Adam Silver addressed the NBA’s investigation into whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the salary cap with Aspiration’s endorsement deal with Kawhi Leonard. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated asked Silver what he needs to see to make a determination that the Clippers committed an infraction. The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement indicates that circumstantial evidence can be enough if it “cannot rationally be explained.”
“Somebody asked me if circumstantial evidence is enough, and just as in a court of law, sometimes there’s direct evidence and sometimes there’s circumstantial evidence,” said Silver. And certainly, circumstantial evidence alone doesn’t prevent findings for one particular side. But then, even in the case of circumstantial evidence, you look at the totality of the circumstances. So it’s not formulaic. We will look at everything that’s presented to us, and that includes inferences that come from evidence as well.”
Silver was also asked if he anticipates this being a long investigation.
“I really don’t know,” replied Silver. “I can say it will take some time, just based on past experience. From the reporting so far, many of the sources are anonymous, but there are several of them. And you have here a separate court proceeding. We have a guilty plea [by Aspiration cofounder Joe Sanberg for wire fraud]. So there’s a fair amount of evidence for us to look at. The stakes are very high here. We, as a league, want to be careful and make sure that not only are we being fair to the Clippers and Steve Ballmer, but also that we have a true understanding of whatever happened here.”