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I’d say the state of Georgia easily:
What it really is is "Heads I win, Tails I win". Let's say this company is successful, none of this comes to light and he makes money on his investment. Taking out that all this was made public, now that this has gone to zero, he gets the capital gains write-off, so the $50 million isn't really $50 million.
Leonard and Kevin Love are two players that when spoken about by other players are always mentioned with a lot of admiration and respect.
Well, his agent is barely an agent and kawhi of course barely ever says two words, so I don’t find it that odd actually
Yes, I was thinking about that after I posted. Most agents would come out with a denial whether it was true or not.
I don’t think there’s any reason he or his uncle/agent needs to come out and say anything at this point. There’s nothing the league could do to Kawhi since I’m not aware of anything in the CBA that would penalize the player for cap circumvention (just the team). I guess they could penalize his agent for asking for annd getting illegal side deals.
Given that Kawhi hasn't raped or murdered anybody, or is in a significant dispute with a baby momma about custodial issues, I'm pretty useless here.
If this were another NBA star concerned about his brand or with an agent wanting to maintain a strong reputation around the league, there could be value in making a statement. Could you imagine Rich Paul staying silent? But this is apparently not the case here.
Could be. And I guess it is possible in the CBA for Kawhi to be fined, plus he’d lose money if his contract were voided so he’s not off the hook with the league investigation.
I take it you've never heard of a "consultant." In other words, the consideration is for the person's potential availability - even if it's unspoken but understood that the person will never be called.
I believe the answer is “yes” and this is the document Pablo shows at the 28:34 mark of his original podcast on this.
Do you know what the timing of that decision was compared to when Balmer invested $50m in the company? Or when the team agreed to the $300m sponsorship deal with them? Curious if this was before or after that. (And before or after the Kawhi deal).
My thinking on this (without knowing any of the details - I only saw a couple clips of this):
Intuit deal and $300 million Aspiration sponsorship were both announced in September 2021. The $50 million also occurred around that time.
Thanks. I still don’t see how this makes the Kawhi deal any less fishy.
The $50 Ballmer investment closed on December 15th. And one benign (I actually don't know how benign this actually is) is that the investment was to pay for the Clippers sponsorship.
One argument I've read on the Internet has been made that Kawhi's large deal ($7 million a year plus future stock) was such an overpay that it was evidence of wrongdoing. To me, this naming rights offer is an example of how careless this company was with their spending. To be sure, it doesn't prove or disprove anything. It's just a small piece of the puzzle.
I'm reading that his personal LLC agreed to it on September 14, 2021.
Maybe...I do know the filed SEC docs have it closing on Dec 15, so there would be lead time to the closing. I still come back to both of these things being true...Aspiration being total morons in their spending and Ballmer choosing to fund that spending (is there a direct Ballmer funding Kwahi's sponsorship deal...I don't know). I've said a couple of times, but the upside (from what I've seen in the SEC docs) from the investment looks very minimal and protections non-existent compared to what it should have been for effectively providing a bridge to the completion of the SPAC. It's not entirely clear, so maybe he got the sponsor shares, but in general SPACs are only good for the sponsors of the SPAC and institution guys funding the SPAC (the Oakmark piece at the Dec 15 closing), so Ballmer getting taken here and not protecting his investment sort of doesn't pass the smell test for me.
I'm not sure I'm following. If he truly knew how risky it was, why would have he have used this company to hatch a cap circumvention scheme? That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Thanks. Since I think Ballmer and the Clippers are more likely to be innocent than not, I'm a little self-conscious about being against, seemingly, the vast majority.
But they actually got something out of the naming rights deal.
I don’t understand
If the league rules against them, I think we'll see year-long suspensions for Ballmer and possibly others, loss of multiple first round picks, and the max fine ($7.5 million?). I"m not sure about voiding Kawhi's contract.
I doubt they find enough for a huge penalty, but they’ll feel the need to give some kind of middle ground to appease the other owners and try to keep stuff like this happening in the future.
Even if they were overpaying for the naming rights to the arena, presumably that deal would have you know, actually included the naming rights. Not, "Ballmer will accept the money and possibly name the arena after the company if he feels like it."
OK, I got it now. This gets back to that marketing contract and what may have been negotiated by Kawhi/Uncle Dennis. I think Aspiration likely expected Kawhi to do stuff initially.
Then their attorney responsible for doing their contracts committed shocking malpractice.
We don't know what happened. Maybe an attorney never saw the final version. This was a company that was falsifying revenue sources. Who knows what they did or didn't do.
If they are so concerned about the business that they are falsifying revenue sources, they aren't lighting $28 million on fire with 0 to show for it.
Seems like roughly where everybody thought it would end up since July. I think it is probably a better deal for Giddey than the Bulls but if I were a Bulls fan, I would be ecstatic that they didn't give him a massive overpay.
I haven't found the case for "Team Ballmer" particularly strong as Cuban called it. Not something a lot of sports media has an incentive to cover.Thanks. Since I think Ballmer and the Clippers are more likely to be innocent than not, I'm a little self-conscious about being against, seemingly, the vast majority.
I saw that Giddey has been in the top 10 in Vegas for most improved next year. Buzelis too, for what it's worth. They'll have tons of cap space next offseason too. We'll see. If you squint you can see a glimmer of hope for the franchise.
Good meet in the middle deal.
Apparently, when the Raptors owners came to Kawhi and his uncle and shared the Toronto area sponsors that would want to add him to sponsorship deals, his uncle told all the companies “We don’t want to do anything” related to ads/appearances. That’s when Raptors rejected their requests since Kawhi/Dennis were just looking for no-show deals.Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star (sorry link is paywalled):
“In 2019 Kawhi Leonard’s uncle asked the Raptors for a piece of the Leafs and a Paul George trade, but also for two big extras: no-show sponsorships, and ownership shares in outside companies. Which he seems to have gotten with Aspiration, and the Clippers.”
Inside Kawhi Leonard’s bizarre list of secret demands from Raptors and how they line up with the alleged Clippers deal
During 2019 contract talks, Leonard’s camp wanted a trade for Paul George, Leafs shares and at least $10 million a year in no-show sponsorship income.www.thestar.com
This was a half thought while working. I think you're doing a good job showing what is lacking to "prove" Ballmer or the Clippers actually knew anything though.
