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

yeah, pretty much? particularly when the deal and the investments are both like, the size of nba contracts.

i'm guessing the next cba will have language to similar effect, and no, it won't be hard to manage for players or owners to just avoid this.

 

in other news, bufkin--the guy we supposedly targeted in the jhs draft debacle--was just dumped to bkn for cash or something.

 

Neither the owners, or the player's union, are going to sign off on that bro.

 

Speaking of draft picks..this rag should be put of business for the crap they put out.

https://lakeshowlife.com/los-angele...ning-camp-rookie-already-thin-ice-adou-thiero

 

You don't have to be a publicly-listed company to have your financial statements audited.

Aspiration was audited by KPMG because they wanted funding. Investors don't invest without adequate auditing.

2021- Clippers and Aspiration make a deal.
2022- KPMG quits auditing for Aspiration citing likelihood of fraudulent behavior.
2023- Ballmer invests $10 million into Aspiration

Hmmmm, makes total sense... Ballmer never saw anything suspect of KPMG, a top four leading auditing firm in the world claiming Aspiration was likely engaging in fraud? So him and coincidentally, another Clippers owner invested $12 more million dollars AFTER the fact that KPMG dropped them as a client for potential fraud?



On another note:

Kawhi's uncle complained that they didn't receive nearly $2 million from Aspiration. A few days later, Clippers minority owner, Dennis Wong, sends Aspiration $2 million.... Nine days later after that payment made by Wong, guess who got their payment? Kawhi's uncle.

Guess who Dennis Wong is? Ballmer's college roommate dating back to 1970. Guess who used to work for Aspiration? Dennis Wong's daughter.

The fact Dennis Wong is a 1% shareholder of Clippers and is probably one of Ballmer's best friends is already suspect in this situation... You're telling me Wong just randomly donated $2 million to Aspiration without Ballmer knowing? b*******. Former Aspiration finance employees described Wong's investment as "shocking and irrational" because the firm was already struggling at that time. One employee stated, "It felt like the payment was made to make Kawhi whole." I wonder how much of that had to do with the Clippers feeling they would get blackmailed by Kawhi's uncle and felt they had to do it?

All this talk about Ballmer being a victim is laughable. Even if Ballmer was serious about investing in Aspiration, it doesn't change the fact that his intention to invest with them was to get Kawhi paid... But IMO, what happened was Ballmer knew he would get exposed, received advice to rat out Aspiration as a whistleblower to the SEC to cover his a**, and then played the "I got duped" card and "look, I was the one who reported them so it wasn't me!" act.

 

well, for most of us.

 

FOH to that nonsense. I saw something similar elsewhere about rumors heating up around the FO that Reaves is going to be traded for a better fitting player.

 

the thing slick posted contains no sourced news, fake or otherwise, and is purely speculation.

yeah, just like that fake reaves trade the other day. who were we moving him for? keegan murray in sacramento? yeah, sure, bro. maybe if ellis and carter both came attached the discussion opens...

there's just no real nba news right now. so it's ballmer and baseless stuff. or if you're some of us, all baseless stuff!

 

Yeah the Keegan Murray trade.

 

Steve Ballmer! Book him!

 

Yes KPMG realised that Aspiration was cooking the books and backed out.

EDIT: Also as an internal auditor, KPMG isn't allowed to share their findings with others at this time. It would be against client relations. So even if they backed out, it's not like they were shouting it from the rooftops for everyone to know.

I think you need to understand the following: I'm not trying to protect Ballmer or say he is innocent. I'm playing devil's advocate because that's the realistic view of the world.

Ballmer invests another $10m into the company? You know what he'll say to that, myself and my due diligence team though they were telling the truth and the investment looked like a good one - they defrauded me.

Kawhi got paid 1.77m after Wong invested 1.9m? Aspiration had short term liabilities they needed cash flow help with, as a good partner we put up funds to bridge the gap.

If Ballmer is going to get disciplined, there has to be an appetite from either the owners or the players for this to happen. Not just from the media and fans. No regular basketball fan is going to care about this in 3 months. We may care, but we post on a discrete basketball forum for our favourite team - we're the weird minority.

 

1) I understand what you're trying to do. I think the argument for Ballmer in any case is weak. I've already stated that the NBA will have difficulty pinning intent on Ballmer but can still issue a punishment that is akin to Ballmer making an intent to prove an example while clearing Ballmer of any charges.

2) Who cares what Ballmer said? The NBA can act on suspicion of it. Just cause he said something doesn't mean the NBA can't make their own decision. I mean, what is Ballmer supposed to say? His only option is play stupid.

3) Short-term liabilities of any company goes to the employees and creditors first. Not to an endorsement contract of someone who isn't even doing any promotional or marketing work for the company, lmao. There is a hierarchy of who should get paid first. Ex: Secured creditors versus unsecured creditors. So on the list of short-term liabilities, they thought Kawhi was most deserving? That type of thinking is why this entire situation is so laughable. The guy who does nothing, says nothing, has no social media presence, etc., is getting paid over everyone else. Hmmmm, that's a great business to keep sending money to! The fact Kawhi was paid that money is a counterargument to that weak retort. Was Wong even an investor of the company? Why is he making payments to them, then? What *good* partner are we referring to?

4) IDK if Ballmer will personally be disciplined. But I believe the NBA will go down hard on the Clippers, the Clippers will agree to some charges against them, and they will try to brush this under the rug.

I don't think you have stated whether or not you believe Ballmer intended or didn't intend to circumvent the cap. The only thing Ballmer has going for him, as you know with your legal expertise, is to play possum.

The case against him, on the other hand, is filled with numerous inconsistencies that simply do not add up to it just being a bad business deal gone wrong. When you consider the individuals involved, the payment terms, etc., We can play this fictitious trial here to appease your profession all you want but we are all seeing it for what it is: A rich guy who thought he found a loophole and would never be caught.

FYI, Ballmer was fined for doing this just months after he purchased the team trying to get DeAndre Jordan endorsements... I'm sure your legal expertise would tell you that precedence matter here.+

Edit: Yes, KPMG doesn't have to disclose their auditing of a private company. But you would think if you're throwing $10 million into a company, you would review the financials. When the name KPMG doesn't pop up on the financials anymore, don't you think any reasonable businessman would ask: "Why the f*** did KPMG just get rid of this company as their client?"

Ballmer isn't new to how auditing firms work... If a firm drops you that quick, it's almost always due to fraud and that auditing firm wants nothing to do with it.

 

If Silver doesn't do something with picks, huge fine and take the all star game away this year out of necessity .... he cements the impression he's the worst toothless commissioner the league's ever had. There has to be some self awareness and concern for his own job preservation.

 

For the record, I do appreciate your devil's advocate insight. I'm pretty confident Ballmer is receiving that very same advice in the event he is asked these questions so it's definitely helpful to see a different POV that might not be established here since we're all naturally, not fans of the Clippers.

I'm just annoyed by the fact that the Lakers had the CP3 trade revoked but the Clippers are engaged with something far more egregious and if Ballmer (Clippers) can get away by playing ignorance, it's a huge black eye for the NBA.

I think any reasonable fan in the NBA wants something done about this instead of just the NBA believing Ballmer got bamboozled. At the very least, to keep the integrity of the salary cap at hand.

 

KPMG released it internally to the parties involved three years ago about the likelihood of fraud being the reason they are dropping Aspiration.

Management has discretion on whether or not they want to release it since they are a private company and technically, do not have to present any info they do not want to.

It only became public because the memo was released during trial.

Either way, Ballmer kept pumping money in and ignored that KPMG quit auditing for them. It's also fitting that there were no new auditors listed after KPMG left... so the CEO basically knew they were running on thin ice at that point.

Also, just wanted to add. At the time Wong made the payment and Kawhi was paid, Aspiration was laying off 20% of their employees... So instead of paying employees, they paid Kawhi who generated them $0 and cost them $21 million.

Also, it is being reported that Wong's daughter worked for Aspiration at the time Wong made the payment to Aspiration. Let's be honest, any family member investing in a company would 100% contact an insider who happens to be their family member. So Wong 100% had info that the company was struggling.

Just also found the answer to a question I asked, Wong was NOT an investor before he made the $2 million payment. So he had no relation to the company directly other than his daughter worked there (not exactly a good reason to send them millions of $) and the Clippers had a deal with them. But considering that Aspiration couldn't even pay the Clippers the fee to be their sponsor, why the hell would Wong think it's a good idea to send them money, LOL. Nevermind the fact that technically, the Clippers are a bigger creditor that Aspiration owes money to than Kawhi... So why didn't they pay the Clippers but paid Kawhi...? none of it makes sense other than the scenario of: THEY WANTED TO GET KAWHI PAID.

 

Saw that somewhere else and posted a response that said this was totally bogus BS.

 

Nope. Every single action deemed to be suspicious, has a perfectly plausible explanation. The overriding factor here, which young Astro keeps ducking, is Aspiration was found to have been running a huge fraud, on all their investors. Silver is going to weigh that fact, heavily in his owner and player's favor. He's already told everyone this.

However, this back and forth, is why this site is the best Lakers forum around. Lively, knowledgeable debate, even in the slow as molasses part of the offseason.

Salute!