In the NBA because of the explicit BRI split rule, this isn't really the case. The salary cap and other rules like it redistribute money among players, they don't really change players compensation as a whole.
I think part of the argument for letting Kawhi mostly slide is that the NBA is arguing that he took less on his contract with the Clippers and was being made whole on the side. Illegal for both sides, but the benefit to the arrangement was mostly on the Clippers side and Kawhi got a lot less benefit out of it, especially when some of the money never showed up.
And if they had voided Kawhi's contract, it would have thrown off the competitive balance of the league because he would have signed for peanuts somewhere and been worth way more than that.
As mostly a World Cup soccer fan who has still really loved the action throughout, I can't say I don't feel a little bit of this. I was thinking to myself last night, if the offside rule was a little more lenient in a couple of different ways, it could still serve most of its purpose and yet many of these most exciting plays would become legal.
That game had 6 yellow cards and yet was still by far the game I felt like the referees swallowed their whistles the most in this World Cup. It seemed like Curacao's strategy was just to run over everybody and hope the refs kept them in the game and it seemed to work, There were a lot of bodies on the field down the stretch.
The race has diminished in importance quite a bit over the last 30 years, but the product has never been better than the last few years. That was an electrifying race all the way through today.
I think the Knicks could beat the Spurs. Not so sure about the Thunder.
But I think things are more chaotic in general than ever before. I don't think anything is a foregone conclusion.
OKC, Lakers, and Toronto are the only teams left who have won a title in the last 7 years. If anyone else wins this year, it will be 8 different winners in 8 years.
If the Bulls are entering a rebuild, contracts like Williams are exactly the type they should be trading for, not away.
Cutting him isn't great asset management either IMO. Just keep him for a couple more years and maybe in the last year of his deal he can be used as a matching salary in a deal if the Bulls are ready for that in their building process by then.
Yup, I think there is a decently high likelihood that the failed physical was somewhat on purpose. The Ravens knew they paid too much and that was their way out. Similar to the Lakers failing Mark Williams last year.
I can completely respect that even though I'm 100% the opposite.
I tried to figure out why that was the case and I think this is why
The Summer Olympics have so many either A) team sports or B) sports where lots of competitors compete together at the same time (swimming/track for example). I like that competitive aspect.
My favorite events in the Winter Olympics are short track speed skating and curling, which follow that same formula. Many of the other events involve person after person racing against a clock/set score/judges, which can still be fun but just aren't as captivating for me.
It's not about assigning blame at this point. It's about rights and leverage. If he fails the physical no matter if it was known or not, the Hornets have the ability to cancel the trade. They can use that threat to re-negotiate the trade instead, which is what both sides did.
The Bulls could have fought it in the sense they could have refused to re-negotiate and dared the Hornets to cancel the trade, but that's risky because if it actually happens you get nothing.
It's a lot, and I don't love it from the Pacers side.
But it's a modern NBA type of trade. The Pacers did it because Zubac's contract is really good compared to his production for the next couple of years. So they can make a run at the title the next two years with a great starting lineup. I understand it even though it's a little more than I would have given up.