I’ve been following the Kawhi Leonard-Los Angeles Clippers salary-cap saga with equal parts fascination and amusement, and my first thought after seeing the punishment was simple: Finally.
For all the criticism we throw at The Association—and heaven knows this space has thrown its share—there comes a point when the NBA has to protect its own rules.
A salary cap is there for a reason. It’s supposed to give Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, and Memphis at least a fighting chance against teams whose owners can probably find $30 million between their couch cushions.
And when your owner is Steve Ballmer, reportedly the richest owner in professional sports, those cushions are probably made of hundred-dollar bills.
The Clippers got hammered—five first-round picks forfeited, a $30-million fine, and suspensions for Ballmer and team executives. That’s not a slap on the wrist. That’s Adam Silver taking the wrist, the arm, and maybe half the shoulder.
Me thinks the message was clear: You can be richer than everybody else, but you still can’t simply buy your way around the salary cap.
Kawhi, meanwhile, got off comparatively easy.
Leonard was fined $700,000, which sounds like a fortune to you and me, but is practically loose change for an NBA superstar. His uncle and longtime adviser Dennis Robertson got the heavier personal punishment—a five-year ban from dealing with NBA teams.
Now that hurts.
The irony, of course, is that Kawhi could wind up back with the Toronto Raptors, the same franchise he left for the Clippers after delivering Canada its first NBA championship.
Basketball has a funny sense of humor.
Even funnier is that Toronto reportedly was among those that raised concerns about the demands being made outside Kawhi’s actual NBA contract. So after all that drama, Leonard may end up right back where he started.
Cue the Jurassic Park reunion tour.
I digress.
The bigger issue is what the punishment means for The Association.
The NBA has had this problem before. Old-timers will remember the Joe Smith fiasco involving the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were originally stripped of five first-round draft picks for their own salary-cap shenanigans. Commissioner David Stern eventually returned some of those picks.
That precedent should give Clippers fans at least a little hope.
And Los Angeles isn’t exactly entering basketball purgatory empty-handed. The Clippers still have assets they can move, and if the reported Kawhi-to-Toronto deal brings Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, and draft capital, they could replenish part of the cupboard.
Plus, did I mention Ballmer is rich?
The Clippers will survive.
What matters more is whether other NBA owners got the message. Because if circumventing the salary cap merely results in a fine that billionaires treat as another business expense, then the cap becomes meaningless.
That’s why the draft-pick penalties matter much more than the dollars.
Money can be replaced. First-round picks—especially five of them—hurt.
Credit also goes to our kababayan Pablo S. Torre, whose reporting helped open this Pandora’s box in the first place. What began with questions surrounding outside business arrangements eventually grew into something big enough that Silver could no longer shrug his shoulders and keep his powder dry.
Good journalism has a funny habit of doing that.
And for all my complaints about Silver—and there are many—he deserves credit if this punishment establishes that salary-cap circumvention will bring serious consequences.
Rules are only rules when somebody enforces them.
Otherwise, they’re suggestions.
Which brings me, naturally, to Philippine basketball.
For all the NBA’s faults, at least The Association has a salary cap that occasionally bares its teeth.
The Philippine Basketball Association theoretically has one, too.
Theoretically.
How strictly that cap actually levels the playing field is another conversation altogether. Let’s just say Filipino basketball fans have spent years wondering how certain teams somehow keep collecting stars like they’re Pokémon cards while everybody else fights over what’s left.
And don’t get me started on farm teams.
That’s another Musings for another day.
Me thinks 800 words wouldn’t be enough.
