Swanson: In a tanking world, NBA investigating Clippers for trying too hard

INGLEWOOD — A third of the NBA has called tank, but the Clippers are accused of calling the bank – alleged to have circumvented the salary cap to overpay in their recruiting and re-signing of star Kawhi Leonard.

That’s all being looked into offstage by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the NBA’s go-to investigative law firm, as the Clippers and Leonard host All-Star weekend in the Intuit Dome, the bold $2 billion basketball arena planted down the street from SoFi Stadium.

Before some of the NBA’s best players spent Valentine’s Day Saturday in competitive 3-point shooting and dunking exhibitions, Commissioner Adam Silver gave his best lawyerly answers in a half-hour-long news conference focused largely on unethical hoops.

Never mind foul-baiting and load management, the hottest topics circling the NBA in 2026 are tanking and the opposite – trying too hard to win, allegedly, in the Clippers’ case.

One of those things is not like the other; one of those things is worse: It’s tanking. Mass tanking is much worse for the health of the NBA.

As it is, in concept, Silver finds himself at the intersection of Trying Too Little vs. Trying Too Hard. In one direction, cars are stalled up and down the street, a mess. In the other, he thinks he might see a Bugatti blowing through the stop sign, dangerous.

Down there, we have all these teams – including the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers, both recently fined – getting creative in their quests to lose games and improve lottery odds in the apparent panacea that will be the next NBA draft. And there zag the Clippers, possibly pushing the envelope … with cash … under the table, at least according to reporting by investigative podcaster Pablo Torre and The Athletic.

Reportedly, Ballmer is alleged to have funded a multi-million no-show endorsement deal for Leonard with a now-bankrupt environmental company named Aspiration.

One school of wishful thinking features curious coaching decisions, stars sitting for entire fourth quarters or whole games, timeouts going uncalled. A bad product in plain sight. A mockery made too palatable to fans who have bought into the notion that losing is winning because their poor small-market teams are incapable of playing ball on an uneven playing field.

The other school would have fans defending their team for allegedly tilting the playing field in their favor by putting the best team money could buy on the floor. It should be easier to understand Clippers fans defending their team, no matter the verdict, than Jazz fans reaching for whataboutism to justify their team spitting on the spirit of competition for so many seasons straight.

The Clippers’ circumvention, if proved, would amount to Steve Ballmer playing to his strength as the league’s richest owner and the world’s 10th-richest man. And let’s be real, Ballmer would be a baaad Major League Baseball team owner, man, because, for now, no salary cap could hold him back. The Dodgers’ ownership group might real have competition.

But Ballmer is a basketball junkie, and he knows he’s supposed to play – as he and other Clippers officials have said repeatedly – by the NBA’s rules.

That’s what Silver said he was focused on at the moment, he said, reminding teams and the people running them that “we’re all in this together, that we want to have fair competition, we want to have fair systems and to keep an eye on the fans, most importantly, and their expectation that we’re going to be putting the best product forward.”

He was talking tanking there, obviously, because what the Clippers are being accused of is trying, unfairly, to put a good product out there.

And, no, the NBA can’t just have the richest guy getting whatever he wants – well, no Larry O’Brien trophy, no, not yet – like it’s the real world.

So, when the investigation concludes, Silver will weigh the evidence and make the call, decide whether there are to be penalties and how harsh they’ll be.

He previously banned former Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the NBA for life, of course, and then sold the team to Ballmer after Wachtell’s investigation proved the Clippers’ former owner made racist comments on a tape published by TMZ.

Thankfully, there’s nothing so untoward about the allegations facing the Clippers now.

Still, Silver assured the assembled media Saturday he is taking the allegations of cheating the system seriously.

“I am completely beholden to the constitution and the CBA,” Silver said. “I believe in the rule of law … I think in a way, I think it’s what makes sports so special, that you establish these rules and people and teams are required to follow them. I’ve been imbued in these powers by the very team owners and told, you are responsible for enforcing these rules …

“It’s part of my job to remind everybody who’s in this community that I understand in some cases what your short-term interests may be, but we’d better not lose sight of our fans here.”

It also became Silver’s job to make sure Leonard was representing the Clippers on their home court this weekend, adding him as the 25th selection and sticking him on the USA “Stripes” team after the voting fans and coaches left him off initially.

On Saturday, Leonard said he wasn’t stung by the snub, nor did he think the the Aspiration situation contributed to it: “I don’t think Adam Silver would, you know, play into [it].”

Furthermore, Leonard said: “I wasn’t really focused on it, I work for everything I get. I’m not looking for handouts … and everybody that got the nod, they deserved it.”

That includes Leonard, who has averaged 30 points, 6.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.2 steals in 24 games since Dec. 20. That’s when the then-6-21 Clippers began their 20-7 run, turning around what appeared to be a lost season, refusing to punt.

Maybe that’s because the Oklahoma City Thunder control the Clippers’ draft pick next summer. Or maybe it’s because they’re wired to try really hard to win.