The NBA has opened an investigation into whether teams violated league rules by attempting to circumvent the salary cap during free agency this summer, according to a new report.
The New York Times’ Sopan Deb published a report on Tuesday evening sharing news of the investigation. Deb was unsure whether the investigation was in response to news reports surrounding Kawhi Leonard’s situation or something else. The report states that league owners raised the issue at the Board of Governors meeting in Nevada last month.
Regarding Leonard, two reports have suggested the reigning NBA Finals MVP requested things outside the scope of legal contract items during his talks with the Toronto Raptors.
TSN’s Josh Lewenberg wrote the following in a July 10 article:
According to sources, Leonard and his camp – namely Uncle Dennis – asked for a lot from the Raptors in that meeting, things players don’t generally ask for in standard contract negotiations.
In some cases, they were asking for things that Ujiri – one of the most well-compensated executives in the league – wouldn’t have even had at his disposal. Their requests were “unreasonable”, a source said, which made the Raptors wonder whether Leonard was seriously considering them at all.
The report was augmented by Stephen A. Smith, who said on ESPN Monday that Leonard’s manager Dennis Robertson was asking for extra things.
Uncle Dennis allegedly asked for illegal stuff from teams in the Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes, per @stephenasmith pic.twitter.com/715TeT6naW
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) July 22, 2019
“People in NBA circles are talking about this right now. Allegedly, the uncle, Uncle Dennis, was asking for a lot of stuff from the other teams. Houses, planes, sponsorship, guaranteed sponsorship money, just as an example. They’re throwing this stuff out there. All of those things are supposedly illegal in the collective bargaining agreement,” Smith said.
Is it possible Leonard’s team was making all these asks of Toronto intentionally because they wanted to make it clear to the Raptors that Leonard was not going to re-sign with them? Maybe. But the league also needs to investigate whether the Clippers — or Lakers for that matter — also made similar offers, especially with the sponsorship matters.
The Clippers were fined in 2015 for offering DeAndre Jordan endorsement opportunities during a free agent pitch. Such an offer violates the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
From Section 1(b) of Article XIII of the CBA:
“It shall constitute a violation of Section 1(a) above for a Team (or Team Affiliate) to enter into an agreement or understanding with any sponsor or business partner or third-party under which such sponsor, business partner or third-party pays or agrees to pay compensation for basketball services (even if such compensation is ostensibly designated as being for non-basketball services) to a player under Contract to the Team.”
The league is also looking into the issue of tampering. Numerous players had their free agency deals announced and/or reported within minutes of free agency beginning on June 30, making it seem obvious that deals had been worked out well ahead of time. One team specifically was said to be upset with some tampering they felt was going on.
