The Bounce: Confusion reigns in NBA’s Clippers investigation

Economy World


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Jeanie Buss is trying to stop her family from selling their remaining 17.8 percent stake in the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s just the latest twist and turn in this hectic $12.5 billion sale of the historic franchise. Make sure to follow our ongoing coverage in The Athletic. We’ll have more about it in Friday’s Bounce.

Investigation station

NBA refutes report on Clippers probe

Remember the NBA’s investigation into whether the LA Clippers circumvented the salary cap with Kawhi Leonard by funneling money to him through fake sponsorships? We’re coming up on the first anniversary of its launch, and perhaps you’re wondering if it has concluded. Guess what? It has not.

Yesterday, there was a report from ESPN that the NBA found no evidence of Steve Ballmer funneling money to Leonard. According to that report:

Instead, the NBA is focused on whether the team’s introduction of Leonard to team sponsors constitutes a violation of the league’s rules prohibiting salary cap circumvention, two of the sources said. The league is examining whether the Clippers are guilty of “failure to supervise” employees, though it’s unclear what specific rule the team would have violated or what the penalties would be, two of the sources said.

Sounds promising that we’re coming to an end, right? Think again! This positive report (if you’re a Clippers fan) was almost immediately refuted by the NBA. The league issued a statement addressing the ESPN report:

“ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers investigation — for which the NBA declined to cooperate — contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.”

The investigation is still ongoing. But “coincidentally,” the Clippers then issued their own press release, saying that “making introductions between players and team partners is both an ordinary practice by NBA teams and a common request of players and representatives.” The Clippers’ statement ended with the team’s insistence that it “did not funnel money to Kawhi Leonard, arrange for others to compensate him on our behalf, or otherwise provide him with undisclosed compensation outside of his NBA contract.”

The Clippers and Steve Ballmer maintain that they’ve done nothing wrong. The one thing they seem not to really understand, though, is that the more they issue unnecessary press releases, the worse it looks. Considering how many statements they’ve made over the last year, it’s clear they really want the public to believe they’re innocent.

Which they might be! We won’t know any time soon because the investigation still won’t end.

By the way: Pablo Torre, who knows a lot about this, has chimed in.

The last 24

🏀 Out of the shadows. The Lakers sale and a federal investigation have put a spotlight on Mark Walter. He has always avoided attention. Speaking of Walter, he’s also selling in the Premier League.

🙌 HOF moments. The 2026 Hall of Fame enshrinement was held over the weekend. I highly recommend reliving the fun parts of the ceremony here.

💰 Another step. The Spurs are trying to get a new arena in San Antonio. They just cleared a hurdle to get it done. 

🏀 Good investment? Want Michael Jordan’s Game 3 jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals? You’ll probably need to bid a few million. 

Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.

Mark your calendars

Rating the opening night, Christmas games

Last week was that wonderful time when the NBA released its schedule. So we can start picking apart the decisions for the marquee matchups.

This year, we’re going to break it down with the Schedule Optimization Score meter. Or the SOS for short. It’s a highly complicated and sophisticated computer program designed by former NASA experts* to properly rate the NBA’s key schedule decisions. It is a scale of 1-5 emojis, with 1 being a poor call and 5 being perfect programming.

* – I watch a lot of space videos on TikTok. 

(All times ET)

Opening night (all on NBC/Peacock)

  • Celtics at Pistons, 3 p.m.: Yes, that time is correct. The NBA is starting at 3 p.m. (noon on the West Coast) for its “opening night.”
  • 76ers at Knicks, 7 p.m.: This is exactly what we want to see. The defending champion Knicks raising their first banner (sorry, NBA Cup) in 53 years. The new-look 76ers with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown make their debut. Perfect matchup.
  • Thunder at Spurs, 10 p.m.: Please and thank you. They had so much drama in the Western Conference finals and don’t like each other. Chet Holmgren has so much to prove against Victor Wembanyama. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can try to get some revenge.

Anything shortsighted, or is it spot-on? The only confusion here is the early start. Is this the NBA’s version of Week 0 in college football? Except … it’s the same day and just extremely early? Regardless, the matchups are great. SOS meter: 📅📅📅📅📅

Christmas Day (all on ABC/ESPN)

  • Spurs at Knicks, Noon: A rematch of the finals in Madison Square Garden is absolutely perfect. Last time they played there was the Game 4 comeback.
  • Heat at Celtics, 2:30 p.m.: Miami in Milwaukee would’ve been a better, more dramatic and interesting matchup. But I guess a battle between who got Giannis and who almost got him is good too.
  • 76ers at Lakers, 5 p.m: LeBron back in L.A. to face his old team and their full embrace of the Luka Dončić era. This is a great matchup.
  • Thunder at Timberwolves, 8 p.m.: The league worried about how to market this WCF matchup in 2025. Now, it’s front and center on Christmas Day. SGA versus Anthony Edwards should be easy to sell.
  • Nuggets at Warriors, 10:30 p.m.: This kind of feels like they’re just trying to fit Nikola Jokić and Steph Curry into this day, so they get thrown in at the end.

Anything shortsighted, or is it spot-on? It should be Giannis back in Milwaukee, even if the Bucks might be bad. I’m not sure shoehorning Jokić and Curry into the schedule makes a ton of matchup sense. But this is a very good Christmas Day schedule. SOS meter: 📅📅📅📅

Tradeback Tuesday

Revisiting the Lakers’ deal for Dwight

Last week was the 14th anniversary of the Lakers trading for Dwight Howard, as the Hall of Famer was desperately trying to get away from the Orlando Magic. Instead of signing with the Lakers and following the comically large footprints of Shaquille O’Neal, Howard found his way to the Lakers via trade. It ended up being a four-team deal that also included the Nuggets and the 76ers.

The Magic received six players, plus two first-round picks and three seconds. Denver got Andre Iguodala from Philadelphia. The Sixers received Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson. And the Lakers landed Howard, along with Chris Duhon and Earl Clark. As we continue our Tradeback Tuesday series each week this offseason, you can probably guess that things didn’t exactly go to plan.

Here’s how the deal shook out:

Let’s go over Denver and Philly’s sides of this deal first:

  • Iguodala played in Denver for one season, helping the Nuggets win 57 games. But they lost in the first round of the playoffs to Golden State. George Karl accused Iguodala of being the mole for Mark Jackson’s Warriors in that series. Iguodala signed with the Warriors in 2013.
  • Bynum never played for the Sixers because of a knee issue. He re-injured his knee while bowling. Then he signed with Cleveland in 2013. Richardson played 52 games in three seasons with Philly and missed the entire 2013-14 season. He retired in 2015.

As for Orlando, Vučević played 8 1/2 seasons with the Magic and made the All-Star team twice. Then he was traded to the Bulls for Wendell Carter Jr. and draft picks that became Franz Wagner and Jett Howard. Afflalo played a couple of seasons in Orlando as well.

The Magic traded Šarić and the pick that became Landry Shamet to Philadelphia on draft night in 2014. It brought them back Elfrid Payton, who was supposed to be their point guard of the future. They also sent the second-round pick that became Rodions Kurucs to the Raptors as compensation for hiring away Jeff Weltman to be president of basketball operations.

As for the Lakers, the Howard experience (the first time around) was a complete disaster. A month earlier, they completed a sign-and-trade for Steve Nash, sending out two firsts and two seconds. Now they were bringing in Howard to replace Bynum and be the star to help Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol in their twilight years. Instead, they turned the 2012-13 NBA season preview edition of Sports Illustrated into a massive joke.

Howard spent one season with the Lakers. He was coming off back surgery and endured a shoulder injury. He still managed to average 17.1 points and 12.4 rebounds a night. But his signature impact on defense wasn’t there (probably because of the back), and the Lakers couldn’t stop anybody. Kobe tore his left Achilles tendon at the end of the season, and Howard left for the Rockets in free agency.

Gasol spent one more season with the Lakers before moving on. Nash played 65 total games with the Lakers in two seasons before retiring. Howard would come back as a backup big man in the 2019-20 season, and he helped the Lakers win a title in the bubble. It was his redemption arc with the organization and its fans.

For me, his biggest contribution will always be this horrendously staged “joking” photo of him, Kobe and Mike D’Antoni trying to pretend everything was just fine: