. But also,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: nine days after he gave his two million dollar investment,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard was paid one point seventy five million dollars
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  Speaker 1: from Aspiration, almost identical numbers between the investment from the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: minority owner of the Clippers Slash chairman to what Kawhi
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Leonard got paid.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Also came out that.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Dennisjay Wan's daughter worked for Aspiration under the title of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: project Manager, Operation and Strategy. I don't know what the
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: hell that means, but she was a part of the
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  Speaker 1: company as well. So in my mind, that is the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: smoking gun. Somebody that was in the note of minority owner.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. The chairman of the La Clippers invested nearly
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: two million dollars was one point nine to nine million,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: So we just gonna round up to two million dollars
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to the company that later who was struggling financially, remind
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you gave one point seventy five of that money straight
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: to Kawhi Leonard's bank account. That is a smoking gun
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: taste the perspective, right, all the people that was saying,
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  Speaker 1: maybe we get a slap on the risk two second
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  Speaker 1: round picks one million dollar five, No, it has to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: be bigger because now on the opposing people across the
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: league is like, if you give them a slap on
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: the risk, now that we have almost irrefutable evidence as
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: this is illegal shit going on, If you give them
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a slap on the risk, why shouldn't we just do
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the same thing. And we're really about to figure out
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: what kind of commissioner Adam Silver really is. Right, we
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: have had Adam Silver around for a long time, but
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: before that we had David Stern, And David Stern was
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: one of the boys that you didn't want to play with, right,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: if you did something that was illegal, you were going
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to see and feel the full wrath of its powers. Now,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: if you go to the CBA, I'm reading it right here,
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  Speaker 1: it says that the end of belief that punishment can
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: be aleviated against a team or player if a violation
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of unauthorized agreements can be proven by direct or circumstantial evidence. Again,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: like I mentioned earlier, this is not the American judicial
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: system where you need irrefutable evidence beyond a reasonable doubt
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: that it's not the case anymore. Adam Silver truly does
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: have the power that if he wanted to use Jesse
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: evidence that we see right now to make a.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Decision, he can't.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: But when he went to the podium and they just
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: did this full meeting just a couple days ago, and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: that's what we got the clip of Adam Silver saying
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: that the NBA is a highlight league, which I was
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: damned about to make a video about that, because what
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: are we talking about Adam Silver? When he was brought
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to the podium and he only talked a little bit
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  Speaker 1: about it, he basically was saying that he won't be
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  Speaker 1: taking any actions based on just circumstantial evidence.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Now, this is what it really is about.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: This is from the steinline, or put the link in
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the description in the best substack you could be subscribed
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to if you care about NBA news. I've spoken to
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: multiple team strategists, for example, who told me with chess
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: puffed that if the Clippers aren't docked multiple first round picks.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: If Leonard's contract is avoided while his salary obligations remain
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: on the Clippers book, they will feel emboldened to seek
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: out their own version of shell companies to provide additional
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: compensation to their players. So, Adam Silver, you have a
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  Speaker 1: big decision to make, because if you just give a
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: slap on the risk, guess what some of the teams
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: that can afford to do this little circumvention thing will
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Because if we know that it's only gonna cost two
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: second round picks, hell, how many second round picks turns
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: to anything?
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Anyway, we'll give that away.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Luka, doncis your next extension side for this minimum because
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: we got two hundred million dollars under the table with
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: our new ownership group. Over the last couple of years,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: it has been very important for him to talk about
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the fairness across basketball, the parody across the league, and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: more recently when we talk about to CBA, we talked
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: about the second Apron, which was put in place to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: prevent teams.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: From building super teams.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: You get too expensive, you get doc this, you can't
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: make this trade, you can't have this draft capital, you
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  Speaker 1: can't do this.
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  Speaker 2: In order to keep fairness and parody alive.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Now, the Clippers are not a team that has won
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: anything with Kawhi Lender being there, but it's not necessarily
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: about that. It's about the principle of it all. Are
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: we going to be somebody that cares about the new
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: CBA and keeping fairness and parody in the league, or
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: will we not care enough and just allow things to
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: go ramp it across basketball? Because if that is the case,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: let's get rid of the new CBA, Let's get rid
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: of the salary cap, and just turn this shit into baseball.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Just the richest teams get the best players. And in
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: baseball that's fine because it's not always about the talent
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: that's on the field. Right, You can have a team
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: with a little payroll going to de Broun. The NBA
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: is just a different sport. The team traditionally with the
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: most amount of talent is gonna win the series. There
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: is no pitcher coming in and throwing seven shot out
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: when he had a seven ERA in a regular season.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: That doesn't happen in the NBA often. I guess Max
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Strews and gave Vincent is the best example we got
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: over the last ten years. But other than that, the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: teams with the best players traditionally going to deeper run. Again,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I say traditionally, there's always gonna be caveats in there.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: It's no surprise that the team that had Lebron James
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: on it for basically a decade made it to the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: finals every single season. It's no surprise when the greatest
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: regular season team of all time added an all time player.
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  Speaker 2: The talent usually wins in our league.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: And now when you add all of this that we
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: talk about with the Clippers, with the reports about you know,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonards company asking the Raptors for some money and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: some opportunities and all this before he left, that it just.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Looks more than circumstance.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Now, the NBA has their own investigation group that they
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: hired or the these this firm of lawyers, So I
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: guess we'll get down to it. I question how long
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: it will take for them to do their investigation. It
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: took Pablo Torre a few different months to acquire all
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: of this evidence, so maybe it'll take them the same
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: amount of time to do the same thing. Or Poblo
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: can can throw his notes and say, hey, here's half
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the job, now go get the other opinions and go
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: get the other irrefutable evidence from the Clippers that say
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: that we got conned. And a lot of people are
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: bringing up Joe Smith because when Joe Smith went on
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: to the Minnesota Timberwolves, they they also did it illegally.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: This is back in two thousand. Yeah, the year two thousand.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I want to make sure I got my year right,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: two thousand and with that, we're talking about Joe Smith,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: not Klik Leonard who's an all timer, Just Joe Smith,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: just Joe Smith.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Boy.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: David Starn said, no, no, no, no, no, what you did
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: was illegal. We're gonna find you three point five million dollars. Remember,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: go ahead, do your inflation calculations, because we're talking about
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the year two thousand. You're going to forfeit five future
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: first round picks. Now, later they got two of them
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: back after YadA, YadA YadA, but initially they were docked
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: five first round picks. Can you imagine that type of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: thing happening to the Clippers right now?
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: The Clippers have done a really good job as of recently.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna assuming again, let's say it's all legal of
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: basically going from era to errow while still seeing competent
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and you know, of course they only got one Conference
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: finals appearance in this era, but they have always been competent. Hell,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: last year, I thought that they were gonna be out
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: out of the postseason. They won fifty games. They've always
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: found a way to put together god rosters. But if
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: you're telling me that the potential galvel going down is
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: five first round picks on a team that traded a
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: ton of first round picks to get this current regime,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: they don't really have a lot of picks until we
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: get to like twenty nineteen, twenty twenty nine, thirty, twenty
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: thirty one, and now with their aging core of Kawhi
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: lond Or James Harden and so on and so forth,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: we don't have any draft capital. If you take five away,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I don't know, man, training camp is
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: what three weeks away? I guess we all just clamoring
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: for something to talk about. But I think this is
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: just a huge, huge story that can change the history
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of the league depending on what Adam Silver decides to do.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: You let me know in the common section what you
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: think that I mentioned that the guy the NBA chairman
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: or the Clippers chairman that donated the two million dollars
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: or invested the two million dollars also as college roommates
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: with Steve Bomber. I don't know if that's super important
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: to the story, but I also find it really really funny,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: really funny,