You're going to need a bigger rug

... to sweep the Clippers' scandal under. Good morning. Let's basketball.

Adam Silver's comments on the L.A. Clippers saga surrounding Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard, a fugazy tree-planting company and salary cap circumvention were not exactly fire and brimstone. The commissioner indicated that the league's investigation will need to independently prove the franchise did something wrong – the onus is not on the Clippers to prove everything was on the up and up. Maybe I'm misreading the tone of Silver's comments. But he sure doesn't sound prepared to bring a hammer down on his most wealthy boss, and it really doesn't sound like he's getting much pressure from his other bosses to do so.

"I've been around the league long enough in different permutations of allegations and accusations that I'm a big believer in due process and fairness, and we need to now let the investigation run its course," Silver said.

Silver also said that's the opinion of Ballmer's fellow owners.

"At least what's being said to me is a reservation of judgment," Silver said. "I think people recognize that that's what you have a league office for. That's what you have a commissioner for – someone who is independent of the teams. On one hand, of course, I work collectively for the 30 governors, but I have an independent obligation to be the steward of the brand and the integrity of this league.

Unfortunately for the Clippers, Pablo Torre is still finding out.

In a new podcast released Thursday, Pablo Torre poured a bucket of more s--t on the floor for the NBA to sweep up. To summarize briefly, Aspiration's finances were cratering in late 2022 and Kawhi's Uncle Dennis was putting pressure on the company about a late installment payment under his weird endorsement deal. Then in December 2022, Dennis Wong – the only limited partner of the Clippers and college roommate of Ballmer – invested $1.99 million in Aspiration. Nine days later, the delayed $1.75 million installment payment was wired to Kawhi. On that same day, Aspiration laid off 10% of its staff.

Watch the whole thing. The storytelling, detail and real-time reactions from Amin Elhassan and David Samson are all perfect.

Steve Ballmer owns 99% of the Clippers. His old Harvard buddy owns the other 1%. And that dude invested in a failing company right before that failing company paid the Clippers' most important player for his suspicious no-show endorsement deal under pressure from said player's (effective) business manager.

This is really, really damning information, and I have no idea how the Clippers will defend it. As Pablo points out late in the episode, it is interesting that both Clippers' statements specifically deny "the Clippers" and "Steve Ballmer" did anything wrong. Is the argument going to be that Ballmer's $50 million investment wasn't a salary cap circumvention to get Kawhi $48 million in stock and payment but Dennis Wong's $2 million investment was to get Kawhi paid? Seems awful shaky to me!

Meanwhile, before Pablo's latest, we got two excellent, detailed pieces on what's being discussed in the NBA shadows. Here's Howard Beck's FAQ-style piece in The Ringer. And here's Sam Amick's slightly older piece explaining that no, this isn't normal.

What Else We Published This Week

If you're free subscriber to Good Morning It's Basketball, you're getting just a fraction of the newsletter experience. Here's what we're published for paid subscribers recently.

• An assessment of the Josh Giddey contract in the context of where the Bulls sit going forward
• A piece on Nikola Jokic's failure at EuroBasket and how it relates to the importance of Jamal Murray being extraordinary in the playoffs to get the Nuggets back to the Finals
• An initial reaction to the Kawhi tree scandal and a big follow-up
• Lots of coverage of EuroBasket
• A look at how the Valkyries made the WNBA playoffs as an expansion team

We're cooking, if I say so myself, and we'd love to boost subscriber numbers heading into the season. If you're in, get in.

And Then There Was One

Three of the top five players in the world entered EuroBasket. One – Giannis Antetokounmpo – has survived to the semifinals. Luka Doncic and Slovenia couldn't survive against elite Germany on Wednesday, falling 99-91. The Slovenians took an early lead and had pressure on the Germans throughout, and Luka was again the player of the game (39 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists), but Slovenia has too little shooting and interior defense.

Daniel Theis has been incredibly important for Germany. FIBA Dennis Schroder and Franz Wagner get the attention, but that's such a solid team. Schroder had a brutal shooting night and Germany still survived.

In the other quarterfinal game, Finland won despite Lauri Markkanen finding himself in foul trouble and playing just 27 minutes. The Finns were hot from deep, Georgia was not (except for Duda Sanadze, who did his best to keep it competitive).

Not to beat a cold dead horse, but Finland in the EuroBasket semifinals is absolutely unreal. We're a long way from when Helsinki-based app Angry Birds bribed FIBA into giving a World Championship wild card slot to No. 39 ranked Finland in 2013 via promising mobile ads. Huge congratulations to Finnish basketball.

The semifinals are Friday. Finland vs. Germany at 10 AM Eastern. Greece vs. Turkey at 2 PM Eastern. It should be a couple of awesome games followed by the medal round on Sunday.

Be excellent to each other.