The biggest storyline for the Los Angeles Clippers heading into this season is the scandal surrounding team owner Steve Ballmer and star player Kawhi Leonard, who are accused of orchestrating a no-show deal for Leonard in order to sidestep the NBA salary cap. While no decision has been announced yet by the NBA, the scandal has certainly hung a major cloud over the franchise as they prepare for a season in which they hope to be legit contenders.
One person who has repeatedly gone to bat for Ballmer and the Clippers throughout the process is former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who recently spoke with sports reporter Pablo Torre, who originally broke the story several weeks ago.
“Let's segregate two different things here. Like I said when I first came on, I don't care if Steve Ballmer is guilty or not, right? It's better for the Mavericks if he is,” said Cuban, via Hoopshype, per Pablo Torre Finds Out.
“My issue is when you came out with podcast one, you had nothing,” he incorrectly stated, which Torre quickly corrected. “No, no, no, no, no. You want you've make them appear to be correct.”
“I mean, 16 contractual payments, one investment that's within nine days of one of the payments is not enough to f*ck with Steve Ballmer,” he concluded. “I think that was wrong. But thank you for letting me say my piece.”
A strange show of support
Mark Cuban's outspoken support for Ballmer and the Clippers has made some fans quick to assume that Cuban has some skeletons in his own closet that may not be far off from what Ballmer is accused of doing. In his statements to Torre, Cuban both denied that Torre has evidence of Ballmer's alleged rule-breaking and also supported Ballmer's potential rule-breaking, making his opinion on the issue inconsistent at best.
In any case, the Clippers and their fans would certainly like to have this issue resolved sooner rather than later. Their regular season is set to kick off on October 22 on the road against the Utah Jazz.
