The Clippers Got Off Light...So Did Everybody Else

You know why you're here. Kawhi Leonard is skating. Kawhi Leonard is being absolved. Kawhi Leonard was able to cash out and get his bread. And all he has to do is pay back 700K in restitution for improper benefits by the Clippers for his uncle and his former business representative, Uncle Dennis, Dennis Robertson. No shade or no. Nothing for the agent.

Kawhi had an agent, no smoke for him. All of it falls upon Uncle Dennis. Now, Uncle Dennis was fired by Kawhi in June and the agent was also fired in June. But only Uncle Dennis catches the smoke. He is being banned by the NBA from all business dealings. I believe once the full report was released, the term was a sentence of five years for Uncle Dennis. So Uncle Dennis is no more for a minimum of five years in the league.

But the main thing you have to focus on here is that what was the issue here? What was the what was the what was the smoke? The smoke is that Kawhi Leonard got extra benefits that counted against the salary cap. And if you want to know what those types of things are. Now, they didn't get into the specifics of each single thing that he did that circumvented outside of the sponsorship endorsement deals. But things like private jets, players getting tickets, all that stuff counts as income. And all that stuff counts against the salary cap.

So that is built in to your contracts and built into your salary. But here's the deal. You've got to report that. Here's also the deal. You've got to pay that back. Those tickets are for the free. It's baked into your deal that you then have to pay for.

And allegedly what the NBA has investigated and has seemingly unearthed is that perks like that were being given to Kawhi. persona non grata. Unlimited. All the fixings. Like you go to five guys and you see like what top is can you get? You get them all. Get them all for free.

It's like, well, what do you mean? No, no, no. You literally can get all the fixings, all the top ins at five guys for free. That's essentially what the Clippers were doing with Kawhi. You want the PJ? Free. You want extra tickets at the game?

Free. Allegedly. That's the types of setup that the Clippers had for Kawhi Leonard. It was five guys. All the topics were free. And when it was time for Kawhi to, you know, restitute, pay those back. Allegedly, that did not happen.

And that's why he gets popped for 700 K. But you have to take into account that the man got almost 30 M's through those endorsement deals. So getting upwards of 30 M's for endorsement deals and you didn't have to pay endorsement deals on top of the five guys toppings fixings on top of it sprinkled out tickets PJs all of that. That was supposed to be paid back. It was not. So he gets popped for 700 K. Because it's in restitution so improper benefits.

That's the benefits we're talking about the five guys fixings. So that would make you to think if we start the layout where the blame seems to be have have been landed. Right. Like where did the league put the blame? They did not put the blame at Kawhi Leonard's feet, although the media narratives leading up to now have been more about Kawhi Leonard's involvement in this, as opposed to the people who were actually involved, which is Uncle Dennis and which is the Clippers. and this is something I've been talking about because in regards to all of this this was about the power dynamic and the power structure and a player having leverage Kawhi Leonard, Uncle Dennis they had leverage to ask whatever they wanted from the Clippers and the Clippers had a chance to say no because Uncle Dennis was trying to run the same game on the Lakers and the Lakers said nah, we're not doing that even a dysfunctional a dysfunctional mess like the Lakers understood what Uncle Dennis was trying to get off. And they said, nah, even we not even about to get that low.

We're not going to get down dirty like that. And if you watched winning time, you know how down and dirty Dr. Buss would get down to get it done. But even his offspring is saying, nah, we can't get that down. We can't get that lowdown. So the Lakers said no to all the things that Uncle Dennis wanted. Because again, never forget, and I've been talking about this for a very long time.

Kawhi was supposed to be a Laker with LeBron. That was supposed to be the pairing. But once the Lakers did not give in to Uncle Dennis and all the things that he wanted, they had to pivot and he pivoted to the other team in L.A. because Kawhi wanted to hoop in Cali. so he went to the Clippers instead of the Lake Show it was supposed to be Boardman and Braun instead you got Boardman and Pandemic P that's quite the fall off but Kawhi and them didn't care Uncle Dennis and them didn't care because they were going to get the contract that they were going to get and they were going to get the perks that they were looking for because Steve Ballmer in desperation, in greed, was willing to do a deal with the devil. And that devil was not Kawhi Leonard. That devil was not even Uncle Dennis.

That devil was greed. Steve Ballmer did this to himself. He has nobody to blame but himself and he could get all blustery and angry and have the vitriol. The main thing is that the Clippers said, yes to a deal that they knew was Fugazi. They said yes to a deal that they knew was going to break the rules. Quite honestly, they got off light. If we're really talking about it and we're really trying to chop it up, the fact that a team, an owner was complicit with the president of basketball operations and the GM in terms of circumventing the cap and then linking up with Companies that are league partners.

Daktronics does all the video scoreboards in the league damn near. They colluded on a multi-tiered, multi-pronged approach to get Kawhi extra money. This was deliberate. This was premeditated. Despite the bluster of Balmer, who went on the four-letter network and sat down and had a one-on-one with Ramona Shelbourne and tried to cop all the pleas, he cried victim. And Lawrence Frank, in press conferences, saying, we know the rules. Boy, would that come back to haunt him.

Because you did know the rules, Lawrence Frank, and you broke them. You went out of your way to break them. So I guess you did know the rules, Lawrence Frank. Now if you want to bust it down, Steve Ballmer gets fined $30 million. Now, again, that sounds like a big number and it's the largest number ever levied upon an owner. But this man bought the Clippers with $2 billion straight cash, homie. So $30 million ain't nothing to Steve Ballmer.

he got that in the petty cash fund but it makes a headline right he's banned for a year no NBA league activities no Clippers activities he can't go to that arena he just built that Intuit Dome out there at Englewood he did all this stuff he moved Hellfire and Brimstone to get that thing done he cannot step foot inside that arena for a year Lawrence Frank the GM who was in the mix who was caught in emails banned for six months with no pay and then you had the president of business operations so you had the president of basketball operations slash GM and Lawrence Frank and then you had the president of business operations in terms of Jillian Zucker who was denying it all the way to the end, even when she was caught red-handed, even when they pulled up the receipts and emails, still tried to deny it, she gets banned for one year. No pay. So that sounds tough, right? Man, they gave the owner 30 mil, we're fining you. Banned for a year. No team activities, no league activities. He can't go to the owner's meetings.

He can't go to All-Star. He can't do anything that's involving the NBA and the Clippers. Dunzo, one year. Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations. You were complicit. You cop please. You finally fessed up.

All right, six months for you. No pay. Same deal like Ballmer. Can't be in and around the team. All of that. And then Zucker, president of business operations. One year, because you were trying to be strident.

You were trying to go down with the ship and deny. Slim Chaw said at best, we fight on that lie. And that's what Zucker was doing. She was fighting on that lie. She got popped one year. Banned. No pay.

Five first round picks stripped from the franchise. That sounds extremely tough. But then you start to peel back the layers. Then you start to peel back the layers and you go, well, wait a minute. Lawrence Frank just got an extension in December. A four year extension. So that six months of no pay, is that even going to hit like that?

The man has a four year extension, which I'm sure came with some kind of sonomotis. And I'm sure and this is spitballing and this is alleged. But when would you be surprised if they structured the deal where he got a lot of that bread, maybe six months to a year's worth of a salary up front, just in case something like this would have happened? Would you be surprised by that? The Clippers are going to lose five first round picks. Now, you would think, well, damn, aren't they getting some picks in this Kawhi trade with Toronto? That still is not official yet.

But wouldn't you think that part of that, those picks are in the deal? No, no. Those picks are coming to the Clippers. The 2031 unprotected first round pick and the 2033 unprotected first round pick. Those are still going to be Clipper picks. because the five first round picks can only be Clippers own picks. If they get any picks in a trade, any pick swaps, those are still good.

So where is the punishment? Yes, they don't have their own first round pick, but if they just keep making trades and sell off assets, they can recoup and still have first round picks. Where is the punishment? The punishment is more out of embarrassment. Could a punishment that's been levied is not an actual punishment. The headlines are being sensationalized and the numbers are big. five first round picks, $30 million, banned for a year.

Even Kawhi got to cough up 700K. But at the end of it, those picks are only the Clippers' own picks. So as long as they can keep trading and accumulating back first round picks, they still have first round picks. Lawrence Frank is only out of a job for six months and he just got an extension, which probably would have been front loaded just in case he got suspended. Steve Ballmer paid for this team in two billion dollars cash and he got fined 30 million dollars. Do you think Steve Ballmer even blinked at the number of 30 million dollars? Now he's mad because he's embarrassed.

He's angry because he was embarrassed because he got caught. They thought they could circumvent the cab. They thought they had it all figured out. But when Pablo Torre and we got to get Pablo Torre his props, when Pablo Torre started digging, when whoever gave Pablo the tea and then Pablo went to work. It was easy to see what it was. And that's the most damning thing out of all this. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, all of that.

Straight cash, homie, two billion, light work. You would assume this is a very smart individual. So much. The dots were relatively easy to connect once you found out who the players that were involved in the scheme. I say it all the time. We put people on pedestals. He might be a technology giant.

He might be a tech whiz. And his money has allowed him to access and the power to be able to buy a NBA franchise straight cash. That does not mean he's the smartest person in every room he walks in. Because Pablo Torre from afar was able to brick by brick put this whole thing together. And the four-letter network, which is in bed with the NBA, came out with that report about what, two weeks ago, saying that the NBA hadn't found anything? Can you imagine? The four-letter network jumped out there and said that the NBA had concluded this investigation and didn't find anything.

Only for the NBA to be like, what the hell are y'all talking about? This is still an ongoing investigation and we will get to it when we're done with it. We will announce our findings when we get to it. Only for the league to pull up and be like, yeah, we got y'all red handed. Y'all are busted. It's a wrap for all of this. All of this is over.

All of it. Kawhi, go back to Toronto. Balmer, go away for a year. Frank, six months. Zucker, you get a year because you try to go down with the ship. You try to be loyal to the soil. You're out of there for a year.

30M's Balmer. Yeah, we know you got it, but that's the most we've ever find an owner. So it'll grab headlines. And that's why we have this, because it looks that way. Five first round picks, even though it's only their own picks, not collective picks. so the fact that they're able to get this off the one who catches this the most is Uncle Dennis unfortunately and I think that's the most problematic part out of all this because all he did was ask and I don't understand that piece of it right because you go to the negotiating table. You are trying to get a contract done.

You put what you would like on the table. If what you put on the table is illegal, but the other side accepts it, why am I getting the most punishment just because I was the one that put it on the table? The Clippers could have said, no, we're not doing that, But this is what we'll do. And run that piece down. But they didn't. They took what Uncle Dennis said or negotiated, knowing it was illegal. It said, I bet.

How could we get this off? So are we trying to call Uncle Dennis the mastermind? We're calling Uncle Dennis the mastermind because he gets banned for five years. but somehow the dude that was actually in on it and complicit and helped orchestrate it with his front office people underneath him only gets popped for a year? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Not at all. I'll head to the chat.

See Steph in the chat. Clips got off light. Tim Bowles had to give up five picks. later turning to three for circumventing Kepha Joe Smith back in the day. Yeah. And the thing about that is that was a circumvention of the heart, right? Like that wasn't like, like how this was right.

Because Joe Smith really wanted to be there. Kevin Garnett, the whole deal. It was a lot going on with like the Joe Smith thing. It wasn't greed. Like that circumvention wasn't out of greed. It was out of, yo, we're trying to make our star happy. We're going to bend the rules a little bit and we're going to try to make it done.

This was, we have no relevance. We have a boisterous owner who likes throwing his money around. How can we give him what he wants? He wants a big name. He's trying to get that into a dome, off the ground. How can we open that arena? We need to open that arena with a top tier marquee player.

even though the Lakers said no we are in no position to not say no we have to say yes and then oh by the way go give up five more first round picks to go get pandemic pay so not only do we circumvent the cap to bring in Boardman but then Boardman circumvents the cap comes in with Uncle Dennis and all the five guys fixings on top of it. And then you got to go give up another five first round picks to go get pandemic pee? Wild. All right. So obviously everyone's got an opinion. Everyone's jumping out there with their takes. There's more stuff coming out.

Shams now is, I guess, finally allowed to speak on what he claims he knows, which he probably has known for a while. But because of his gig and the status he has now, he can't run with some stuff like he probably could have gotten off in his Yahoo days. But now Shams is airing some stuff out with tea that he's got from around the league. So let's tap into some of that. Shams. And this is as of this morning. Shams, I had one executive tell me last night that the Clippers were essentially acting like a power agent brokering deals for Kawhi Leonard's business representative at the time and Dennis Robertson.

And that's millions and millions of cash flow coming into Kawhi Leonard at a point in time in the calendar where we were in a pandemic in 2020 and 2021. By mid 2021, Kawhi Leonard had pocketed tens of millions of dollars in endorsement deals where they were where there was just not any type of showing up or any type of obligation that he had. And it wasn't just one company. It was four companies that the NBA found. And in the investigation, and he has to make this clear, did show that Kawhi Leonard did not have any knowledge of this salary cap circumvention that was going on. He had essentially given all of the power to his uncle, Dennis Robertson, for years now. And now Dennis Robertson has been banned from all basketball business moving forward.

I still read somewhere that it was five years, but because I think if he was actually banned for life, Shamsa have no problem saying that. But Kawhi didn't know anything. Now, do we actually believe that? I would hope that if a uncle knows he's breaking the rules on behalf of his nephew, that he would not involve his nephew. So let's assume Uncle Dennis has at least that level of respect for his blood. Right. But the fact of the matter is, is that a lot of this is based on I mean, you could call this money laundering like you could because here's the thing.

Right. The Clippers were investing in these companies. These companies that Kawhi Leonard all of a sudden was a was an endorseee of. The money was flowing in that looked way too circumstantial to where the Clippers or Balmer or whoever is funneling in a certain amount of money. And then, oh, by the way, that happens to be the same exact salary Kawhi Leonard is being paid. Allegedly. So there is a lot here when it comes to what was the actual issue.

What was the. What was the actual problem of what Kawhi was doing? Kawhi was showing up for the games. You know, remember if you watch the Sopranos, the Sopranos had those construction jobs. And they would just be posted up at the work site, but they wouldn't do anything. It was akin to that. But at least in the Sopranos, those dudes actually showed up to the work site.

then they posted up was getting tans out there and, you know, placing bets on games and whatnot, but at least they showed up. This is different because they're not even getting, Kawhi wasn't even doing anything for these companies that he's being paid to endorse. He's a sponsor, but he's not doing anything. He had to deal with aspiration planting trees. Kawhi didn't plant not one tree. So that is what was the issue here is that, well, you got paid for these services and you had no services rendered. What's up with that?

But if Kawhi was like, well, nobody told me I had to go pull up and plant a tree. But the check still cleared. Well, why am I going to press them about planting the tree if they still paying me the bread? So Kawhi has plausible deniability. But Uncle Dennis. Now so fast, Uncle Dennis, because you try to get this off. I wonder what role the Lakers played in this.

I wonder if the Lakers. Because wouldn't it be petty? And the report came out, but that might have just been leaked to the press. But I wonder if whether it's Jeannie or the brothers, the buses. Hit up silver. He's like, yo, Uncle Dennis tried this with us. Bang them over the head.

We were smart enough to say hell no. They clearly were dumb enough to say yes. Bang them over the head. And again, in theory, they did. By optics perspectives, by a casual perspective, they did. but then once you peel the layers back everybody got off light Kawhi got off light I'm happiest for him because while the media was trying to spin narratives about they're going to suspend him they're going to avoid his contract they're going to do all this stuff I'm like why? why is Kawhi being painted as a villain?

he got a check for not doing no work we all would want that life Kawhi was getting millions of dollars to chill at the crib. We all are trying to work from home. What is that? Chilling at the crib, getting paid. There was a lot of vitriol levered at Kawhi. There was a lot of people trying to get narratives off. There was a lot of people trying to get clicks by killing Kawhi.

And Kawhi comes out of this with the least amount of punishment. And I love that. That's the only thing that I think about this that was actually done correctly. Everything else in this is performative. The five first round picks, performative. The 30 mil to Ballmer, performative. Getting banned by your man's Lauren Frank for six months even though he just got a even though he just got a contract extension, performative.

so to me it's you know all this stuff goes back to bruh it's performative everybody got off late the Clippers get stripped of their own first own their own five first round picks but can still accumulate other teams first round picks to replace the five first round picks that they just got stripped from first circuit so how is that not that's draft pick circumvention. We're going to trade Kawhi Leonard. We're going to get back two picks. Now that takes care of 2031 and 2033 because the picks went from 2029 to 2033. So as it stands right now, assuming the Kawhi trade in its original reporting goes through as is, they really only lost three first round picks. So just like Steps said with the Timberwolves, they were fined with the five first round picks but it later turned into three and that was three or eight in the negotiation. This is kind of doing the same thing without the need of a negotiation because they're able to go out there and have five first round picks taken away but we're already going to get two back so it's really just three.

Ballmer could pay that 30 million. It's nothing to him. It's the embarrassment that is priceless. The 30 million dollars means nothing to Steve Ballmer. It's the embarrassment of you are the face of that franchise, which is what he wanted to be. He paid that 2 billion straight cash because he wanted to be the face. He's one of those owners.

Now when he pops up in league circles, people are going to give him an extra look and it's not going to be a good one. He's going to have to wear that. They are airing him out in all the group chats, all the secret group chats. He's being aired out right now. That's what it is. And he did that to himself because he knowingly participated in this. And he's threatening to sue.

Like some of the stuff that if you look at. Like the Clippers are threatening to like appeal this. They can't appeal this. They can't. There's no jurisdiction that would allow the Clippers to appeal this. Like that's the thing here. They're so, Steve Ballmer is turning in so many different directions because he can't believe he was popped.

he tried to get in front of it he went on the full of the network he sent Lawrence Frank out there we know the rules he tried to get his people in the media to ride for him and push it more on Kawhi he can't believe that the league actually came down on him even though the 30 million means nothing to him even though there's ways to get around the five first round picks. It's the embarrassment of knowing he got caught. The Microsoft guy got caught. The guy that's supposed to be a smart engineer level guy. He got caught. By Pablo Torre. He got caught by the NBA.

it's wild absolutely wild when you look at all of this right and I saw somebody jump out there and say that this is like the worst day in franchise history for the Clippers and I find it to be comical because let's harken back to a time obviously that person was not melanated clearly but let's harken back to a time a time where the owner the other owner of the team the prior owner of the team was caught out there caught out there being racist homophobic misogynist because his side piece secretly taped him and recorded him and leaked it. That was a dark day for that franchise. In my opinion, an even darker day was when all that information got leaked. A team of predominantly black players had a chance to go out there and send a message not just to the sports world but to the pop culture world and to the diaspora as a whole. They were led by someone who was thought to be a floor general, a coach on the floor. Someone that was, I believe at the time, if not the head of the MBPA, one of the pillars amongst the conglomerate that was the MBPA. So all eyes were focused on the team.

What are they going to do? They got to do something strong. They got to do something strident. They got to take a stand. They can't go out there and win games for this owner who has shown and has been proven to be such a racist, such a misogynist, such a bigot. They got to do something strong. And they went out there.

And they wore their warm ups inside out. that was what you got from the floor general the coach on the floor who's now taking cruises with Russell Westbrook that's what you got that to me is the worst day in Clippers history not even the day that Donald Sterling was proven to be a racist and a bigot not even the day when Steve Ballmer who saved the NBA by buying the Clippers from Donald Stolen for $2 billion straight cash, circumventing the cap, spending money, overpaying for Kawhi through various ventures, giving up everything including Shea Gilders Alexander in a draft pick that would turn out to be Jalen Williams. Not even that day. The darkest day in Clippers history was the day that they decided to wear their warm-ups inside out before a playoff game. So yesterday was not the worst day in Clippers history. It was not. There's been darker days.

And it's not even this Donald Sterling day. It was the reaction to the Donald Sterling day. That was the worst day in Clippers history. That showed you and showed me and proved to me. I knew it all the whole time, But that doubled and tripled down to me that point fraud. You had one chance. You had one job.

You're so strident. You wear HBCUs all over the place. You do all that stuff. Okay. Stand on something. Couldn't do it. Anywho.

So with everything going on. Colin Kaepernick has a book coming out. Colin Kaepernick has a book coming out, and that book is making a lot of headlines. It's making a lot of waves. People are jumping out there with their takes on it. And allegedly, the Roc Nation smear campaign is in full swing. The Roc Nation smear campaign is to the point where people are now questioning what Colin Kaepernick's actual role is in his business ventures, Since he was clearly blackballed by the NFL.

If you're not familiar, Colin Kaepernick has a book coming out. So he's making the rounds. He's doing all the things. He's speaking his truth. And he has a memoir. It's been 10 years since he took a knee. 10 years.

So much has changed. So much has not changed. But a lot of things Colin Kaepernick wanted to get off his chest. As he has making the media rounds for his book. Jay-Z said earlier this year in one of his media rounds. It's offense all year. And I was including calling out Colin Kaepernick.

And Colin Kaepernick has responded. And they're having their back and forth, right? You can choose whatever side you want to be on. I'm more on Kaepernick's side because of how I feel about Jay-Z and his capitalistic ways. But even in this. So Roc Nation and all of his minions would make you think that Colin Kaepernick only received a tryout in the NFL during his whole blackballing. Only because Jay-Z worked it out.

But let's play that out. Let's assume that that's correct. I know on good authority that that's not what happened, but let's just assume that that's what happened. So Jay-Z is leveraging the power of trying to get Roc Nation to do Super Bowl halftime shows to be able to work out a deal. So Colin Kaepernick can get a tryout to get a workout in front of NFL scouts and NFL owners. Cool. At that workout.

Colin Kaepernick was asked to sign paperwork that was going to waive his future rights to sue the league, allegedly. That is why Colin Kaepernick blew off that workout. Not because he was scared, not because the conditions weren't right, not because any of that stuff. He did not do it because he was asked to sign a waiver. That would have essentially made him powerless in proving how he's been blackballed. So now, now that you have that information, let's now go forward with it. So I'm to believe Jay-Z did the workings behind the scenes to get Kaepernick a tryout.

But now we also know that Kaepernick at that tryout that Jay-Z set up was asked to sign paperwork that would have waived his own rights towards any litigation in the future against the NFL. So now, where is that piece of the information when the Jay-Z versus Kaepernick stuff is mentioned? Where are the Jay-Z sycophants? Why don't they mention that piece of it? All because they don't want to believe it. because Hove would never. And now you have someone jumping out there defending Jay-Z and that person is another black capitalist, Fraud A.

Smith. So Fraud A. is now defending Jay-Z by saying Jay-Z single-handedly made it happen for Kaepernick. And he knows in good authority, he's insinguating that he was in a room, all this type of stuff. But a long time ago, On his own show, someone came on that show and told Stephen A. what the actual deal was in terms of why that Kaepernick workout thing didn't happen. And that person goes by the name of Howard Bryant.

Howard Bryant is a prominent author, historian, used to work at ESPN, I think for a long time. I think he's worked there multiple times. But he is a journalist. He is a reporter. He is a writer. He is an author. Much in the same frame of like a Pablo Torre in regards to when he gets a story, he's going to sniff that story all the way out.

And you see it here. Somebody pulled the clip up because you can see how long ago it was. because Stephen A's hairline isn't as crazy as it is now. And you see Max is on that screen, so that tells you how long ago it was. This waiver, this is the quote from Howard Bryant, this waiver, you're asking Colin Kaepernick to give up everything. When I talk to Kaepernick's lawyers, they say it would be malpractice if I allowed him to sign that document. This is in 2019.

And it's 2026. And Fraud A. Smith, who was here. OK, so he heard this statement made by Howard Bryant. It was on his show. This is after the workout. And Stephen A.

is still running with the narrative that Jay-Z did all the things to get Kaepernick that workout. So if that is the case, and I am of to believe that Jay-Z had part in this paperwork being provided for Kaepernick to sign and wave away his rights. You can't just get credit for leveraging your blackness and your swag and your perceived greatness to get a deal done when the people you just made a deal with, who you think you're gaming or coercing, are going to give the guy you're trying to protect or trying to help boost up paperwork that's going to fuck him in the back end. You went on stage and said he signed an NDA. Kaepernick is saying that is not true. But because he did it on a freestyle and it got millions of views, people are just going to believe him because the perception is that Hov is in the room. Hove is breaking bread.

Hove is sitting down with Roger Goodell. Hove is chilling with Jerry Jones. That's the perception. But the reality is that even if he did leverage his blackness to coerce the NFL, who was and still is actively blackballing Colin Kaepernick to give him a tryout, that tryout was done in jest. so even if you think you're doing a good thing if we're giving if we're copying all the pleas for hope as you know people are going to do if you orchestrated this tryout only for the people you leverage this deal with to do some fugaziness behind the scenes to try to make the tryout be the sham that it ultimately ended up being you gotta wear some of that because you went to them and thought you could break bread. You went to an entity that you knew was blackballing Colin Kaepernick and you thought you could spin them into getting him a tryout only for them to make you think you're spinning them just so they could give Colin Kaepernick some paperwork that's going to neuter any type of litigation going forward. So you want props for allegedly spinning the NFL, but you want to be absolved for the NFL using you to get Kaepernick close to signing paperwork that would have neutered any other future pending litigation.

You can't have it both ways. I know you want to have it both ways and you're accustomed to having it both ways, but you're not going to have it both ways. Not here anyway. and I don't care how many Roc Nation vans pull up and all the they run like they're the mafia allegedly all that stuff I don't care about any of that the truth has been out there his fans just don't want to see it because the the pedestal that they put him up the pedestal that that they have put him up on would crumble if you take into account all the actual things that he has done, and more importantly, all the things that he makes you believe he has done that he has not actually done, he will no longer sit upon that pedestal y'all so openly and willingly put him on. When he has people like fraud A, riding for him, you got to watch the company that you keep. Choose your allies carefully. But they're both black capitalists, so it makes sense.

Colin Kaepernick says he believes that Jay-Z's recent comments about him speak to a guilty conscience as the fallout between the former quarterback and the rapper Deepens. This is extremely accurate, right? When you're proven to be wrong. It takes a lot for someone. It takes a lot for the person who is proven to be wrong to admit that they're wrong, especially when they're held in such high regard, especially when they try to walk around as their Teflon. The last thing Hove wants to do, he only did 444 because of that videotape in the elevator. that's the only reason why he even apologized to his wife allegedly if Solange didn't two piece him in an elevator do you think we were going to get 444 or would he have carried that to the grave when you put yourself on the pedestal and you have a bunch of sickening and yes men and women who are going to put you on that pedestal as well.

It is very hard to be like, you know what? I made a deal with the devil and in making that deal with the devil, you almost got spun in that deal. My bad. That's all I think is necessary. Look, you know what I was trying to do. I was trying to get it off. I'm a hustler, Brooklyn, the whole nine.

I'm just trying to get my shit off. I'm trying to get my company up. I'm trying to leverage this power that I have, this perceived swagger that I have and leverage it to get me, my brand, my company, and all my peoples in them into a higher spot. And I'm willing to do that at any cost. If he were to just say that, I think a lot of us who are deemed to be Jay-Z detractors would fall back and say, I bet at least you said the quiet part out loud. Finally, instead of having me to read between the lines of your bars. And fight people who don't have the wherewithal to read between the lines of your bars.

If he were to just say that, everything would be fine. But he won't. Because he can't. Because that pedestal will come tumbling down. He's only willing to admit the mistakes that he can't run from. He can't run from the un-thing. He can't run from the gun charge.

He can't run from the elevator. Anything else? He's going hellfire and brimstone to make sure we don't know about it. Allegedly. Let's see what else we got. they're still talking about Steve Ballmer Steve Ballmer's angry this Kawhi thing is taking on a life of its own I'm so glad that it's low key over because like there wasn't that much to begin with right now like it was all just about waiting for the the ball to drop. You know, if you paid attention to what Pablo Toro was putting out there, you knew it was a wrap.

It's only a matter of time before the smoking gun or the leaked emails, whatever. Something was going to put everything together. But even while there was no essence smoking gun, so much information was out there. So many people were willing to be on the record and speak on it. that it was only a matter of time. It was never a matter of if, it was just going to be when with this Kawhi Leonard thing, with this Steve Ballmer thing, with this LA Clippers thing. Let's see.

and wouldn't you know it your man's Friday on Kawhi Leonard I would null and void the trade you ain't going to Toronto your ad's going to stay right there in LA you're going to suffer the consequences with this team this is just boisterous this is all look I've long been of the ad of of the I've long been of the opinion that sports media is wrestling. Everyone is playing a position. Everyone you're looking at on this screen right now is playing a role. It's playing a position. And there's a term called heel where you got to be the bad guy. Then you have a guy that's a face. That's a good guy, right?

It's real simple. Right now, Fraud A, especially with that suit, is the heel. He's going to be the bad guy. And that's why he could talk this stridently. Yoaz is going to stay right there in LA and you're going to suffer the consequences with this team Shams is being the baby face so maybe it's Wendy because Shams doesn't really play a role Wendy's the baby face but the heel is clearly Stephen A and it's what has gotten him the money that he has but this is an empty take because this doesn't mean anything even if they were to avoid the trade and Kawhi stays in LA that's where he always wants to be anyway. Two, he's still going to get paid. Three, the team ain't going to be as bad as you think because Kawhi is still a really good player.

So will they be championship good? No, I mean, they weren't championship good even when they had Pandemic P in the board band. So no, the team was never going to win a championship with Kawhi there because they didn't have to put around him. Even still, if you null and void the trade, it doesn't hurt Kawhi. What does it hurt Kawhi? Like, this is why this is such an empty take. What does this hurt Kawhi?

What about this? What about going back to LA hurts Kawhi? Where is it that this hurts Kawhi? Because if I'm to make anything of it, it goes like this. Kawhi, you're no longer going back to Toronto. You got to come back to LA and, you know, clean up the shit that you was appalled. First of all, the league has pretty much said Kawhi had no knowledge of this.

So again, this feeds into the narrative of where the media loves to just blame the players. We have a whole ass owner who was caught circumventing the cap. Yet and still, we got Stephen A saying, you, the player, have to go suffer the consequences. Steve Ballmer is going to write that 30 mil out of a petty cash fund. Lawrence Frank got a four year extension before he got suspended for six months of no pay. The Clippers are going to get their own picks taken from them, but that does not mean that they cannot go out and acquire other teams first round picks, which makes the five first round picks that they were that they're going to lose damn near null and void. But somehow Kawhi has to suffer.

You understand the language here. This is why working in sports media for almost 20 years. This is why I try to bring this shit to y'all, because I want to let y'all know this is why they say these things. This is the energy. This is the the reading between the lines that's going on right here. Understand that this is what he's doing. This is wrestling.

This is him being a heel. Because the only story is Steve Ballmer got embarrassed, but that's not going to get millions of clicks and views. So what can we do? Go after the player. You know why? Because there's a certain part of this society that looks at players worse than than they do looking at owners. And as long as that dynamic exists, it is always easier to tap dance on the grave of a player than an owner.

The owner openly colluded and had the two most high-ranking people in his front office along with it. Yet we're blaming the nephew of Uncle Dennis, Who the NBA has proven had little to no knowledge of all the stuff that was going on. That's the one who has to suffer. If you don't see it, I can't help you. We'll go to the chat. It's just not the fact that they're black capitalists. It's that they're not even good businessmen.

And I believe that they get certain people that are especially not good businessmen to prominent positions. Oh, yeah, that's that's factual. And here's the thing with that. Right. So when you have. What Jay-Z has done with Rock Nation, Rock Nation Sports, all that stuff, right. It has been impactful.

Black people have been hired. Black people have been given positions. Right. So you can't get at him and say, oh, you're not doing nothing for the community, right? He can always say, well, look, Roc Nation, we have all these black agents. We're getting millions of black dollars to predominantly black athletes, et cetera, et cetera. He can run that game and run that play easy.

And it's an easy win. There's no way to dispute that. You cannot dispute that. However, when you start to peel back some of the other layers that go way more than just the surface level of I'm running a black business, I employ black people, we have a black client base. Therefore, we are doing all the great things for the community. It doesn't trickle down that way. I wish it did.

I wish this influx of million dollar black athletes would trickle down to the community. I wish it was that such of a simple prospect, but it's not. If you know economics, you know, it doesn't work that way. If you study the people who do know economics, even if you personally don't, you know, it doesn't work that way. Just because we had a president and Ronald Reagan back in the day sell a whole country and a whole part of political party on it. Which was never proven to be true. But they still believe in that theory.

just because that's a thing doesn't mean that has to now trickle down to us on this side, the millinated side. But if you're buying into the whole notion of black capitalist, you're starting to sound like the other side that talks about Reaganomics. For the exact reason, a scapegoat and consolidation of funds to our detriment. Yeah, that's that's the whole issue with black capitalism. Black capitalism is a plague upon our community in our in our diaspora. But it's being treated as though it's something that should be attainable for all parties involved, which kind of goes against the notion of what capitalism actually is. That sounds more like socialism, but don't say that word.

That's that's that's that's that's akin to saying you're woke. Like, don't don't say socialist. But that's the problem. We're misconstruing different philosophies and people are not aware of what these philosophies actually mean because it's just buzzwords. It's terms that they hear so they repeat them and regurgitate them. Anywho, one day we'll have some real. I like the fact that you're bringing this to light because there's going to be a point in time in the near future where we're going to have to have these conversations.

So I want folks that are willing to have these conversations in this in this arena, in this community. So I don't know if you have subscribed already, but if you haven't, you should, because we're going to have these conversations coming up very soon. So we got Friday running game playing the heel. Spewing nonsense. Because, of course, it has to be about the player. We have to keep continuously tear down the player. We cannot tear down an owner.

We can't tear down Lawrence Frank, the president of basketball operations who was complicit in this. We can't tear down the president of business operations who tried to deny, deny, deny and fight on that lie. Like Slim Charles said. We're not going to get at her. We're going to get at the player who had arguably the least involvement in the entire thing. All Kawhi Leonard did was tell his uncle, do what you think is best. his uncle goes out there and tries to get in front of Lake Show.

Lake Show says no. Tries to go to the Clippers because they're desperate. They want a new arena. Steve Ballmer has the devil to deal with the devil. The devil that is greed. And he decides, okay, let's explore it. Lawrence Frank, get on it.

Zucker, get on it. And they got on it and they made it happen. And Uncle Dennis came back to Kawhi and said, hey, they're willing to play. All right, bet. Just make sure it's good and we straight. What I got to do? Just sign your name.

I bet. I trust you, Unc. And then he proceeds to get bread for chilling. He gets bread for being Kawhi Leonard. He leveraged his name, image and likeness to procure several endorsement deals. And because those endorsement deals didn't bear any public facing post appearances, interviews, campaigns, Some people feel that's a problem. But yet the people that orchestrated it, the people that willingly went along with it and then tried to stridently publicly deny it, we're not going to get at them.

But let's make the person with the least knowledge of it or the least appeared knowledge of it be the one that takes the brunt of everything. And that is why sports media is disgusting. And I say that as someone that actively works in it. It's stuff like this. When we get into the whole notion of, well, what happened? Back in the day, it wasn't all about hot takes. It wasn't all about debate television.

This is what happened to it. When you read between the lines, this is exactly what happened to it. You want more from Friday? Let's go ahead and get more from Friday. Quote, Adam Silver letting Kawhi Leonard get away with this. Kawhi Leonard will be suspended for the year. Or he would pay that money back.

The brother gained over $40 million a year. I'm getting that back if I'm the NBA. Again. You have to understand. This is the only way he can maintain relevance. Pat McAfee does not have to move like this. Pat McAfee does not have to move.

When's the last time you heard Pat McAfee talk about somebody else's money? I don't watch his show so I'm fully willing to be wrong when's the last time Pat McAfee went so hard like this about somebody else's money and he wonders why the NABJ calls him out he wonders why Kari Champion and Jemele Hill calls him out he wonders why he gets roasted by his own community in the way that he does. He wonders why he lost the top spot to a punter. I'm getting that back if I'm the NBA. So you're going to run up and take Kawhi's money because he signed his name, image and likeness to procure deals that were fortunate enough to allow him to chill at the crib and just get paid for being Kawhi Leonard. While you got to run around to ESPN, then go run the Sirius XM and then go run to your own YouTube channel to get your bread. Kawhi Leonard is able to chill at the crib and get his off just because he's Kawhi Leonard.

But you got to run around to four or five different platforms to get yours off. I didn't know Stephen A had green eyes. We'll hit the chat. keep each other a little content hey appreciate you brother appreciate you feel free to pull up of course Stephen A. said I wake every day thinking how I can make more money for my bosses yeah yeah he did say that that is truthful he is on the record saying that it was laughable then sadly is prophetic now I can't stand Had either, has a whole stigma on his show for sports betting, but called out a Colts player for betting. Shook my head, like called him the, really didn't know that, didn't catch that. Not surprising.

But again, he thinks he's a Colts like legend. And obviously he's out there. So he's very tapped in. So he can get at Colts players and get away with it because he's so tapped in. After that, I couldn't watch Pat anymore. He literally ruined a backup corner's career for small bets. Oh, yes, I do remember that now.

I do remember that. That's, yeah, that was sick. That was sick. But again, when you're able to, but see, look who he's picking on. Because even he knows there's certain levels to it. Like, as powerful as McAfee is, and I appreciate you in the chat, as powerful as McAfee is, even he knows that there's limits. Now, perception wise, he has pushed the boundaries of what television is.

He's cursed on air. He has had guests curse on air. He has had, you know, a Aaron go out there and spread misinformation on his platform. He has had the orange man on his platform spreading more misinformation. So he has pushed the boundaries of what you can do on television. But even he knows there's a line, a certain line he can't cross. If he were to go this hard on a player, on a relevant player, a top tier player, it would all come crumbling down.

It would. Because I can't remember a scenario where McAfee would come out his face and talk this crazy about someone the level of a Kawhi Leonard. Unless McAfee's got some old school Lamar Jackson takes out there, I'm not privy of it. But that's kind of what it is. Like Stephen A has to do this just to hang on to the number two spot. Because he got the number one spot snatched from a long time ago by McAfee. This is what he has to do just to be number two.

Do you understand how crazy that is, that this is the level he has to go to just to be number two? And then run and go do hours of radio and then go run and go do his own content on YouTube and then run and go do pop up appearances on Fox News. Just to be number two. While McAfee does his one show. Yes, they're asking him to do more. He's going to do Monday Night Football. and that he's still doing stuff for college football.

But that one day, those five days a week when he does his show, once his show is done, he's done. But not Fraud A. Fraud A got to run and go do three, four more jobs just to be number two. Couldn't be me. I've worked multiple jobs before. that shit will burn you out. The money could be really good, but that shit will burn you out.

That's why this man hairline looked the way that it is. This is his hairline telling you how burnt out he is. I learned. Get it all off. He's still hanging on for dear life. All right, let's see what else we got. we might wrap it up there All right, so speaking of Friday, he did a hit with...

He did a hit with Kari Champion and Jemele Hill, right? And I'm starting to think that this was all clickbait. I'm starting to think this was also like wrestling. Because nothing about this clip... All right, let me just show y'all on the screen. So remember a few months ago, Jamel Hill and Kari Champion went at Friday, called him out. He responded back because he loves nothing more.

He loves nothing better to do than to go back at black women publicly. Hence why the NABJ gave him that award at their convention. But now they had a clearing of the air. They had a sit down contentious interview, But it rings hollow to me because they brought up the whole thing of the orange man calling Fraud A a low IQ individual. And the only retort that Fraud A had was, oh, but I might be getting an interview with him. So how low IQ could I be? I'm working on things behind the scenes.

And they kind of fell back like, oh, oh, oh, oh. And I'm like, wait, why is that? Why is that a dub? Why is that considered a dub? This man called you a low IQ individual in front of the nation and your retort to that is come on my platform. Then that tells me that you really don't care about the conversation anyway. You just want the clicks.

You want to perceived. You want the perception that you're close. To people in power. Clearly, McAfee is close to people in power. He's on Air Force One with it. He's waiting on the tarmac on Air Force One with it. You want to have the orange man pull up to your platform for the clicks and views?

Even after he calls you a low IQ individual, that's your retort? Your retort for defending yourself is come on my platform and tell me that? Because that doesn't ring of someone who is actually mad. That just rings of someone who is viewing an opportunity. An opportunity to monetize, an opportunity to get bread, the opportunity to get clicks and views and more subscribers and more followers and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It has nothing to do with he's fighting back and pushing back. It has everything to do with, oh, I want to leverage this.

If I could have the president on my platform and we could have a couple of viral moments or I'm out of here. Maybe I could get my spot back for McAfee. No, you're not. I can tell you that right now. You ain't getting that spot back for McAfee.