Ever since news broke about the Kawhi Leonard-Aspiration saga, it is being said that the NBA is considering giving a major punishment to the Los Angeles Clippers after completing its investigation on the matter. The allegation is that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer used the ‘no-show’ endorsement deal with Aspiration to give Leonard approximately $28 million in additional compensation through a four-year deal.
And while the expectation is that both the franchise and the players are considering a major punishment, Max Kellerman has argued that the Clippers should actually effectively walk away unscathed.
“He’s willing to spend his money and resources to give his fans the best product. Whether he does it smart or not, right or wrong, that’s what he’s trying to do. Can I give Kawhi more money to entice him to come here? Well, if I’m a Clippers fan, cool. If you’re the league, a punishment is a punishment for a solution to something that isn’t really a problem,” Kellerman said on Game Over. Told on the podcast.
He argued that “no harm, no foul” simply because the Clippers “aren’t that good anyway”, suggesting that the rest of the league had no reason to complain. Kellerman suggested financial penalties instead
“Don’t punish the Clippers in terms of draft picks or anything like that. That’s silly, you don’t want a team to be worthless for five years, and I believe the Clippers will do that. Don’t do that. You want to punish him? Fine him. Give him a huge fine. $100 million, $50 million fine, Ballmer will pay it. Just fine him something big if the league is upset that he used his money to get an unfair advantage. “If you’re doing that, spread your assets. And you give it to other teams, make Kawhi a free agent, that’s fine,” he said.
Kellerman believes it would be detrimental to the NBA because the Clippers would not be able to compete if real action was taken. Instead, he suggested making Leonard a free agent, claiming that wealth redistribution might be a better solution.
Of course, while this argument makes sense given that the Clippers will undoubtedly be affected, the problems are also obvious. Not imposing adequate penalties would not only set a hugely problematic precedent, but it would also completely undermine the league’s salary cap and other finance-related rules and regulations.
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