The Clippers' punishment looks historic, and the NBA wants the warning to stick

Doesn't sound super fun

Does not sound fun at all. Sean, we have the ability here to pull up shared screen here on your end

Could you pull up the full punishment that the league gave the Clippers? Yeah, absolutely

I could pull that up for sure. It might take a second, but it's pretty staggering that what the NBA did to the Clippers and the extent of the punishment

because it is the harshest that we have seen in the history of the league

So one of the things is that Steve Ballmer actually came out

and accepted the punishment from the NBA and said he will not be pursuing legal action

which is pretty crazy in and of itself. But according to ESPN, the punishment for the Clippers

includes a $30 million fine and a suspension for Steve Ballmer, as well as a suspension for a year for their team president of business

Gillian Zucker. A year without pay, by the way. As well as six months without pay for Lawrence Frank

friend of the show as far as the Pistons are concerned. Go Pistons, Lawrence Frank

Yeah, no, seriously, go away from the Pistons. The Clippers also are to forfeit first picks in 2029 2030 2031 2032 and 2033

Which is on top of the picks, which if you were to add that on top of the picks they gave up for

Paul George to get Leonard, that totals to 10 first round picks, all to retain the services of Kawhi

And then on top of that, the Justice Department has now opened a criminal inquiry into Kawhi's, you know, into the team dealings of the Clippers and Kawhi

So these are just the punishments on the basketball side, Troy. We are no longer just talking about a basketball story

We are now talking about a potential criminal enterprise here. and it's pretty staggering because on one hand I think for a lot of people

it's funny because it's like well you tried so hard to cheat

and you failed so spectacularly and while that is true this is still a massive example of like of why the NBA came down so hard

is because of the precedent that this would set if Steve Ballmer got away with it because believe me

Eventually, he would learn how to do it at a high level in which, you know, to win at a very high level because all it takes is just continuing to spend that money and then you'll eventually learn where to spend your money

But you know obviously everything we saw about you know the Clippers and everything that came out is pretty damning And on top of that from everything we heard like about a month ago like beginning of August NBA the NBA Adam Silver they came to the Clippers you know with like the findings that they had

And we're like, hey, we don't want this to come out. Let's make a settlement

You know, like let's come to an agreement. And the Clippers' response was that ESPN report that said there was no evidence of any wrongdoing on the Clippers' end

Which, by the way, pretty interesting that ESPN released that report. And for it to be as wrong as it was, pretty damning

Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. Wow, wow, there's a lot here to think about, to process

But I think the most important thing is what you already said, Sean, of there had to be a punishment this harsh, because if not Steve Ballmer, even an owner down the road would would try to do it and win

Or Steve Ballmer himself would find a better, more efficient way to do something like this again to put be put in a position to win

yeah and another thing too Troy just you know just to think about

when you look at the scale of this punishment this is the same amount of picks that

Minnesota was punished for when it came to the Joe Smith punishment something I didn't know

and I found out after doing a lot of research Minnesota actually got two of those picks back they got one about a year after it was revoked and then another one like four or five years after it was revoked

So all things told, Minnesota only lost three first-round picks. I don't see a world at all where the NBA revokes any of these picks

based on, for one, the way in which Bomber and the Clippers

handled the investigation, the fact that this is not the first instance of cap circumvention

that they've been punished for and found guilty of, and just the scale that this is

Like the Minnesota thing looks like buying someone a scratch off in comparison

it's like not even close when you look at the scale and the amount of money that was put into it

right right and I think um you know at least in my lifetime you know following the NBA really

closely you know the last big scandal um you know that had that that certainly got the league

thinking um because I can't remember what year the Joe Smith one was um but Donald Sterling right

And that was the same organization, the Los Angeles Clippers. So, man, if I'm a Clipper fan, one, I have to share, of course, being in the city with the Lakers and their championships of years past

But my goodness, to go through those types of owners and to have nothing you can do as a fan to do about it, just really sad