I normally would not spend the time on this and never loved Dan Lebartard as he can be annoying but cut thru his schtick they both do a great job in this story.
Bottom line is outside of the corperate issues with "Aspiration" and its bancruptcy, Balmer has not done anything illegal regarding circumventing the system. Torres outlines his motivation to report this, why its not a bigger story, and why its important.
Fans will be outraged and be swollen with conspiracy! Lets not forget folks NBA is an entertainment company and while what he did was "Unfair" i'd expect at worst (some of this outlined in interview, some Im adding)
1. Lawrence Frank takes the fall (mentioned). He signed an extension. Perhaps Balmer does a side deal with him buying his loyalty with a hell of a bag. Why not if this is all playing out? 2. If other NBA owners are not outraged, then perhaps its a bit more widespread and others guilty? RIley got nabbed with Juwan Howards contract, as had Glenn Taylor with Joe smith. Those are noteable. One has to assume there was more to the Brunson signing but nothing to this degree. 3. Fans don't really care. Its Big money issue. Media outlets have to cover thier asses and risk accesablity to teams/league. Big outlets like ESPN, Prime, etc likley sees the obvious conflict of interest. True, it exists. 4. Nothing illegal occured. Its not right, its immoral, and Balmer has the money to throw at it and make it go away. 5. Clippers cheat, but they don[t really win with it. Toronto never had a chance. But they won a chip! The did not pay top dollar for his services. 6. The Jerry West evidence was damning. 7. Silver works for the owners. If they want to punish Balmer, it will be done. THis is not On Silver, its on the owners who govern. 8. Nalodian Opinion: Yes, Lawrence takes the fall, Clippers shoujld get fined 100mil, say its the biggest fine ever. Reality is I thimk there is an actual cap to it. If true its laughable. Maybe Balmer is suspended for a year. After all, GM's and Team presidents don't make these decisons by themselves. Balmer really just can't go to games in person for a season.
Some fans will be outraged and should be. But nothing earth shattering will come of it unless public goes viral and outrage for real. THis is not a Donald Sterling kind of thing. I'd be shocked if Balmer was expelled from his ownership but if there is real damage owners will do it. This dude is worth about 150BILLION!!!! Its a play toy for him.
