One person who is finding himself at loose ends over the next year is Steve Ballmer.

Yeah.

Um, and that is after a smackdown from the NBA, um, related to alleged sort of side payments to Kawhi Leonard, who's the star player of the L.A. Clippers.

Oh my.

Big smackdown.

Um, and this is really, um, a pretty severe penalty. There was a, I guess a podcaster named Pablo Torres who's who had been reporting on this, Hunter Brook, um, which I know you're very familiar with.

Torres? What did I say?

Torre, excuse me.

But it is worth like, you know, setting on the point that the reason this is so bad and the reason Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA came down on the Kawhi Leonard payments so hard is that there are caps, there are salary caps for a reason. So that Ballmer, who is 20X the richest owner in the NBA of a team, can't say, oh, I've got all this money. Let me just go buy up all the superstars, create a team that can't be challenged and just basically ruin the sport. And this the rule is meant to protect that. And when you have somebody going around it, that is and especially when it's Steve Ballmer. I mean come on. It's a huge problem.

I mean, and to be fair, the team has said this is not that this wasn't the case.

Right, they've denied this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes. Exactly. So,

Steve Ballmer's denied knowing about this.

For what it's worth. But the judgment has already come down. I don't know if they have any, any ability to

Right. and so fined 30 million,

to, you know, appeal it.

Yeah. Stripped of five first round draft picks. Ballmer himself suspended from activities for a year. This like clearly Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA is trying to send a message. and say you cannot go around our payment rules just because you have the money.