{"id":873402,"date":"2026-08-30T03:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T03:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873402\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T03:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T03:46:11","slug":"investigators-having-conversations-with-steve-ballmer-in-cap-circumvention-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873402\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigators ‘Having Conversations’ With Steve Ballmer In Cap Circumvention Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Clippers, the Raptors and the rest of the NBA await the findings of the\u00a0investigation<\/a> into possible salary cap circumvention by Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, ESPN\u2019s Ramona Shelburne reported Thursday in a radio interview that some progress is being made in the case, relays Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI know that the investigators have presented initial findings, but they\u2019re still making calls and putting things together. But they are having conversations with Ballmer and his lawyers already,\u201d Shelburne told ESPN LA 710. \u201cThey\u2019re talking about it. I don\u2019t know if you would call it a settlement or some kind of negotiation, but that\u2019s already happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelburne reveals that the talks between Ballmer and investigators haven\u2019t involved anything that would indicate that he deliberately circumvented the cap by finding a way to create extra money for Leonard. She said the sides have been focused on Ballmer\u2019s failure to monitor the situation after making the initial introductions between Leonard and team sponsors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversations have been more about this failure to supervise and the nature of the introductions that were made between the Clippers and Kawhi\u2019s people rather than direct evidence of salary cap circumvention done by Steve Ballmer,\u201d Shelburne added. \u201cIf you\u2019re doing the easy parlance, that would be the murder charge. That\u2019s a really serious charge that\u2019s very hard to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Shelburne doesn\u2019t believe the league will try to tie Ballmer to that \u201cmurder charge,\u201d she has suggested that other penalties and sanctions are possible regarding his role in the situation and his failure to directly supervise it.<\/p>\n

Any penalties announced after the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz law firm concludes its investigation are expected to be immediately appealed, Siegel states. That could lead to months or even years of litigation before the matter is completely resolved. It has also been reported<\/a> that the players union could get involved through arbitration if the league decides to unilaterally impose a punishment rather than working out a settlement.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Toronto is waiting to hear if it will be able to complete the pending trade<\/a> for Leonard that was agreed to on June 30. Shelburne stated that the Clippers would be happy to keep Leonard on their roster if the Raptors ultimately decide to call off the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Clippers, the Raptors and the rest of the NBA await the findings of the\u00a0investigation into possible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,1175,590,85,82014],"class_list":["post-873402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-steve-ballmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}