The Aspiration Investigation Should Have Been Finished By Now

Let me ask you about one of the weirder stories of the week, which is the Gary Trent situation with Milwaukee.

If you missed it last, uh, last week, I guess it was, the Bucks agreed to a 4-year, $64 million deal with Gary Trent.

Uh, this raised a lot of eyebrows because Gary Trent was very bad last year.

Had one of his, I think the worst season of his career in terms of points, uh, field goal percentage, at least a full season.

Uh, was the kind of player that many executives pointed out to me.

They had slotted either as the taxpayer mid-level of right around $6 million.

Some of them had him as the veteran minimum, $3.9 million.

Instead, the Milwaukee Bucks have agreed to pay him $16 million per year, and this got everybody's antenna up because you're looking at it and saying, huh.

Well, if we look back at this, a few years ago, Gary Trent signed a very below market value deal back when the Bucks were on the tail end of the Damian Lillard, Giannistonopo era.

He then turns around, signs a two-year with a player option last season at below, uh, player value.

Low market value.

Now, when he has no value, when there really aren't teams clamoring for him, you're going to sign him to the richest contract that you, Milwaukee, have given him a $16 million per year deal.

Now Adam Silver was not asked about this as presser, you know, and I look, I was told by the NBA that they're not looking into it yet.

Um, mostly because it's not official.

Like the Bucks haven't announced it.

Um, and the contracts from what I'm told, are not submitted yet.

So the NBA doesn't have anything to sort of look at except for a report that says getting 4 years, $64 million.

But if the Bucks submit this contract, I think it's gonna be really interesting because it's going to put the NBA in a position.

Where they're already dealing with the Kawhi Leonard stuff.

Now you're going to turn around and investigate a deal that doesn't look great, doesn't look like looks like a cap circumvention type of deal.

If I were the NBA, I would be waiting until another team made a complaint.

I mean, I think there's an official filing for this, right?

Right?

Oh, you think so?

I think I wouldn't be volunteering.

I wouldn't be volunteering to, to investigate this on my own , only because of this.

I think it is very murky and hard to prove.

I think that you are, yes, absolutely.

It doesn't seem to quote, make sense.

Why would they be signing.

To an under-market deal two years in a row when they needed salary relief to try to help build around Giannis, but then signing to an over-market salary deal when they don't need that and gee, was this a quid pro quo?

Was this a, hey, I mean, your question is basically like, hey, take less now, we'll take care of you later.

There have been accusations that teams have been doing that with veterans for decades.

I can point to 10 teams in the league that if you get on the phone with the other 20.

Teams, they will say, ah, they always operate that way.

Or, oh, did you see that they hired that guy after his playing career was over?

What does he really do for them anyway?

Is that really just a makeup on salary of the salary they didn't pay him toward the end of his playing career so that they could go sign extra people?

These kinds of mushy allegations are part of the standard practice of the NBA.

And if I'm Milwaukee, I might say, hey, I can think of 3 or 4 different contracts this week alone.

Brian Winhorst has gotten on television and said that the Washington Wizards contract with Trae Young is one of the worst contracts he's ever seen.

Why?

It's untradeable.

Why would you ever do that?

Nobody was competing for him.

This is someone on a major outlet who's a very well respected NBA reporter going on and saying this is a complete overpay for no reason.

If I'm, I don't know if that's true.

I would disagree.

Being a Washington Wizards person who thinks you're not Trae Young is, you didn't, the Wizards didn't pay Trey anything before this.

All I'm telling you is that, that you can find people to criticize if I'm Milwaukee and I was defending myself.

I'm not saying what's actually happening here.

I'm saying if I'm Milwauke, I'd like to hear this because I'm dying to see how Milwaukee defend itself.

If they have to.

I would say I can picket 10 contracts.

I don't know why they did what they did.

We thought he was of this value.

Of course, he wanted to sign here for less than his market worth when Giannis was here.

He wanted to come play with Giannis.

Don't all you media people talk all the time about how so and so will take the minimum because they get to live in LA and play with LeBron or Luca now or whoever it is?

Like, yeah, we had to pay him more to keep him here in Milwau.

Wy because Giannis isn't here anymore and we're rebuilding him.

We had to incentivize him, and he's become a really important part of our locker room.

And we just felt like we needed him around.

And yes, this past year was an aberration in terms of his numbers, but the whole team was in such a state of flux, and there were all these bad feelings now between Giannis and the front office, and we all agreed that this was a bad environment for the team to be operating on and where they necessarily trying To win?

Were we prioritizing winning, as we like to say, instead of tanking for draft picks or this or that.

And the star was arguing about whether he should be playing or not, and no one knew what was going to happen next year.

Of course, it was a down year for Gary Trent Junior, but we believe he will be better next year, and that is what we are paying for.

I don't think that this is something that the league can tag them on.

And so therefore, I wouldn't go down this road if I were the league unless someone made me.

Well, which is the interesting question because there are a lot of people that believe the proper punishment for the Bucks is to have Gary Harris on their, Gary Harris, Gary Trent on their books for 4 years, $64 million per year.

That's, but there's also the school of thought that any potential, uh.

Cap circumvention needs to be investigated.

I, I think they have a much bigger circumvention problem, and you did a very good job in Adam's press conference of asking and following up on this.

The, the, but.

One thing, one thing you could do though, one thing you can do with Trent, one thing you can do with Trent, it's notable, uh, Gary Trent Junior.

There's the, it's notable to me in this situation.

That the Milwaukee Bucks have an entirely new coaching staff this year.

So if the NBA was gonna do some investigating, if they were gonna ask around investigating, investigating, I think I'd probably start if I was them with the previous coaching staff.

It's almost like in the aspiration.

Let's start with the fired employees.

You always do when you're a reporter, you start with the fired people.

Um, I think there's a way to potentially investigate.

I don't know.

It just , it was a wild contract.

I've yet to encounter anybody that said that he's worth that contract, uh, and I'm curious to see.

If and when it becomes official, is it salary cap circumvention?

I mean, it's just interesting.

The topic again, I am not defending the Macky Bucks or Gary Trent Junior or anyone else or the Clippers with Kawhi or whatever, but we're sitting here.

It doesn't, it doesn't escape me.

That we can have an entire conversation about how good and noble it is that there's contract fudging going on when a guy is quote, taking less money to help the team win or, oh, it's so this player gets paid here, they can keep this guy or no, they've got to trade this guy.

We are acknowledging that there were a million things that come into play with these contracts beyond what did you produce on the court this season and therefore, We should pay you X, right?

If there weren't, it would just be like this many points, this many whatever, this is what you get paid.

We acknowledge in the NBA it's what is your value to our team.

That's part of what you get paid for.

What were the other circumstances of this season?

When did you do your deal?

And were you making more of production then and but you're still getting paid as a guy who, if you're Paul George and you're still getting paid as the guy who made a certain deal, even if you're not producing at that level because you're just not playing that.

Many games like we allow all the time for the fact that contracts are not necessarily a reflection of worth.

So it's only when we get into certain parts of this complexity that make certain ownership situations more or less difficult that it becomes an NBA investigation.

This has the point.

This feels very Joe Smithy because this is kind of the situation that Joe Smith.

Went down with Minnesota all those years ago.

There was a written paper trail.

Well, yeah, that's what got Joe Smith nailed.

Like he had some agent problems and there was some emails that went back and forth and that eventually led to, but like the situation where it's like I'm taking less here, I'm taking less there, then all of a sudden my contract is going to explode on the back end of it.

That's why the, the feels, the vibes are very similar again.

I'm just curious to see where this goes to your point though, that a lot of people around the league feel like it's a joke of saying, oh, a lot of people around the league feel that the Bucks' punishment should just be having to pay out this contract.

But that's actually why I don't think that many people, while everybody is raising eyebrows about it because it's a fun thing to talk about while we're also waiting for all the other things that we, you know, LeBron is the big question, you know, all this stuff to choose to fall.

Like, I don't think anybody feels as indignant about this because whether they delayed it or not, whether they tried to use it to give more of a chance to keep Giannis or not, they didn't keep Giannis.

They do still have to pay the money.

I think the reason that doesn't resonate in the same way with other teams around the league is the way people are angry about this potential Kawhi Clippers situation is they feel as if, oh, they're.

Not going to be paying for it in the end that sort of the money was done off the books.

It's not a later contract.

It was an off the books contract.

And that's where the distinction is.

I was pleased to see you ask multiple times in this press conference about why the Kawhi Leonard, uh, situation hasn't been resolved.

I was surprised we didn't lead with it with this podcast because I think it is just sort of fascinating.

So let, let's, let's get into that here.

Let's, let's finish with that, um.

The Kawhi Lane saga continues to roll along.

Uh, no end in sight at this point.

Adam Silver was asked multiple times.

At his press conference on Tuesday and gave some familiar answers, said, we're waiting for the report.

Said, I'm hopeful to have it resolved this summer.

Said it has to be done by the start of next season.

Meanwhile, Kawhi Leonard of all people, remains in limbo because the Toronto Raptors and LA Clippers will not finalize a deal for him until they know if Kawhi Leonard is part of NBA punish.

Now I know the NBA and this kind of came across during Adam Silver's presser, is bewildered that the Raptors and the Clippers got to this point without realizing like, huh, maybe there's a chance that the guy at the center of this investigation could face some form of punishment, something that could be as light as a fine or as heavy as contract voiding.

Like, Adam said it right.

Adam's like, the idea that he would not potentially be involved in this because he was traded is simply not credible was his, uh, his phrase.

So you've got that happening there.

I thought Adam revealed something when he said that he was being kept in the loop as to what Wachtel Lipton is learning on the fly.

Rick Buchanan, legal counsel from The NBA.

He has been kept abreast.

I think Adam said daily, even at least weekly, uh, kept up to speed on this investigation.

Um, I guess what do you think of where we are right now, like with this entire mess, which has gotten messier because you do have two teams now sitting there trying to figure out what to do that could look radically different based on the outcome of this investigation.

It's also gotten messier.

The Athletic just reported, was it yesterday, 2 days ago, that there could be a second.

No show endorsement deal that there are questions now about a secondary sort of endorser company endorsement company company sponsor thank you, um, and now they're investigating that and is that gonna, you know, are we in a position where there's so much pressure to wrap up this investigation that's that there's gonna be a major stone left unturned?

I am where am I in terms of where we are now?

I am shocked it has taken this long.

I don't, I understand that lawyers do a lot of lawyering and there's a lot of.

You know, T's to cross and I's to dot, but I'm sorry.

I, I don't know why, especially for the amount of money, I can only imagine the league is spending on this investigation, why this hasn't been someone's everyday.

And there are enough lawyers at this law firm that you could have put 1000 of them on this, right?

And had this done in half the time.

If they had 500 people on this, if they had 100 people on this, whatever it is, you could double it and have it done in half the time, or etc.

etc.

I don't know why it was allowed to take this long.

I, I certainly would have pressed for it to be think they anticipated it taking this long.

I think they thought maybe 6 months before someone's in charge.

Right, but do you, what do you think of Adam's point that like he said, I can tell him to stop at any time?

Sure, but then, but then we might be getting to that point.

He says it's got to be done.

I don't know when the, the calendar turns on when this trade would have to be decided or when they feel like they would have to make this decision, but it's coming.

And if it's coming, that means that possibly there's a whole new wrinkle of this investigation that could be pretty significant that might just not even get investigated.

It's already embarrassing to me that a Pulitzer Prize has been awarded.

For a media investigation into this, and the official investigation still hasn't even wrapped up.

It's not that the immediate investigation happened and the official one hasn't.

It's we've already gotten to the point where a Pulitzer has been awarded into that first investigation, meaning that it was deemed journalistically sound enough by some of the greatest experts in the history of journalism that it was at least a journalistically sound investigation into problems and potential issues here.

And that the league still hasn't been able to come back and say there's a there there or not.

I think that is problematic.

And I don't think it's anyone's, I'm not saying it's Adam Silver's fault.

It's not his fault.

He's got a big job with a lot of things to do, but I don't know.

Am I hiring?

No offense to the fine people of Wachtel, but I know they are the go to investigative firm for both the NFL and the NBA.

The next time there's an investigation, if I'm interviewing law firms, I might say, Hey, buddy, how quickly are we going to get this done?

Because I want it done right.

But it can get done right at different speeds.

I think he has no choice now.

Mr.

Wadell might have some explaining to do.

I think Adam's got no choice now but to let this thing play out because he has got to get the full unvarnished, uninterrupted report at this point, because if the result of this report is that he is going to, well, if the result though of this report is that he going to submit the Clippers to some kind of serious punishment.

He knows that there is probably going to be a fight coming from the 13th richest man in the world.

A guy that has the best lawyers on the planet, a guy that is going to be armed to the teeth and potentially ready to fight for years to drag the NBA into a multi-million, multi-billion perhaps lawsuit like that.

What percentage you want to put on.

That happening, that at least has the potential of happening.

So at this point, as frustrated as the NBA is, as frustrated as clearly Adam is frustrated as people are to be dealing with this, still, after almost a year of this initial reporting coming out, I don't think he has a choice anymore.

He has to follow this thing all the way through.

The point you make about Steve Ballmer has always and will continue to be true.

Regardless of what shows up in that report.

Steve Ballmer has the legal.

Right to take them to court over it.

And he could with all of his money and lawyers and everything else drag this out for years regardless of what's in that report.

That report could show photos of him handing Kawhi hamburger hamburglar style, like a grab a, a, you know, a thing of money, a sack, a brown sack with a big dollar sign on it, and he could still take them to court for years.

So that is something that the league is balancing.

There's an implied power here.

That Ballmer has, that the league is going to be balancing.

There's certainly talk of, we see sports leagues do this all the time.

They try to end end around that reality by saying, we are basically going to enter into a plea bargain with one of our own owners and say, we have met, we've talked about the evidence in front of us, we've agreed together that this is the correct punishment and therefore, there is not going to be a challenge.

There is not going to be a thing.

The players association does this too, right?

They talk and they, oh, we're not going to challenge it because there seemed to have been a back backroom conversation coming to that and I see, I see that being the more likely scenario of how this ends.

The question is how much power do both, that's a negotiation and how much power do both sides have going into that negotiation.

The league's power, the other 29, currently at 29 other owners' power is what's in that report.

But Ballmer's power is still going to be that he has all of this real life world financial and political and legal power and that's going to be part of this and I think the fact that the longer this has gone on, the athletic report, and I have no reason to believe it's not true, if there really is enough evidence of a secondary possible end around whether it actually happened or not, it's got to be.

Investigated out.

And if it's taken 10 months for the first one to be investigated out, how are you telling me that the second one is going to be thoroughly enough done that we're also going to be done investigated right now?

It might be what they're doing there.

I'm saying that like you are a little bit, you are potentially, the longer it goes on, the more you are opening up to accusations from all sides of.

This got dragged out to give the Clippers a break.

This got dragged out, but then hurried up at the end and wasn't completely.

The Clippers got a break that way because it wasn't thoroughly investigated out.

The Raptors got screwed.

The Raptors didn't get screwed.

I don't know how they can penalize Kawhi Leonard without getting into an actual legal fight with the players association.

Because if you sit there and say, we are getting into the endorsement contracts of you players, an area which until this point, we've had no jurisdiction, you are going to have a fight on your hands, because that is where the real money comes from.

And I can't imagine that that's not going to be a legal fight there.

So there is a lot that has to be litigated and balanced here.

And it's not just when the report comes back.

Then.

Adam Silver has got to like figure out what his decision is.

There's supposed to be an arbitration process, I believe, written into these.

This is why I find it hard to believe that unless there is some kind of agreement between all parties, which I think would be best case scenario, I mean, that is, I'm sure what everybody wants.

That is typically what a sports where it's like the Clippers can find some way to save face where Ballmer doesn't get suspended.

Somebody gets axed, they lose a draft pick.

They can say.

We didn't know, but you know what, in the interest of moving forward, right, this, that we didn't, this happened within the organization without my knowledge, we're gonna whatever X, Y, and plausible deniability from the Clippers.

Um, if, if that happens, it's best case scenario.

But the Clippers, in all their public statements, they seem very dug in that they're not going to accept any responsibility for anything that may or may not have happened with all this.

Like, and I asked this of Adam, like , Adam, how can you Get a report.

Let's say you get the report next week.

That's going to be a big report.

Like that is going to be multi-volume, thousands of pages.

Like, you are not going to be able to digest that in a couple of days.

And then once you digest it, then you're going to come to the conclusion of whether or not you're going to penalize if you do penalize, how severe you're going to like this.

This feels like something.

The next board of governors meeting, I think is in January or September.

It feels like something that could still be unresolved in September, which feels that way.

It really feels that way .

But when would the, you again, Mr.

League machinations, which I know nothing about, when would this Kawhi Leonard deal or not deal have to be?

I don't think it has to be finalized at any point.

Well, I mean, it does obviously they could just say, OK, we're not doing this.

We're going home.

Well, they could say they're going home, but I think they can always for it to be salvaged, when would it have to be salvaged by?

Well, I don't think, I mean, it hasn't really been.

There's no.

Yeah, there's no date there.

Like they've agreed to the terms of this deal.

It happen in December.

It could happen.

It could happen any time.

Yeah, they could, they could do it now if Kawhi winds up getting punished with a suspension, obviously the Raptors will say we're gonna revisit some of this and let's maybe tinker with the deal a little bit, but I don't think there's a hard deadline on, and look, the Raptors want Kawhi Leonard, not just for this year.

They want to extend the guy.

Bizarre, but they want to extend the guy.

Well, I mean, again, it's who has, I mean, it's more but it's Kawhi Leonard.

Like all that happens every day and say it's, it's, it's the buyer for the house who has value to you.

It's not the same.

It's just mind blowing to me that we're here with Kawhi Leonard back at the Raptors, and especially when pursuing him to help them win a championship.

Weren't there, did the Raptors officially file a grievance when the Clippers they signed him at sort of some sort of, hey, wasn't there tampering involved?

I don't understand how this contract that they're trading right now could be null and void because it's not even the contract we're talking about.

Isn't it two contracts ago?

2 contracts ago.

So like, I am a little bit confused.

No, it might be this one this one.

Isn't the last, like the, what was the, I guess it was this one where there wasn't anyone competing for him and yet they signed this deal and all this stuff, right?

I don't know.

I, I just, I am intrigued at the idea of how they would possibly punish Kawhi, void his contract , any of the above without getting into a huge fight with the union.

And if I'm the union, forget fighting over the second apron because that battle is lost, my friend.

If this happens, if they want to.

Start negotiating players' endorsements contracts for them, having a say in that, having to have them be approved by people, having to determine whether the player did enough to make it a valuable, uh, an, a legit contract.

The league is going to say, we are going to decide whether that appearance was of enough of an appearance that you deserve the money you got, or whether this is a fake pay for play thing.

Like, come on, man, you is, there is no way the players association should let them do that.

I'm so sorry, Kawhi.

You only spent 2 hours at that autograph signing.

That's not enough.

I could settle for 2 hours at an autograph signing.

I get it.

I'm just saying it's not Kawhi, if it's, if it's someone else, Damian Lillard, so and so, so and so.

I think David Kelly, from what I've heard him say in person and in some of the interviews, he's gearing up for some fights, and this could certainly that is one I, that is one I would fight because I am sorry.

I would not if I was representing the players, I would not let the league in that I can't in my business talking about this.

I would not be letting the league in my business if I were I can't wait to be talking about this in September.