- 6 weeks ago
SiriusXM's Brian Geltzeiler joins the program to explain all the punishments the NBA brought down on the Clippers after the Kawhi Leonard saga.
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00:00our next guest very knowledgeable about the nba brian geltziler host on sirius xm nba radio
00:06contributor at nba tv geltz what's up man how you doing good guys how we doing doing good man
00:12dude let's start with everything that happened yesterday we knew uh pablo torre kind of un
00:19you know discovered this uh this massive what seemed like a scam for the clippers to pay
00:26kawaii leonard a whole bunch of extra cash outside of the nba salary cap and damn if the nba didn't
00:32drop the hammer yesterday what did we learn yesterday and how significant is all this
00:39well it's you know to start it's very significant because obviously this is what we're looking at
00:45right now is essentially the next 10 years of the la clippers organization potentially being blown up
00:50so it's that's a major major thing and when you look at the punishments that were handed down
00:57forget it we'll put kawaii leonard and his uncle aside for a minute steve bomber suspension for a
01:02year ilian zucker unpaid suspension for a year lawrence frank unpaid suspension for six months
01:09all those things could be lived with by the clippers five first round picks is what they
01:13can't live with and you'll see at this point the clippers are going to fight this steve bomber is going
01:18to go to battle this will end up in federal court at some point unless the two sides settle but
01:25this
01:25is not going to have a pretty end right now and i tweeted this out yesterday guys this is closer
01:31to
01:31the beginning than the end in my opinion i first of all when you read the report the law firm
01:36of
01:37wachtell lipton rosen and katz made it very clear that investigation is still ongoing they're still
01:42looking for other stuff here so there's things that could come up in legal discovery that haven't been
01:47known on either side yet and i do think part of steve bomber's strategy is going to be to say
01:52hey
01:52you know what we're not the only ones that have done this and he will devote uh resources and he
01:57is listen he's the richest one of the richest men in the world he's the richest owner in all of
02:00sports
02:01and at a a net worth of 152 billion dollars he's got more money than the rest of the nba
02:06owners
02:06combined so he can devote a whole lot of resources into an exhaustive investigation into maybe who else in
02:14the league has done this and has skated on penalties and i'm not sure the league wants all that public
02:19especially with all this ownership turmoil and the lakers being flipped and all these sales that come
02:25about and tom dundon stuff in portland that he's pulling league doesn't need any more bad pr on the
02:29ownership side here so it's possible and i do believe that the punishment the league handed down
02:35to the clippers yesterday is more negotiating platform than punishment because i do think
02:44ultimately we're going to see some kind of settlement on how did kawaii get nothing though
02:50uh because he cooperated brian that's why because he so what kawaii did here was shrewd
02:57listen kawaii drove all this behind his uncle he did i mean it's just it was there's you know
03:02there's a lot of stuff that's not in the public purvey about you know that that it goes on between
03:08kawaii and his uncle but why when push came to shove to essentially save his own bud of not being
03:13suspended through his uncle under the bus that was uncle was getting thrown under the bus anyway
03:17and essentially they cooperated so his uncle you know kawaii gets a bone thrown to him no suspension
03:23his uncle gets a bone thrown to him and the fact that it wasn't a lifetime ban it was a
03:27five-year ban
03:28now it's akin to a lifetime ban no one's going to deal with him in the nba after all of
03:32this
03:32and in five years his nephew's going to be out of the league so it is akin to a lifetime
03:36ban but
03:36that's how he skated he was cooperative in the investigation because when you read through the
03:41report brian what you do understand is that part of the penalties that were levied on steve bomber
03:46and president of business operations gillian zucker had to do with a lack of cooperation
03:52they believe zucker flat out lied to them and pretended to not remember things and they have
03:57evidence that she lied and they think that bomber conveniently kept himself removed from certain
04:02things and certainly they didn't flat and accuse bomber of lying but they did say that he was fast
04:08and loose at times with the truth in certain things like this so i think a lot of what the
04:13league did
04:13punishment wise was based upon cooperation here's one other very important point to note gentlemen which
04:19is the biggest mistake the clippers made in all this happened two weeks ago when they leaked to three
04:25aspn reporters baxter holmes ramona shelburne and uh and don van natta that they were in settlement
04:32negotiations with the league on this being a failure to supervise type of penalty and bomber was
04:38essentially going to skate a little bit in what happened with the punishment the league which
04:43rarely if ever responds publicly to media reports within an hour had their spokesperson mike bass put out
04:51a statement that said there's factual inaccuracies and this is an ongoing investigation and that's
04:56all we have to say about it and the truth of the matter is that when you read bomber's letter
05:00he wrote
05:01to adam silver his attorney wrote to adam silver the open letter yesterday what you see is he complains in
05:07a couple different spots we had one hour before this went public they thought they were going to get
05:12an opportunity to negotiate but bomber leaking that and trying to kind of push the league into a settlement
05:18before they were ready had the league push back in a very very forceful way so that's listen
05:23negotiations were occurring behind the scenes before this punishment which is why i go back to what i
05:28initially said more negotiating platform less punishment because i don't know that this remains as
05:35the final punishment how how how does uh bomber has a five-year ban one one year one year how
05:43does that
05:43look when a guy owns the team it looks terrible no i'm just saying i know my question is you
05:50say
05:50you're banned from dealing with the team how how do you tell the owner of a team not to deal
05:56with it
05:57well listen you're not keep one thing in mind you owning a sports team is not like owning another
06:04business because you're part of a larger association here that governs you this was not an investigation of
06:12did the clippers break the law this was an investigation did the clippers violate a a a very
06:18very important and and and a rule and a vital rule in the nba with sanctity that is what this
06:25is so
06:26yes the league can tell steve bomber you go away for a year keep my league made donald smelling sell
06:31his team the league has that power so they can tell him to go away the question becomes and what
06:36i think
06:36you're leading to with this question is how do you keep him from communicating with anybody
06:42decisions regarding his business he can certainly have a proxy in there but you're going to really
06:47monitor communications with anybody that he has within the organization i think it's a very hard
06:52thing to do and at some point you figure if major decisions need to be made even if it's through
06:57back
06:58channels bomber's going to be consulted so yes some of that is very difficult but i also think the one
07:03suspension is less about what we just discussed and more about the fact that bomber is such a front
07:09facing sports owner who really is the identity of the team and he enjoys that and loves that and and
07:16that's the biggest part of him owning this team and he will not be able to be that for a
07:21year they're
07:22robbing him of the thing that gives him the most enjoyment in terms of owning the clippers which the
07:27fact that he's frankly the face of the franchise it's really funny gelts because obviously very
07:33different reasons behind these suspensions but here in washington we all suffered through the
07:38the entire dan snyder era but at the end of it he was suspended right and we know he was
07:47still around
07:47somebody that was on the beat and at all the games like he was still around you'd still see him
07:52but he wasn't public facing and i do think that kind of drove him crazy and if you i don't
07:58know how
07:58the how much you dug into it but eventually he started pushing to come back and it was him pushing
08:04to come back that really pissed the other owners off and forced them to kind of got them to force
08:09the
08:09sale do you think there's any means in which the other nba owners try to force balmer out one because
08:17of
08:17this because of circumventing the salary cap but two like when there's one dude that has more money
08:23than all the rest of you that dude can hold uh yield in in outsized size of an outsized right
08:31of power
08:34so listen it's a great question here's where some of the other issues the nba has are coming into play
08:41and i don't think they're going to look for a forced sale of steve bomber follow my logic guys
08:46steve bomber is one of the few owners in the nba that bought the team with his own money
08:50right and right now like look what just happened with the lakers you essentially had the flagship
08:56franchise in the league flipped in a 14-month period okay flipped and part of the reason they
09:04were flipped is because the guy that bought it and had to sell it didn't do it with his own
09:09money
09:09he actually borrowed money from insurance companies that violated regulations and now he's got a federal
09:14investigation looking into him so he had to pay down that quickly and a way of doing that was
09:19selling was selling the team but the guys that bought it bob either and josh kusner only use some
09:25of their own money my point is this when you have an owner like steve bomber that's this wealthy you
09:31know forcing him to sell who's he selling to and the nba's got another issue that they're dealing with
09:37here which is they're not really doing a good enough level of due diligence to find out where the
09:42owners are getting the money from to buy these teams listen they approved the sale for mark laurie
09:46and alex rodriguez when they first bought the team when they didn't necessarily have the money michael
09:50bloomberg had to step in and bail them out and then what happened a couple weeks back well you know
09:55mark laurie essentially swapped ownership stakes with this guy stodd who now is the majority owner of
10:00the team like it's they don't want any more ownership turnover right now so i don't think they're going
10:06to look to force bomber out at all i think and that's why again i come back to i think
10:11settlement
10:11is kind of what we're looking at here because this is an ugly chapter that's gone public and and the
10:18nba doesn't want any more of this ownership stuff out there and don't get me wrong they needed to have
10:23the perception publicly of making a really swift type of decision here and and dropping the hammer
10:31on the clippers to to make a statement with all that said that's what this was a statement and
10:37if bomber fights them hard enough and gives them the impression he's going to fight them long enough
10:42and there's things that can be unearthed and gone public here that they don't want public they will
10:47reduce this punishment and settle this and go away and when you look at a reduction of punishment listen
10:52steve bomber is okay with the fact that his president of business operations has taken a big rip here and
10:57being out for a year i think he's even okay with the fact that his president of basketball operations
11:01is being out for six months he's not okay with being out himself and he is not okay with giving
11:06up five first round graphics and that's gonna to me gonna be where the big part of this settlement
11:11comes in i know a lot of people have referred to what happened with the minnesota timberwolves and
11:15the joe smith case and the fact that you know for good behavior they got two of the five picks
11:20back
11:21and saying that's a template that that you know that that bomber and the clippers could use here
11:26and accepting the punishment brian windhorst you know talked about this last night with scott
11:30van bell on espm i don't think that's the route bomber is going to go i don't think he's going
11:34to look for mercy on this i think he's going to try to fight fire with fire take the league
11:38on
11:38and force a settlement that's less punitive to the los angeles clippers as an organization and
11:43less punitive to him personally it's pretty crazy when you consider the amount of punishment leveled here
11:50that the 30 million dollar fine is probably the one that a dude like balmer cares about the least
11:57yeah correct yes i don't care about the 30 million but i want to sit in that damn stadium that
12:01front
12:01row right right you guys when you're winning you know what's what's 30 million to him when you're
12:08worth 152 billion dollars that's probably like that's not an exaggeration that's like where he was
12:14one of us getting a thousand dollar fine that's less than that jay
12:20he doesn't care he doesn't care about the 30 million he doesn't listen he in his open letter
12:25his attorney's open letter to adam silver he referred to the fact that he's already spent 50 million
12:30dollars on this investigation the league has essentially built him for this investigation
12:34so he's already you know he's already 80 million in and you know what for him he's going to keep
12:39going
12:40because this to him is not about the money it never has been possible first it was about winning and
12:46having success in in the sports arena he wanted to have be able to be a successful owner now it's
12:53reputational now it's about the fact that he's been exposed as someone who's essentially dirty
12:58and he's not going to have it he doesn't want to have it so he will devote tons of resources
13:02to doing
13:03this this is not the nba fighting any other owner this is one of the richest men in the world
13:08the
13:08richest owner in all sports and listen his net worth is more than every other nba owner combined
13:13like that's how how off the charts it is so it's it's the nba who's the big schoolyard bully
13:19with another schoolyard bullies now again can they eliminate him from the league a la donald sterling
13:24they can try but there's going to be a legal battle on that too and at some point the damage
13:30this can do to everybody involved okay the debt is is not going to be worth it guys you know
13:35what this
13:36is this can you ever see lethal weapon one with mel gibson and danny glover i know i'm dating myself
13:40a little bit in one of the early scenes of the movie when uh mel gibson's trying to talk a
13:45jumper
13:45off the top of the building and he handcuffs himself to the guy and says if you jump you're going
13:51to be
13:51a murderer because i'm jumping with you that's what this is steve bomber's handcuffing himself to the
13:56league going listen if i'm going to jump off this are you going to throw me off this you're coming
14:01with
14:01me that's going to be the attempt to force a settlement wow that's crazy man this is they
14:06should write a movie about this oh there's at some point whether it's bill simmons with the ringer or
14:1230 for 30 on espn someone's doing a big documentary about this hell yeah talking with our buddy brian
14:18geltziler from sirius xm nba radio check him out on nba tv give him a follow at b geltz nba
14:25b g-e-l-t-z
14:27nba dude geltziler like how big of a deal is it that lebron leaves the lakers the lakers
14:34got flipped like a two-bedroom condo which is just insane for probably the league's
14:39most marquee franchise even including the knicks and the celtics like how bad is it
14:45considering the state of professional basketball in los angeles between the lakers and the clippers
14:51neither of which i can imagine is even considered a playoff team well all right so i think the lakers
14:58are considered a playoff are they are the lakers yeah with luca listen the lakers are good enough
15:03to win a lot of regular season games the lakers are probably a 50 to 52 win team is currently
15:09constituted the problem with the lakers is you're not beating anybody in the playoffs at this roster
15:13you don't guard well enough and when you look at who's ahead of them in the conference you know we
15:18know that obviously okc's ahead of them we know santonio's ahead of them minnesota is definitely
15:23ahead of them and they're probably in another tier they're hanging around with maybe denver in that
15:28kind of tier like that's who the lakers are and i do think a lot of the off-court stuff
15:33with the
15:33lakers is not going to spill onto the court i think there's some stuff that's kind of on hold regarding
15:39what they're doing front office wise where they were prepping for a little bit of an overhaul
15:43in the front office regarding bringing in some dodger people and some of andrew friedman's people
15:48to kind of push rob palinka's side i think that's not obviously happening anymore with walter still
15:53in the team as quickly as he is and i think bob eiger is going to look for some stability
15:56there
15:57and and probably keep uh rob palinka on board and see if there could be some continuity going forward
16:03so i think the lakers it's it doesn't make for wonderful headlines for the organization but it's not
16:09the worst thing in the world there for the clippers like listen for the clippers and it's funny
16:14because you look at like the clippers and the lakers are often compared to the nets and the
16:18knicks in new york and one of the the narratives regarding the nets in new york is it just can't
16:23get any worse for you your team is wholly irrelevant and the team on the other side of the brooklyn
16:28bridge
16:28just won an nba championship for the first time in 53 years like that's awful for the nets it's it's
16:36almost like with this ruling from the from the nba the clippers turned to the nets and said hold my
16:43beer right because this is i mean this is so much worse for the la clippers and so to me
16:50i don't know
16:51if we're going to make this a full indictment of los angeles basketball even with the lakers flipping
16:55like this because i do think with eiger and kushner there's going to be now some stability there with
17:00the lakers that maybe you didn't have as walters involved in a federal investigation so i think that's
17:05actually going to turn it a little bit positive there i think this situation with the clippers is
17:09going to be really really ugly and not ending soon and i think it's more of an indictment of the
17:14clippers organization and the fact that you know what is the next direction because here's the biggest
17:19issue with all these draft picks guys you know you look at the league eight nine years ago you look
17:23at
17:24when they went out and got kawaii and paul george it was a free agency league that year they went
17:28out
17:29and got kawaii made the paul george trade kevin durant and kyrie irving signed with the nets jimmy butler
17:33signed with the miami heat there were free agents flying all over the place at that point
17:37this new cba is free agency only exists unlike uh you know for the middle class player it doesn't
17:44exist anymore for the top player that you know you're bringing in superstars via draft picks or
17:50trades well the clippers have no picks to to trade at this point and free agency doesn't exist and they
17:56and they're not gonna be able to draft guys with no picks like how are they rebuilding this franchise
18:00in the next 10 years and the answer is pretty simple they are not so this whole thing where
18:04steve bomber wanted to beat the lakers in la now you're fading into irrelevance and oh by the way
18:09that i mentioned the lakers have luka donchich in the prime of his career at the age of 27 right
18:14it's crazy dude hey gals we appreciate you making time for us dude thank you always guys anytime with
18:20you guys take care and enjoy the football season we'll talk to you soon thanks guys bro what a wild
18:24story yes it is and i feel like they tried to throw the book at him just to make it
18:28look
18:29bad so they can come back and say whoa you know we negotiated clearly he's got the juice to at
18:35least
18:35he said okay you got me