Steve Ballmer Went On SportsCenter To Address The Kawhi Leonard Scandal And It Was A Complete Disaster

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With everything that has now come to light in regards to the Kawhi Leonard Scandal, it was only a matter of time before the league and the Clippers did what they could to provide some damage control. With something this serious, there was no way everyone was going to sit back and remain quiet about everything. The Clippers' statement was mostly a nothing burger, so it's not like they could just put that out and be done with it. Something else was going to have to happen in an attempt to sway public opinion. Everyone knew. You knew it, I knew it, even Pablo Torre himself knew it

Well, would you look at that!

I'm sorry, but we are watching a guy in Pablo Torre who is on a generational heater right now. Even if we all could have figured something like this was coming, shoutout Pablo for calling his shot like that. Something tells me he had some sort of idea this was happening before his tweet, and if not, he should probably buy a Powerball ticket.

How much would an interview like this actually change? Unfortunately for Steve Ballmer, the court of public opinion has delivered their ruling already. The NBA Twitter jokes have been made. He may have the urge to go on TV and try and spinzone things as best he can, but the people have made up their minds when it comes to this story. It feels like most stand with Pablo Torre and his reporting, but you know what? Let's hear the man out. Let's see just how stupid he thinks we as fan are.

Now I'll warn you know, there are going to be a shit ton of clips embedded from here on out. Hopefully, the site and the app can handle it, but that's all stuff way above my pay grade, so best of luck to any stoolie as you try and read this.

Let's begin

That's a man who has had some PR training. His voice, the cadence in which he's speaking, etc. Remember, Steve Ballmer is the victim here! Right away that let you know what type of interview we were going to be having here. They're playing to your sympathetic side right from the jump. That's at least how I took that anyway.

Uhhhh oh. Not a great answer here Steve! 

"I don't know anything about those court documents"

Is a brutal statement. Zero chance this is true. In fact, zero is too high. Negative infinity chance Steve Ballmer doesn't know about those. I'm to believe he or anyone associated with him didn't watch the episode? They didn't see the images of all the documents in his story? Is the idea here that they are maybe fake or made up so he couldn't verify them becasue those very documents suggst Ballmer did something shady? This was a big time yikes moment for me because we've all seen them! If we know about them, how the fuck can Steve Ballmer lead us to believe he's never seen them or has any idea about them? Does he not have lawyers? He seems to know all about the fraud claims and all that, so something tells me he's read court documents at some point in his life. But at the same time he doesn't know anything about them? No chance.

This one actually didn't seem so bad. I imagine Kawhi doesn't talk to anyone, ever. Especially in the offseason. This did feel a little like when Belichick/Kraft put all of Deflategate on Tom Brady. Deny and deflect blame. This isn't Ballmer and the Clippers' problem, it's actually Kawhi's problem. I'm sure he and his camp loved that!

Not looking good here Steve! Here's exactly how it could have happened, even with this statement

"OK Kawhi, sign for X amount, and we'll figure out a way at a later time to make it up and get you that money"

That convo happens in July, then the introduction happens in November. Is that plausible? I'd say it's not out of the realm of possibility of how this all might have gone down. But Steve Ballmer telling me he didn't even make the introduction until November does not show that they didn't try and circumvent the cap. It just means their plan started in November.

Uhhh no duh. What did Ramona expect him to say there? Is the idea here to show he's so innocent he's welcoming the investigation? Because I got the opposite vibe. I see a man trying to put on that act, but it's not exactly working.

See, you just don't get it, Ballmer is the victim here. He just loved the business plan and decided to fork over $50M. Who hasn't made a poor investment once or twice in their lives before? Nothing to see here! 

To me, this clip sums up everything perfectly.

You heard a lot of words in that answer. You know what you didn't hear?

"No, we did not"

I find that to be pretty telling. 

If they didn't do anthiny shady, you know how someone answers that question?

"No. Never. We never gave anything outside the rules to Kawhi's camp"

Of course, he didn't do that, which leads us to believe they did. Because if he denied it, I'm sure someone would leak the paper trail that they actually did, and then things would explode.

But when you truly didn't do something, normally all you have to do is say you didn't. You don't dance around the answer like that.

I wonder how many times Steve Ballmer practiced this line in front of a mirror. I have to say, that was a great performance. I imagine that's exactly how his legal team wrote it up.

It's not "the right thing to do", it's the rules. It's pretty clear what you can and cannot do. Ballmer isn't doing anyone a favor by operating within the rules, so that was weird. 

Again, think of Steve Ballmer and the Clippers at a time like this! The horror! 

And here we have Ballmer going on the defense. I have to be honest, the longer we hear Ballmer go on, the less I feel like he's even saying. This entire thing is just a word salad. Again, nothing about this absolves you from possibly talking about a plan in July while courting Kawhi and then executing it later in the year. I'm not sure why Ballmer thinks it does, or that fans wouldn't be able to form that conclusion, but he seemed hellbent on it.

I will give Ballmer credit. He has done a great job at rebuiling and rebranding the Clippers. The new arena, investing in the team, outside of this bullshit he really has been what I would consider and ideal owner. The man put like 10,000 toilets in his stadium for crying out loud. So I do believe him when he says he's tried to redo everyhing around the Clippers, especially for the fans.

You know what also helps? Getting Kawhi Leonard to be on your team by figuring out fugazi ways to pay him under the table. Fans love having Kawhi Leonard on their team!

My guess is that one of the outcomes of all this will be that all player endorsement deals will need to be verified by the league office or something, and everyone involved will need to produce evidence that the player actually did something to warrant their money. That's the funny part of all of this. Kawhi just had to do something! Anything would have worked really. The fact that there is not a single example of him doing anything to earn this money is the whole point. 

All I'm going to say is he better pray to God there's no paper trail. No email, no recorded phone call, no nothing. 

In the end, I'm not sure this interview changed much. In fact, it kind of made things worse? Certainly not better, which Ballmer had to know going in. I get why he did it, I get the PR side of it and the fact that he has to try and save face for his team and the league……but I dunno. It didn't quite land for me.

Also, because as soon as he finished, Pablo had more

So as I said the other day, we're only at the beginning of all this stuff. The tip of the iceberg if you will. It's not going away any time soon, and is most definitely going to continue to get worse before it gets better. The thing is, Pablo Torre has the receipts. He has the sourcing. You can't go on record like he did if this is all made up and there's nothing to see here. 

Given how serious the allegations are and what it could mean for the entire NBA moving forward, I say buckle up.