Adam Silver and the NBA just dropped the proverbial hammer on the Los Angeles Clippers, banning key members of their organization for the foreseeable future and stripping the team of five first-round draft selections.
Fans and teams across the league finally have the long-awaited conclusion to the Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration saga, which slowly became a public trial of sorts as a result of Pablo Torre's muckraking — and the strong set of reactions to his reporting.
After the Clippers' punishment was levied, fans have been eager to weaponize Torre's journalistic instincts against other rivals. They're setting themselves up for disappointment. Torre told Dan Patrick last September he wouldn't be looking into Brunson's extension. And Dan Devine, Senior NBA Writer at Yahoo! Sports, said Friday the strategic advantages of Brunson's extension are sufficient to ward off any investigations.
Brunson never actually took a pay cut from the Knicks — at all
Amid cries from fans leaguewide, facetious or not, for Torre to investigate Brunson and his most recent contract with the Knicks, it's worth noting that the "pay cut" in question never happened.
When the point guard signed a four-year contract in July 2024 for more than $156 million, he took every single dollar New York could possibly offer him that summer. The notion that he took a $113 million pay cut came from a fair bit of favorable coverage — for both player and team — with regard to the arrangement.
Brunson could have signed a contract, the next offseason, for $113 million more in total. The guard's actual sacrifice that summer was a total of $37 million, assuming he opts out of the player option in the final year of his deal. That certainly isn't anything to sneeze at, but it's not close to the initially-circulated figure.
Brunson did give up approximately $12.3 million per season on his contract, but he was also able to play that next season without fear of an injury affecting his next paycheck. The guard has been open about the mental calm that financial security brought him.
If there was any kind of cap circumvention going on here, it would be more of the Gary Trent Jr. ilk than like Leonard's situation. And it's not like Brunson took a veteran's minimum — he took every bit of a maximum contract, when he could, when he wanted to.
Yahoo! Sports' Devine says Knicks don't need to worry re: Torre
With fans across Twitter looking to sic Torre on their rival franchises, the reigning champion New York Knicks have certainly become of interest. In a conversation about the topic, Devine addressed the part of the CBA that gives the league the ability to deem something has been afoot.
"If nothing else, 'you take your max now, that lets us get the OG extension/Mikal deal+extension/KAT deal done, you have your best chance of winning a title, you get the full boat after' is a pitch that you can argue meets the rational explanation standard," Devine wrote on Twitter.
All things considered, the Knicks are seemingly covered. SNY's Ian Begley added online that Brunson doesn't have any side deals with the Las Vegas Sphere — or any other of Knick governor James Dolan's business ventures.
New York fans can continue celebrating their title. Rival fans will have to find another way to stop the Knicks, who are looking to become the first NBA Champion in nine years to successfully defend their victory.
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