Adam Silver Formally Addressed The Investigation Into The Kawhi Leonard Scandal And It Already Sounds Shady As Hell

Juan Ocampo. Getty Images.

With the NBA's Board ff Governors meeting taking place today, that meant we were going to get an update on a wide variety of league topics. Adam Silver came out and touched on discussions about a potential European League run by the NBA, some coping about how the All Star Game still matters and how the league will try and convince players it's important, when it came to expansion we learned that it probably won't be happening in the US and it's much more likely we see the European League idea, we got an official rule change with end of clock heaves no longer counting towards a player's FG% and instead will be a team FG% stat (booooooooooooooo, you cowards) in an effort to encourage more attempts, and all that was fine and good. Nothing really that surprising or new in my opinion, outside of the rule change.

Given what has come out over the last few weeks, there was really only one topic I was interested in hearing from Silver about, which is, of course, the Kawhi Leonard Scandal.

Let's have a look at what he had to say

Remember, Adam Silver is in a tough spot. Technically, he works for the owners. That's quite the pickle to be in when on one hand it looks like Steve Ballmer and the Clippers did some VERY shady shit to circumvent the salary cap, but on the other hand it's probably in Silver's and the NBA's best interest to do their best to put out this fire before it spreads even more and additional reports/teams start to get involved. 

That's why his responses stuck out to me. For starters, it was to be expected that Silver was going to do the whole "due process" stuff. That was a given. But what I'm curious about is this part

Adam Silver says definitively the burden of proof is on the league in any process that is going to levy punishment on any team in any situation.

Adam Silver says “mere appearance, just as those words read, I would be reluctant to act if there is (only that).”

My question would be, what do they consider the burden of proof? This is something that we as fans can't really get an accurate read on. Some well-plugged-in media members suggest that there technically doesn't need to be a "smoking gun" for the NBA to drop the hammer. I read that statement as it's on the NBA to find that "smoking gun" in their investigation in order to levy punishment, which in some ways feels like Silver is already laying the early groundwork for some sort of cover-up. I could be wrong there, but didn't Pablo Torre provide enough "proof" that was pretty damn incriminating? Last time I checked, the NBA isn't a court of law. Am I to believe everything Pablo Torre uncovered isn't enough to warrant punishment? That feels….a little suspect.

Advertisement

That last tweet above is something that I do think we'll see adjusted moving forward. It would not surprise me one bit if anytime a player has a sponsorship deal, that will now have to be approved by the league office. My guess is every deal is going to have some sort of trackable deliverable/metric that proves it's legit and not just a no-show job. I agree you can't stop a team sponsor and a player from striking a deal, this is America after all, but it does make sense to have everything looked at and approved moving forward to prevent this situation from happening again. Considering all you need to do is send 1 tweet or make 1 appearance, or really just do the bare minimum, I can't see that being a problem.

Given how serious these allegations are and what it means for the integrity of the NBA as a whole, I'm fascinated to see what Silver and the league office does. You know deep down he probably knows it's true and would prefer to bury it, especially given the league's history when it comes to cheating allegations. Maybe we see them hand out a punishment that isn't quite what the Wolves got for the Joe Smith Scandal, but still hits the Clippers pretty hard as a way to scare other teams and owners from doing something like this?

Time will tell, but after hearing Silver talk about the investigation, it does feel like we probably won't be getting the hammer that most people think the Clippers deserve.