The NBA Drops the Hammer on Steve Ballmer and the Clippers (and How the Lakers Dodged That Bullet)

There were people, very likely including Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who didn't think Adam Silver had the stones to do it. Those people were wrong.

The NBA on Wednesday dropped the hammer on the LA Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer, stripping five first round picks from the team, fining Ballmer $30 million and suspending him for a year, and handing down other suspensions to team executives. Uncle Dennis (i.e. Dennis Robertson) was banned for five years from NBA activity.

Only Kawhi Leonard got off basically unpunished by the league (a $750K fine, but in the grand scheme of things that doesn't amount to much given how severe the punishement could have been). And that is by design. Because by letting Kawhi walk with a slap on the wrist, the NBA avoids any sort of arbitration process that could hold up NBA business. And if the goal is to punish the behavior and prevent it in the future, the best way to do it is to punish the teams, not the players.

So what now? Where do the Clips, and the league, go from here?

And how could this have been the Lakers, had they chosen a different path?

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The NBA drops the hammer.

SEGMENT 2: Why was the punishment so severe (for Ballmer, not Kawhi).

SEGMENT 3: Good on the Lakers for not being the team at the wrong end of this.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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