We’re All Here Together: Black, White, Red, Yellow & Brown
The world of professional sports franchises worth literally billions of dollars is not a place where shady business practices that rival sophisticated, organized crime activities would be expected to be found.
But here we are.
The National Basketball Association has fined the Los Angeles Clippers franchise a record $30,000,000 dollars and stripped the team of five consecutive First Round draft picks that stretch from 2029 all the way to 2033.
First round draft picks are the lifeblood of any professional sports franchise. That’s a crippling penalty, the loss of those gold medal first rounders. The league also suspended team owner, The 150 Billion Dollar Man, Steve Ballmer for a full year, meaning he’s barred from both team and NBA activities for that period.
Other important team officials were given suspensions of similar duration.
The individual at the center of the salary cap avoidance scheme, oft-injured NBA superstar Kawhi Leonard was fined $700,000 dollars and his uncle and business advisor, Dennis Robertson, is also banned from all NBA activities for five years.