| Wait, what are the Clippers accused of? On Sept. 3, Torre reported that Leonard received a four-year, $28 million endorsement contract from a California-based “green bank” called Aspiration that has ties to the Clippers and is now bankrupt. The only problem? Leonard never did any work for the company, which was partly funded by a $50 million investment from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, according to Torre. The deal was intended to help the Clippers circumvent the NBA salary cap, according to seven former Aspiration employees cited in Torre’s reporting. Why is that against the rules? The salary cap exists to ensure a somewhat even playing field. You know, so someone like Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO who Forbes lists as the world’s 10th richest person, can’t just back up dump trucks full of gold doubloons and sign all the league’s superstars. That’s why these accusations, which the league hired an outside law firm to investigate, are such a big deal. Tampering happens; minor work-arounds of rules happen all the time at the team level. Reports of attempts of this scale to allegedly circumvent the cap are not normal. It is an existentially threatening case for the NBA — if owners don’t uphold the basic tenets of competitive parity, what’s the point? What’s the potential punishment? Hefty! According to the league’s collective bargaining agreement, a team that is found to have circumvented the cap could be fined up to $7.5 million, have to forfeit future draft picks and void player contracts. What has Ballmer said? The Clippers’ owner sat for an interview with ESPN last week and said he did not know anything about Leonard’s deal with Aspiration. He added that he felt “embarrassed” about his investment in the company. What has the NBA said? NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke at a news conference after a previously scheduled board of governor’s meeting in New York on Wednesday, which Ballmer attended. (The money I would have paid to see the reaction to his entrance.) Silver said the league would need to uncover strong evidence tying the Clippers and Ballmer to the Aspiration endorsement deals before levying punishment — the appearance of impropriety, as detrimental as that is to the league’s credibility, is not enough to act. | 
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