The NBA’s investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers’ alleged salary-cap violation is nearing the end, or so commissioner Adam Silver hopes.
Speaking ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio, Silver said that the inquiry is “close to the point now where I think we need to wrap this up.”
In September, the NBA retained law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to look into whether the Clippers evaded the salary cap by connecting star forward Kawhi Leonard to a $28 million endorsement deal with banking firm Aspiration. The team also had a long-term partnership with the company.
Aspiration subsequently went bankrupt, and company co-founder Joe Sanberg received a 14-year prison sentence this week on wire fraud charges. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer maintains he personally lost $60 million to Aspiration.
Silver said of the law firm’s probe, “They are doing the work independent of the league office, and my instruction to them is we can’t be investigating forever, but at some point, we have to wrap it up. But at the same time, the most important thing is that we get it right.
“I think it’s clear they’re far along. I think those reports are (coming in) all the time from people who are being interviewed by them, and I think they understand that you can keep going on and on. But I think we’re close to the point now where I think we need to wrap this up because you also need finality. Their team has to understand what the situation is they’re going to be operating under, and so do the other 29 teams.”
Silver addressed other hot NBA subjects:
–Expansion plans could be finalized by the end of the year.
“As I think everyone knows at this point, we are focused on Las Vegas and Seattle,” Silver said. “There’s multiple groups interested in both cities. We are in discussions with them. The timeline is, as I’ve said before, it’s not a foregone conclusion that we will expand either in one city or both cities. But what we have told all interested parties, our anticipation is our (board of governors) will make a decision by the end of this calendar year.”
–The commissioner is optimistic that new anti-tanking rules will be successful.
“We found ourselves in a situation this year where all of a sudden it seemed like a third of the league maybe was responding in what an economist would say is very rational behavior but nontraditional behavior in terms of what they saw as a clear incentive to fall to the bottom of the standings,” Silver said. “And it maybe or likely was compounded by the fact that there’s a perception of a very deep draft class this year. But we ultimately concluded that we needed to take immediate action.”
–The plan for NBA Europe is to include 12 permanent teams, with four other spots open for teams to earn places.
