2024-2025 NBA/Toronto Raptors thread

[3thirty]

I've always wondered why more of this hasn't come to light with the egos of the rich owners and trying to get every advantage they can.

So many former players get jobs after they retire in the front office, some deserving, some not. Even the free cars dealers give might be part of a negotiation for all I know.

[bluejays]

I'm late to this punch but the rumors seem pretty damning. I don't for a second think the Raptors didn't investigate doing shady stuff too, but just got out-shaded. It's one thing to ask for the world, but the other shady part of this is the insistence on George to be on his team. Makes me think this investigation could be bigger than just Kawhi. What endorsements is George getting? Lowry probably feels like crap thinking that Kawhi was his friend, while behind the scenes he was looking for his buddy to join.

[Jiggy]

Pablo is taking Uncle Dennis and the Clippers to the cleaners.

His latest reports:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/661...-owner-report/

In December 2022, Aspiration, a San Francisco-based environmental firm, was running out of money. Employees, including executives, were laid off. Outgoing payments were on hold, including to the firm’s expensive endorsement partner, LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard.

That same month, according to the latest allegations made on the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast that aired Thursday morning, Clippers minority owner Dennis J. Wong made an almost $2 million investment in Aspiration, which turned around and paid Leonard $1.75 million — as required through his endorsement contract with the environmental company.

“It is beyond shocking, and I will tell you, I knew that the board (of directors at Aspiration) had put (in) money in December to make payroll and make rent… (so) it is not a rational investment that someone (Wong) would make,” one of two anonymous former Aspiration employees said on the podcast. “So it is very shocking to me that $2 million was made as an investment by Dennis Wong, who in my texts is identified as … Steve Ballmer’s partner a week before $1.75 million was paid to Kawhi.”

Said a second anonymous former Aspiration official, who is identified as one of the sources who made the initial allegations last week: “There’s multiple things that are conspicuous. One, we’re broke. We’re broke. So to invest in a broke company is beyond me. … And then the other thing is the amount that’s being invested, that’s such a nominal amount if we’re talking pure investment, especially in a late-stage startup that’s … already raised a year earlier $300 million (sic), what does $2 million buy you?”

[bluejays]

I hope they get burned hard for this. What a dirty game. No doubt Silver will play the same hand as Stern to try and minimize the damage by probably pointing to it as a lone wolf situation, but I bet this thing is going on with other stars too (on other teams). Knowing the NBA though, the game must go on and the less it's swept under the rug the better is is for the game. It certainly sounds like there will be reprimands toward LA, but seriously I hope he finds more with other teams alike.

[Blaster86]

If you believe the guy who broke this story, other NBA executives are absolutely livid. While I am sure there is some cap skirting in every league with a cap, apparently anything to this level is unheard of in the NBA.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

If you believe the guy who broke this story, other NBA executives are absolutely livid. While I am sure there is some cap skirting in every league with a cap, apparently anything to this level is unheard of in the NBA.

The NBA is shady. They'll point to lone wolfs if anything, like they did with the Tim Donaghy situation, but I would wager this is happening more. Do we honestly think Uncle Dennis is the great outside the box thinker of our time, and no other team complied? If he asked for it, other teams are aware of what was needed to get it done. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that to them. I'd start by looking at Paul George too, then look at other agents' requests from teams. But that won't happen because the league must continue and the integrity can't be questioned widely. It's the same with any corporation...protect the entity.


I'd love to see this guy withhold other information then in time release it just to get egg on the NBAs face. They haven't been clean ever, since Stern.

[devo22]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1966136158334890472


fascinating to see all of this unfold.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by devo22

https://twitter.com/user/status/1966136158334890472


fascinating to see all of this unfold.

Keeps getting crazier. Makes me wonder what San Antonio had to deal with behind the scenes, and what the "load management" with the Raptors was all about.

[Jiggy]

That is banana's, what a diva. Already made hundreds of millions of dollars but didn't receive his back door money so he sat out until it got into his bank account.

After making ~220 million dollars, does the 1.75 million really mean that much? Especially when people in that company are being laid off.

[Strange Brew]

Those stats are circumstantial but I have no doubt the Clippers and Kawhi are dirty on this.

I am a fan of the NBA and I like the product but I know that is not a universally held view. One problem the league has is the notion that the big stars don't care enough about winning in the regular season.

The league decided they need to bring in the "heave rule" so that last second, lost distance shots don't count against a players shooting percentage. The league pretty much reinforcing the notion that winning is secondary in too many cases.

[Scornfire]

Extremely funny for Mark Cuban to come out on Balmer's side and then immediately have the mirror turned on him and the very conspicuous circumstances surrounding the Nowitzki contract in 2014

[SuperMatt18]

Raptors looked pretty good tonight, great opener

[chummer]

Raps 1-0, nice!

[KootenayFlamesFan]

FBI stings going on this morning involving illegal gambling.

Rozier has been arrested. Sounds like Chauncey Billups as well. Crazy.

[Strange Brew]

Chauncey working with the mob to run a rigged poker game. Wow

I like how in the press conference the FBI referred to the Toronto Rangers.

[troutman]

Maybe a good start is to ban prop betting on pro sports.

4 teams, 4 mafia families teamed up for $7M scheme, officials say
https://nypost.com/2025/10/23/us-new...lups-arrested/

Thirty one people — including members of the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese mafia families, and coaches and players from the Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trial Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors — have been arrested in the scheme carried out between January 2022 and March 2024, officials said.

Operation Nothing But Bet

[ajr4013]

Originally Posted by strange brew

chauncey working with the mob to run a rigged poker game. Wow

i like how in the press conference the fbi referred to the toronto rangers.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1981367110640292059

That's pretty wild.

[OldDutch]

How does someone who has a good paying job and success fall into this stuff?

Oh right, he went into debt to the wrong people, then they owned him. Tale as old as time.

I used to think gambling was the lightest of addictions, but coming round lately that its up there with the worst drugs.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Gambling addiction has always been pretty extreme. People have lost millions, lost their families, resorted to fraud to steal from employers etc...It's just mainstream now that at least 50% of ads in sports events are gambling. Scary thing is we're still in the infancy of this, will only get worse no doubt.

[troutman]

Silver said he had asked the N.B.A.’s gambling partners to “pull back some of the prop bets” for lower-paid players. [nytimes]

Why stop there?

How are there still functional crime families in 2025?

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...e=articleShare