Sept. 5, 2026
I honestly never thought it would happen. I never imagined that a commissioner would hold a billionaire owner responsible for the same kind of ruthless tactics that made the rich guy a billionaire in the first place. I never thought the guardian of his sport would use a word that no owner ever expects to hear.
No.
No, you can’t cheat.
No, you can’t cook the books.
No, you can’t do what you want to do with no repercussions.
No, no, no.
Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA for the past 12 years, took the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Ballmer, out to the woodshed earlier this week, leveling the worst punishment any owner has ever faced in professional sports. For his slimy efforts to circumvent the salary cap, Ballmer received a $30-million fine, a year’s suspension and — here’s the amazing part — the loss of five future first-round draft picks.
That’s five — as in half a decade — of the top college players not going to the Clippers because the owner got caught cheating. In a world of opportunistic sleaze balls, Steve Ballmer has taken his place at the front of the line.
Ironically, Ballmer replaced a creep named Donald Sterling who was forced to sell the Clippers in 2014 after he got caught on tape making racist remarks. In that case, however, the owner got $2 billion on an investment of $12.5 million, so it’s debatable how much Sterling ever really suffered.
Once seen as the savior of the other LA franchise. Ballmer decided to circumvent the rules when he signed overrated superstar Kawhi Leonard to a new contract in 2019 that was supplemented by an endorsement deal with a finance company, Aspiration, for $28 million.
Because billionaires are all kind-hearted humanitarians who are appalled by all bad behavior, Ballmer immediately branded the investigation that preceded his punishment a “witch hunt,” and publicly expressed his total — and totally bogus — innocence.
Journalist Pablo Torre did more than unmask Ballmer as a corrupt owner; he linked the billionaire to a total of $48 million in side deals that feathered Leonard’s nest and bypassed the cap. While he was doing some creative bookmaking with Kawhi, Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration right around the same time, too brazen to bother camouflaging his devious plan.
In the end, Aspiration declared bankruptcy, and Torre kept probing until he uncovered the truth behind the owner, the superstar and the finance company. Torre, a former top reporter at ESPN and Sports Illustrated and now a high influential podcaster on Pablo Torre Finds Out, won the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting for his excavation into the truth about Ballmer.
Journalism? Remember that term? We haven’t had much chance in the past decade to use the word, but apparently Torre never got the memo that the media must kowtow to the leagues now to preserve their business ties and their access. Torre did the job he was actually trained to do. Imagine that. He held the people in charge accountable. He performed actual journalism. Hallelujah.
Meanwhile, his former employer, ESPN, tried to defend the status quo by reporting two weeks ago that the NBA found no link between Ballmer and Aspiration. The network cited anonymous sources — really bad, ass-covering, unabashedly lying sources. Any day now we should be hearing an apology from the Worldwide Leader in Sports. Yeah, sure.
Would Silver have reached this epic decision without Torre’s reporting? Unlikely. Would the commissioner have come down so hard on the Clippers if there were any holes in Torre’s investigative work? Also unlikely. Would the NBA have ever uncovered the corruption on its own? Not a chance. The dirty laundry would have been bad for the brand.
But in the end, Silver did the right thing, even if he had little choice. That’s more than we could ever say about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who slapped a couple of wrists, and not much more, after Spygate in 2006. As for MLB commish Rob Manfred, he did little but cover his own ass after the Houston Astros were caught clanging garbage cans to cheat their way to championship in 2017.
You see, the big lie that America’s biggest sports like to repeat, ad nauseam, is that their commissioners are guardians of the game. They are not. They are enablers for the billionaires they work for, and rarely anything more than that. A commissioner’s job is extremely hard to get, and even harder to keep if the man in charge is pushing back in any way against the uber-rich owners who control his fate.
But Silver did it. If you’re a wide-eyed optimist, maybe you even believe this is a new direction for the people in charge. You might jump to conclude that the free pass owners have been getting in the past 30 years has been formally revoked now. As you know, I am by no means a wide-eyed optimist. I will believe this is a trend when Goodell or Manfred take similar stands. My educated guess is, they won’t.
Still, this is a big moment in sports for two reasons. One is that an owner got his ass kicked in public. Hurrah. Two — and more importantly — this is exactly why journalism still matters, and always will. When influencers like ESPN get exposed the way they did by Torre and his independent podcast, it just underscores how the fans deserve more than they have been getting by media companies who have prioritized their bottom lines over the truth.
Bravo to Adam Silver for finally doing something about a bad owner.
An even bigger bravo to Pablo Torre for honoring the profession of journalism, even as it descends into the abyss.
For once, a billionaire got held to the same standards as the rest of us wretches.
Let’s hope it’s not the last time.
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A few other things to consider. . . .
- Oh, yeah. Before we begin sculpting that bust of Adam Silver for the Basketball Hall of Fame, I should point out that his punishment for Kawhi Leonard — a one-time fine of $700,000 — was laughable. Kawhi has made $378 million in his 14-year NBA career. To him, $700,000 is pocket money. When Silver had a real chance for a knockout, he pulled his final punch.
- What is the NFL thinking with these two weeks of nothing before the opening games of the new season next week? Are the pros giving the other pros — college football — a weekend all their own before the NFL gobbles up every entertainment option in its path? I have no idea. All I know is, I have waited way too long for some real NFL action.
- The Eagles trotted out tight ends coach Ryan Mahaffey to re-spin early buzz about second-round reach Eli Stowers being a bust. Mahaffey said he’s pleased with the progress Stowers has made so far even though it appears the rookie won’t be ready for the opener next Sunday. Hey, Stowers has experience as a quarterback. Given how bad the backups looked in the preseason, maybe be could audition there instead.
- Speaking of the rose-colored glasses being worn by Eagles position coaches, Chris Kuper said the offensive line “has come a long way” since he took over in the spring for legendary OL icon Jeff Stoutland. A long way from where? The Eagles offensive line has been been much better than Kuper’s underachievers were in Minnesota, including last season. Let’s just hope the veteran O line is not going a long way in the wrong direction. I fear, under Kuper, that’s exactly where they’re heading.
- Wow. Ben Simmons is back in the NBA. The ex-Sixer just signed a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings, after sitting out a season. It will be so much fun to see him not shoot, whine about the media and date Kardashians again. . . . Who’s betting on how soon before Ben gets hurt? Whatever it is, I’ve got the under.