{"id":201410,"date":"2025-09-05T04:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201410\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T04:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:49:10","slug":"probably-gonna-get-like-a-100-million-fine-robert-horry-on-how-ugly-the-situation-can-get-for-steve-ballmer-the-clippers-and-kawhi-leonard-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201410\/","title":{"rendered":"“Probably gonna get like a $100 million fine” – Robert Horry on how ugly the situation can get for Steve Ballmer, the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past 24 hours, investigative journalist Pablo Torre has become the most talked-about figure in the NBA after revealing a major controversy involving the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>. The 39-year-old disclosed that the franchise facilitated a $28 million endorsement deal between their star forward, Kawhi Leonard<\/a> and Aspiration (a tree-planting company accused of fraudulent practices). Moreover, Torre’s over 3,000-page report suggests that the company was funded with $50 million directly by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer<\/a>, effectively allowing Kawhi to be paid under the table simply for his association with the organization, as long as he remained.<\/p>\n

With the NBA now investigating the matter, seven-time NBA champ Robert Horry<\/a> has warned of potentially severe consequences for both the Clippers organization and Ballmer.<\/p>\n

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Robert Horry on the consequences Clippers, Steve Ballmer can face<\/p>\n

Transparency has always been demanded at the heart of all arrangements, which is perhaps why every deal is required to be formally documented. So, even at the time when Kawhi first signed with the Clippers, speculation arose regarding how the deal came together. Now, should Ballmer and the organization be found guilty, Horry believes the punishment could be precedent-setting, sending a strong message that business under the table will never be tolerated.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Horry believes that even though Article XIII of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement explicitly prohibits salary-cap circumvention and grants Adam Silver full authority to enforce penalties, which can range from imposing fines to rescinding draft picks, he emphasized how, in this case, a never-before-seen punishment could be assessed, which most cannot even imagine.<\/p>\n

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“A lot’s gonna come with this. They’re probably gonna lose some draft picks. They’re probably gonna get like a $100 million fine, it’s gonna be something ridiculous because, it’s gonna be a hefty fine, let me tell you that, they know Ballmer got it,” Horry said on his podcast. “So, they’re gonna fine him, they’re gonna forfeit some games, it’s gonna be something ridiculous, probably no playoffs or the games they play are not gonna f\u2014king count.”<\/p>\n

Horry finds the funny side of this scandal<\/p>\n

Furthermore, while NBA fans are now closely watching this story unfold, as the potential outcomes are enormous: Leonard could face a contract termination or even suspension, and Ballmer could see his ownership legacy suffer irreversible damage, Horry added a lighthearted remark about Torre’s role in the situation. The 7-time champion joked that if he had uncovered such sensational information, he might have chosen to approach Ballmer privately and profit from the knowledge rather than expose it publicly.<\/p>\n

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“Let me just say this, if I’m the only one who knows this story, I’m going to Ballmer and say, ‘Hey, you gave him $28 (million), I’ll take $20 (million), not to tell the story,'” Horry laughed with his crew.”<\/p>\n

That being said, while such comments may sound humorous on the outside, the implications the culprits might face are far from that mood. If proven guilty, not only can Kawhi hurt his Hall of Fame candidature despite being a two-time Finals MVP, but that would leave a permanent stain on his overall basketball legacy, which has already seen a massive downside ever since he came to Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Related: “His championships are valid, it’s just that his swag was trash” – Jeff Teague claims no one cares about Robert Horry’s seven championships<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Sep 4, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past 24 hours, investigative journalist Pablo Torre has become the most talked-about figure in the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":201119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[111245,3370,3142,1260,33249,96810,62,49616,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-201410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-investigative-journalist","9":"tag-kawhi-leonard","10":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-pablo-torre","13":"tag-robert-horry","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-steve-ballmer","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115149888929607186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}