Biggest fascinations around NBA punishing Clippers
Dan Le Batard and Co. unpack the fascination with the NBA's punishment handed to the Los Angeles Clippers and the idea that it should have been harsher.
Video Transcript
Do you guys understand how weird it is for me to experience, "This is the greatest penalty in the history of this sport, and one of the greatest penalties ever," and your lead investig- or your lead basketball voice at ESPN is saying, "They got off light.
They got off relatively light."
So, like, what's real here in terms of what the penalty should be, given that if it is true, it is one of the most brazen and expensive examples of cheating that we've ever seen in the history of American sports, and everyone was sleeping on it so much for a year that they're shocked yesterday that the penalty is this stiff when somebody involved with the reporting on this is telling you, in Pablo and David, "Is it stiff enough?"
Like, what should be the truth here?
Because that seems like an awfully long, a wide range when we've spent a year preparing for this moment.
The fascinating part in what you're describing is that their own range over the last basically 12 to 15 hours has shifted in tone.
Because the reality is that this is the largest punishment for an owner in the history of the sport outside of having your team taken away from you.
When it comes to cheating, this is the largest punishment.
And so what most people who have not watched all 14 parts of Pablo's e- expose on all of this are experiencing is like, "Oh my God, it's all real.
All this stuff that we've been seeing in, in clickbait headlines," quote unquote, "it's all real," and they've levied this massive punishment.
When the reality is is there's even more to the story, and even Wachtell Lipton itself is saying, "We're still looking into more," and there might be more that comes down the line.
But when David and Pablo and Amin were first reacting to this last night, they were like, "Oh my God, what a giant punishment.
This is all amazing."
Now they've actually read through the entire document.
They've had the time, not their 90 minutes that was taken up by their pre-planning meeting that David found so fascinating, but they've had the time to read every single word and they've gone, "Wait a minute.
There, there probably should've been an even deeper punishment than we've seen, and with more to come.
That might happen."
Well, is, is that what Adam Silver has done, is kept his powder dry to take the franchise away from Ballmer?
Because that would be the, the, the only thing left to do really is that, right?
I mean, how much What, what, what room is there between, "We're taking away five draft picks and we're suspending you," and all of that- Well- and just stripping the franchise away?
This, this is one of the many fascinating things to me about what it is that just happened.
Two words: at least.
It's gonna be at least five first round picks, and it's gonna be at least a $30 million fine.
For all of that, all of the pages and all of the, all of the lawyer talk yesterday, the NBA is still holding the hammer of, do you really wanna fight about this, Ballmer?
Like, do you really want When they say at least there- Well, that has to be it, right, is that it's a threat.
It's a threat.
Don't take this to court- Yeah because we could actually add on to this.
Saz, this is where we are with this.
They had to conclude that investigation before the basketball season.
Yeah, yeah.
They, they have to f- let the Raptors and Clippers and Kawhi play.
And so if there is indeed a lot more here and Ballmer decides to fight instead of putting down his sword, and he still seems like he's going to be fighting, to me one of the fascinating things that's happening here that I don't believe, that a lot of people outside of the listeners of Pablo Torre Finds Out and our show understand is this has been covered so differently by an ignorant press that doesn't understand what's happened over the last year and has not listened to the 14 Pablo episodes, how he won a Pulitzer, that the people who are running the coverage on this are not properly informed.
And so the public is surprised by a penalty that should have seemed obvious because this should look to you like one of the greatest examples you've ever seen of s- of somebody rich trying to cheat and then getting cornered on, "This is provably false, and I was duped too," and still yelling with his lawyers because this is a human being who's been rich for a very long time and knows how to fight in these circumstances.
But you've got a journalist holding the cards who's been out in front of the investigators on this.
You've got a journalist that everyone's afraid of because they know he's got more.
And so how is it that there's this disconnect where 10 days ago ESPN reported something that was just unbelievably false, like, or according to the NBA and what it is that they said, and immediately said, like, "You've got this wrong"?
And now you've got ESPN, a league partner, and the NBA saying, "Your reporting's bull on this.
Like, where'd you get your information?"
Because clearly the information was coming from the Clippers, and it's all meant to obscure that the public doesn't need to know how bad this obviously is.
And you're telling me it's working if everyone is saying, "Holy, on a penalty," and Windhorst is like, "They got off relatively light."
