Steve Ballmer

Commissioner Silver spoke to the assembled media in New York City today as his pre-season board of, the board of governors meeting met on Monday and Tuesday in New York City, and Silver gave a, what is a typical head of season press conference following these board of governors meetings.

The topics of conversation discussed here ranged from, uh, you know, the punishments that the, Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers received.

Uh, the Clippers not represented the board of governors meeting 'cause they haven't appointed an alternate governor yet, owner.

But whatever it is, I guess [chuckles] alternate governor is fine for this, for this purposes.

But before we get to Michael, today is Wednesday, September 16th, and here's what I'm watching.

Speaking of Adam Silver, I couldn't have been more surprised on Monday when I woke up to a statement of apology from Steve Ballmer, the Clippers owner who was fined $30 million and banned from, from the NBA for a full year following an investigation into salary cap evasion.

Ballmer apologized and said that he had, quote, "sincere regrets." He said that he is committed to, quote, "put this chapter behind us," and that he told the NBA that he will comply with the penalties that the NBA handed down.

The tenor of Ballmer's statement marked quite a difference from a couple of weeks earlier when he described the investigation as a witch hunt and a gross injustice, and he hinted at possible legal action.

My name is Dara McDonald.

Steve Ballmer says he continues to have disagreements with my hosting of this show, but he doesn't want that to be a focus 'cause he wants to support and not distract.

Thank you for that, Steve.

[laughs]

And before we get out of here, Kawhi Leonard, uh, i- uh, has officially, according t- uh, according to Shams Charania, has officially been traded to the Toronto Raptors.

Um, everything is, like, everyone, you know, Steve Ballmer's over here saying, "I'm cooperating.

I'm done with this." Uh, you know, Kawhi's like, "Yeah, yeah, of course I'll agree to a $700,000 penalty and be done with this.

Um, I'll make that in two games.

That's how they kind of replenish the draft picks that they've lost, and that's how they move forward building a young competitive team at some point.

Or does Steve Ballmer, unable to resist temptation and unable to say, you know what, let's just not spend money and let's just kind of slow play this, does he instead push his chips forward into the restricted free agency market? Give someone a massive deal in restricted free agency because of the fact that that's their only real path to securing young talent, and that would be impactful to OKC given, like Case and Wallace, the young players in this team that will hit that RFA market.

Yeah, it's obviously going to be an uphill thing for them with those picks.

It puts them at a big disadvantage.

Mini...

mini ween this guy rips reacts hit the music i don't even know i don't even know why i said that i don't even i've never even seen your wing who knows who knows big or small who knows rips reacts the clippers it's a complete disgrace and shambles Steve Ballmer just put out an apology.

He regrets it and takes responsibility, whatever.

Mom, basically, they did some shady stuff with Kawhi Leonard, who was their star, to get him more money through his Uncle Dennis.

This story today, and finally now, mercifully, we're at the end of Pablo Torre finding out anything about the Clippers.

As NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke today for the first time following the penalties against the Clippers for... suspension of Steve Ballmer for a year, fining the Clippers $30 million, stripping them of five first-round picks because of investigations into Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers circumventing the salary cap.

In his first comments, he has said, listen, the Clippers earned their appropriate consequences in the Kawhi Leonard case, and he now considers it closed.

Quote, everyone in this room understands that part of the core responsibility of the league is to have a set of rules that everyone agrees to operate under.

Good

luck.

The thing that I keep coming back to and coming out of this latest Adam Silver, you know, I'm going to take my victory lap is Steve Ballmer, right? Remember that first response was how strongly they disagreed.

It was biased.

As NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke today for the first time following the penalties against the Clippers for...

Suspension of Steve Ballmer for a year, fining the Clippers $30 million, stripping them of five first-round picks because of investigations into Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers circumventing the salary cap.

In his first comments, he has said, listen, the Clippers earned their appropriate consequences in the Kawhi Leonard case, and he now considers it closed.

Quote, everyone in this room understands that part of the core responsibility of the league is to have a set of rules that everyone agrees to operate under.

She's going to go, you get to Jalen Brunson over my dead body.

Good luck.

The thing that I keep coming back to and coming out of this latest Adam Silver, you know, I'm going to take my victory lap is Steve Ballmer, right? Remember that first response was how strongly they disagreed.

It was biased.

Or have they got Kawhi Leonard? Or maybe they're going to get Kawhi Leonard because of what's going on with the current investigation as we're talking about this right now.

Steve Ballmer is the latest part of this as far as admitting to guilt to an extent, although he says he does still have some reservations about what was put in the report.

Okay, whatever.

But with that said, There is a trade that is still yet to be constipated that was agreed upon in principle some time ago.

I would like for it to be done as soon as possible.

But if it really boils down to there's no team in place on the other side to get the deal done, they need to figure that out as soon as possible.

I like what you mentioned there about Steve Ballmer.

Of course, he's accepted some responsibility without, you know, still trying to say face to a small degree.