2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

What am I missing that Giddey's deal impacts Wiggins or Kuminga?

 

LoL
Is he nuts?
For Toronto Maple leafs fans will literally kill him

According to a recent report by Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star, during Kawhi Leonard's 2019 free agency negotiations with the Toronto Raptors, his uncle and business representative, Dennis Robertson—often referred to as "Uncle Dennis"—made several unconventional demands. Among these was a request for an ownership stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team under the same ownership group, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), as the Raptors. When informed that such a request was impossible due to the shared ownership structure, Robertson reportedly argued that this was not a basketball club, implying that the request was more feasible in the context of hockey.

Additionally, Robertson demanded $10 million annually in sponsorship income for Leonard, with the stipulation that Leonard would not be required to participate in any promotional activities. When Raptors representatives explained that sponsors typically expect appearances and advertisements, Robertson insisted, "We don’t want to do anything."

 

He was in trade talk with Kuminga

 

Hang em both High ... Adam!!! (Ballz and Snake)

 

Never underestimate the unquenchable greed of men- especially the Uber wealthy.
When J.D. Rockefeller, at the height of his wealth, was asked, “How much is enough?” He promptly answered, “Just a little more.”

 

i think i saw warren buffet say that his amount of wealth is basically obscene and unnecessary, implying that he just sort of enjoys the chase at this point.

the billionaire owners are just chasing a high by buying the teams (and knowing they can just sell them at a profit later no matter what!). the only penalty that can impact ballmer is something that prevents his attempt at borrowed glory.

folks are saying the other owners don't want to kill the golden goose, but several of them share similar orientations and ambitions.

anyway, i'd really hate it if we just outlaw this henceforth. it just encourages owners to try other shady stuff to set new precedents for things we can't do...next time.

 

Well..a private citizen forked out 233M, and bought himself an unlimited government access pass, for a few months. It's America..money talks.

 

smart move.

 

I was right read my comments.

This has Uncle Dennis written all over it. He whored his nephew out to get him a bag to get him money.

And I said Kawaii ain’t doing s***. And it said Kawaii didn’t want to do anything. I know these things I don’t just say.

Kawaii f***ed hiself. If he just would’ve done any work it would’ve been fine like I said.

have a plant at a postgame presser.

plant a plant with some kids inner city kids. He could’ve done anything call CBS it’s that simple get some coverage.

This was Uncle Dennis with a b******* deal. Knowing the league they will probably demand that Uncle Dennis cannot have any NBA representation manager or agent and is banned from NBA deals with any NBA players including his nephew due to numerous seeking of going around NBA rules and looking for additional employment not contingent with league contracts.

Steve Ballmer gave a very definitive legal answer and I’m not sure if any of you caught it. It was very stern and a bit angry kind of we do our s*** legally and kawaii does his also.

it was also we don’t know what they did but we’re telling you what we did in the. We know to follow the Rules. Kawaii knows what the rules are. They know the Rules.

 

this is the kind of commentary that's driving me nuts. one stupid thing doesn't excuse another. cheating is cheating, and when you have more money than god, it's not a free pass to live by your own rules. that's not how society works. that's not how systems of rules work. if you can't enforce a rule, then it isn't a rule. as of right now, i'd say we have no real rules governing outside contracts.

if i'm a non-ballmer owner, i have license now to act with impunity, and if the league tries to punish me, i'll sue them using this case as precedent, and they'll have to relent.

not really. you'd still be dealing with the fact that his payout was several times larger than typically more expensive endorsers and that his team owner invested in that company during a similar time frame in an amount comparable to his payout. the doing absolutely nothing part is just sort of adding the cherry on top, imo. the only reason it's extra damning is that there were allegations pre-dating this of kawhi's people asking for this exact arrangement (and people knowing it was against the rules and reporting it to the league office!).

but i forgot--ballmer has a lot of money, so it's cool. when you're rich, you do whatever you want. it's in both the constitution and the nba's collective bargaining agreement.

edit:

https://www.theringer.com/2025/09/0...e-ballmer-aspiration-salary-cap-circumvention

apparently some folks who matter agree with me:

this guy agrees with kobenluka that the no-work part is the worst:

yeah, the conclusion seems to be that it's incredibly unlikely ballmer or the clips signed anything formalizing this (it would be incredibly stupid), but technically, you don't need that. and if you do nothing, i repeat that it opens the door for anyone to do almost anything.

 

I worked Kawaii out before his draft. Met him through pre draft workouts.

he’s a Compton kid. Very very familiar to his college coach Steve Fisher. Who is very fond of Kawaii and Kawaii is very committed to basketball.

I’ve stated over and over Kawaii will not do s*** and isn’t trying to do s***. Uncle Dennis sets up like this.

When Kawaii won his 2 championships. This was the highest value he was going to have. They wanted to max out everything Uncle Dennis wanted to max out everything.

Ownership houses a plane if you offered it they were taking it.

The Aspire contract had nothing to do with his first contract.

it just reeks of Balogne cause Kawaii was never leaving the Clippers so I don’t understand the demand to do this.


There’s gotta be credible evidence.

f*** the bulll**** about integrity of the league. With all the gambling. Prop bets.

Tim Donoughy

Jantae Porter.

Cooper Flag to Dallas

Chris Paul Basketball reasons.


Team Values of franchises??? f*** outa here with that. Steve Ballmer purchased the Clippers for 2 billion and shot everyone’s value up.

Jeanie just sold the Lakers for 10 billion

league Owners are doing fine. Cuban Buss Alexander.

Contract cheating happens in the league. Jalen Brunson

James Harden

stop it. You know why Harden said f*** you Morey because Harden was promised a max so they could circumvent the league CBA and put better players around him.

He got pissed when they didn’t give him his max.

Nobody is Caping for Ballmer. He looked the other way and said I don’t wanna get in on that s***. I’ll put money in a team sponsor.

He did. He did that. So happened the team sponsor was a fraud.

It’s a loop hole and he exploited it. I know the they’re all doing it to. Well he got caught. And he went around the rules.

He’s not an idiot he changed tech.

this is his toy.

The Clippers have been in hot water before about bending the rules.

 

Kawaii went through a lot after the Murder of his father. He had to pick his family up.

Uncle Dennis is his manager Kawaii leans on him.

Kawaii is reserved and is very guarded of people. That’s for a reason. Commend him for all he’s had to handle.

These athletes have relatives who take advantage. This is no different.

Kawaii is thinking about off court stuff. Ownership is appealing for players.

LeBrons a part owner of the Red Sox

so Kawaii is thinking about branding. Went to New Balance wasn’t happy with Nike. He’s a different dude.

The NBA is different. But these guys don’t know. They rely on the team to be very clear of the rules.

No show jobs are extremely common in College Boosters paying guys $100,000 to be car washers landmowers car salesman.

problem is that doesn’t fly in the NBA. Hence me getting back to Kawaii could’ve just done s*** and would’ve been all good.

Team sponsors. It’s simple shake the kids hands kiss the baby’s plant the plants do the interview and get the check.

Team sponsor is common in sports as Apple Pie.

I used to laugh at how dry and vanilla some of the players were in the commercials.

I’ve heard about the 50 million Ballmer put in. If it was 50 million or 5 million. Wrong is wrong. We can’t say how much amount makes it wrong. So that’s what I mean. It’s a rule you can’t pay extra money. But you can invest in whatever you want to invest in.

I don’t think the rule will be enforced.

Silver can be a hard a** and suspend Kawaii for 25 games. I don’t see that happening.

 

Hi KL99. You’ve mentioned “workouts” before and trying to assist players in getting them with teams. Sounds really interesting and am just curious if you’d care to shed more light on that aspect? Months ago someone asked about your connection to the league and IIRC you only mentioned the skateboard parks and sponsorships (teams/players?).

 

I suppose its hard for some to wrap their heads around this as it all sounds like monopoly money and "if you ain't cheating you ain't trying" to them.

This is bad in so many different ways at once.

And its way out of the norm as you and the execs are pointing out. I'll repeat again, the bar for performance on these deals is insanely low, but you have to do something. They can't even argue that he failed to perform his duties of the contract because the contract is written to allow him to not do anything. Agree that that part of the contract is a huge red flag here.

I'm not even sure how well Kawhi's endorsement generates sales/attention as he's never been in the top five of jersey sales or anything like that to my opinion. I see more of my sons and his friends wearing Lamelo Ball and Ja Morant stuff than anything from Kawhi.

You can't have this. Especially when someone has so clearly been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Silver needs to respond accordingly or he will lose whatever level of respect and power he currently has with the owners.

 

me: posts tons of inside info from team execs about how this is uncommon and definitely cheating.

kobenluka: nuh uh in 1000 words.

 

I am more than curious, seems a pretty big claim that he has worked out with Kawaii??? Since when do pro athletes of that caliber work out with skateboard event sponsors??

 

Kawhi broke the rules.

If he put his uncle in charge as his proxy, he is responsible.

If his uncle was making these demands and a team obliged, that franchise is responsible. These deals don't happen at a whim. Lawyers are representing both sides to go over the contract. They knew what was happening here...

There is no other way to put it nicely that the NBA would have their reputation significantly damaged if they let this slide IF the reports are even 50% true. Your job is to institute a salary cap... you did... and if you let this slide, you're basically saying your job means nothing.

The fact is, you can't pay a player to do zero marketing just to circumvent the cap... The way it is structured is like a shell company being used to commit tax evasion. Just because they can technically do it, doesn't mean that the NBA has to allow it and could 100% deem it as bypassing the salary cap.

I'm tired of this "Kawhi's a quiet guy, it's his uncle!"

If his uncle was the one who took care of him after Kawhi's father passed away, then he should know by now that his uncle is unethical. He should have had an attorney look everything over... the franchise, including Ballmer, should have done their own due diligence before allowing this to happen.

Many unethical practices were allowed to happen for this deal to go through at the highest level between multiple parties... which leads me to believe that this was intentionally done on purpose and not a coincidence.

Just read the red herring on all of this... Any player could have been caught doing this... but it just so happens to be Kawhi Leonard, the same guy who was making demands to other franchises during free agency to give up ownership, sponsorship deals, houses, jets, etc.,?