Stephen A. says Kawhi Leonard 'SHOULD BE BANNED!' | First Take

Kawhi's return to the Raptors appears to have gotten more complicated.Leonard's trade is already on hold while the NBA investigates his sponsorship deal with a green banking company as a possible attempt to skirt the salary cap.Yesterday, the reporter who broke this story, former ESPN contributor Pablo Torre, reported that Leonard also had an undisclosed partnership agreement with Daktronics, the company that designed the Clippers video boards.A source told Torre that the sponsorship deal was 1 ,000 percent a way to circumvent the salary cap.The Clippers have yet to comment on the new reports.Stephen A., what do you make of all of this?

Clippers in a world of trouble.And I want to say this.It hurts me because I'm a fan of Steve Ballmer.I'm a fan of a lot of people in that organization.I know a lot of people think I don't like Lawrence Frank because of what he did with CP3.I just criticize him for what he did with CP3, but I got nothing against the man.

But I know a lot of people within that organization that I'm very fond of as people, and I love me some Ty Lo.This is egregious if it's true.If it's true, we're talking about banishment for Steve Ballmer, as far as I'm concerned, for at least a year.We're talking about, and it should be entertained that Kawhi Leonard, should be banned for a year.Yeah.He, he, he, he just took the money, but damn that, you know, the deal with Esper aspiration.

All right.That's a green banking company.That's at the center of the NBA investigation going on now to learn that you might've had another sponsorship deal worth millions of dollars with Daktronics.So you had not one, but a couple of companies funneling money to you.to circumvent the salary cap where you getting this money, but you also getting these additional dollars on the side illegally because according to NBA bylaws, you ain't supposed to be doing this.No, you can't go for that.

Now that's going to open up a Pandora's box that me and CeCe was talking about.during the commercial break, because let's face reality.There's nobody worth two cents that's going to believe this is the only place that's happening if it's true.There's no way on Earth that Kawhi Leonard was innovative, and he's the one that pulled this off.Now, I will say, there is nobody that should give a master class on how to get paid without working better than Kawhi Leonard.That brother?

Invents ways to miss work.It's unbelievable.I mean, Uncle Dennis.It's him.It's unbelievable.There's no doubt about it.

And by the way, as much as we want to give credit to Sam Presti, the president of basketball operations for the Oklahoma City Thunder for winning the title, the number one person who deserves the credit is Kawhi Leonard because of the assets the Clippers had to give away in order to acquire him years ago.He's the one that you should credit with Oklahoma.They should give him a ring for what he did for that franchise.But this is if true, first things first, you know, Pablo Torres, Torrey rather, if it's true, outstanding work on his part, outstanding work.Pablo Torrey finds out.I mean, the bottom line is ain't nobody out there doing what this brother is doing right now.

Give credit where credit is due to Pablo Torrey.If it's true, there's no question, he deserves all the credit in the world.Don't even think about anybody else getting credit.This is him.But number two, the NBA, Adam Silver, If this is true, Steve Ballmer did Fool Me Once, hey, two times, Aspiration, plus now Daktronics.You didn't know anything?

Nobody's believing that.I love Steve Ballmer.Very nice man, very good man. I think he's a great asset for the NBA in terms of seeing them courtside and cheering it on and loving the NBA product the way that he does.But if he did this, if this happened, this is really, really bad.And I believe that Adam Silver is going to have to come down with a heavy hand.And I'm talking about banishment for at least a year for both the owner and the player.

It's something like that.You talking about dissuasive measures needing to be taken so people will know not to do this again.I'm talking about confiscation of draft picks.I'm talking about banishment for at least a year.I'm talking about sending the kind of message where no player nor any owner would even think about doing this again.That cannot happen if this is true.

Yeah, the punishment has got to serve as a deterrent for the 29 other teams around the league.And it's got to be punitive enough, Stephen A., where the Clippers are in a position where they can't be competitive for the foreseeable future.I think this rises to that level when you talk about how egregious, how nefarious the actions of people in power with the Clippers organization have been when it comes to the Kawhi Leonard of it all, if the reports are true.Now, here's the thing, Stephen A., and you mentioned it.This is a can of worms for Adam Silver.He knew that as this investigation that was being led by Wachtell Lipton, the law firm, dragged on, it's taken up the better part of a year, as it continues to go, more was potentially going to be unearthed.

It's no wonder he wanted the investigation concluded weeks ago, because you know, as it continues to go, there's the potential to find out more.And this is the more we're getting reports the call is coming from inside the house People that want to remain anonymous that are inside the clippers organization citing this datronics Endorsement deal for kawhi leonard that is believed to be in the millions of dollars that is off the aspiration deal That is believed to be 28 millionAnd they all have an association with the Clippers as corporate partners.Aspiration was a sponsor.the patch on the jerseys.Then you're talking about Daktronics building the Halo video board.

And when does a player need it to endorse that Daktronics video board?

Steven, now you tell me.

When the hell does that happen?You tell me. I don't know about a player needing to endorse it.

I've never heard of it.I've never heard of it.I've never heard of it.When does that happen?I've never heard of it.But what it comes down to is common sense.

The one -off with aspiration you could dismiss.There was a fall guy in Joe Sandberg who's going to prison for wire fraud.He could be the bad guy and Steve Ballmer could be the victim.But now that we have two instances where corporate partners of the LA Clippers are endorsing Kawhi Leonard to the tune of millions of dollars, it's too much of a pattern.to be dismissed as a coincidence.And that's why I think Adam Silver is going to have no choice but to come down hard on the Clippers and Kawhi.

Nugget of intel to give everybody about this.The aspiration deal, $28 million endorsement deal for Kawhi Lennon.An unnamed employee who reportedly worked for the banking company told Pablo Torre the sponsorship agreement was to circumvent the salary cap.Quote, you got Steve Ballmer, the owner, who was categorically denied, the Clippers have repeatedly denied there's any truth to the assertions or the allegations that he was involved and he had any knowledge of this.Barmer also said he lost his entire investment in aspiration, which was for approximately $60 million.So he wanted to point that out and that he was flagrantly defrauded by the company.

His argument is helped by the fact that the founder of aspiration, Joseph Sandberg, like you said, sentenced in June, just in June to 14 years in federal prison for his role in defrauding investors and lenders out of $240 ,000.So he defrauded people.He gets sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for defrauding people nearly $250 million.So that falls in line with Ballmer's argument about aspiration.Here's the problem.Clearly there was no defrauding going on that was to the disfavor of Kawhi Leonard.

He got his money.Steve Ballmer might have lost out.But Kawhi got his money from Aspiration, and now you got Daktronics, and he got money from them.And oh, by the way, he got money from the Clippers.Have the Clippers been in finals?Have Clippers won a championship?

Sure haven't.So Kawhi Leonard gets all of this stuff, and the Clippers don't get a damn thing in return.This is after blackmailing the Clippers in the bringing Paul George to the Clippers, demanding that he would get Paul George and I'll come to the Clippers.If not, I'm going to join LeBron with the Lakers, where Magic Johnson was there.This is what Kawhi Leonard did.There's no way that he should walk away from this unscathed.

But of course, Steve Ballmer, if this is true, He can't walk away unscathed either.This is very, very bad.