This guy doesn't play all season but comes back in the middle of the PlayOffs to give a heat a boost as a role player. My opinion is that the Heat probably don't make it past Chicago without him and don't win 2 games versus the Mavs in the Finals so far. What do you guys think?
Dude, this NBA cap bs means nothing... It's not illegal for NBA players to be paid extra under the table if you look up the law. It's just that official contracts are guaranteed by law to give peace of mind to players but we all know these guys can easily get a little something extra extra...
If a team were to pay under the table, they'd be breaching the CBA, and the league, on behalf of the other owners, would punish that team for cheating. I don't think it's happening. Remember when Cuban was letting one of his players stay at his house and the league told him he wasn't allowed to do that? There's been a couple of other stories about minor gifts being construed as additional compensation and disallowed. No one will be going to prison, but transgressors will be fined, lose draft picks, have contracts nullified, and suffer other cruel and unusual punishments for cheating. Plus, under-the-table dealings will be hard to hide from the league unless you simultaneously commit tax fraud. I don't think anyone's getting under-the-table deals.
Haslem can get a fake Peak Shoe Contract in which Riley hands the money to Peak and Peak hands it to Haslem... There's no way to really keep track of that stuff man.. There's so many ways to work around it.. Official contract means guaranteed money because it's the law but we can work to get you more money if you want lol...
Do you have one shred of evidence to support the claim that these type of deals are going on, or are you (as I suspect) merely talking out of your ***?
If the Heat pay money to Peak, the expense will be there on their accounting books. What's the note on the PO going to say? "$8m for 300,000 pairs of cheap sneakers"? "$8m for apparel consulting"? Those books are going to be open to the league office and a Big 4 firm will be auditing them. Do you think you could do a journal entry like that at your company and no one will notice? Would you take the chance on destroying your superfriends dynasty over the backup to Chris Bosh?
I'm pretty sure the books are open to the public too, and with all the fans the NBA has, I think it would be hard to ninja past something like that, if at all. I mean your looking at 3 different crimes just to pay Udonis Haslem.
You're right. I keep forgetting that this day & age is not the late 70s and early 80s. Miami is probably the worst place to do anything... That city was built on cocaine, the buildings and everything, so you know they know how to look into accounting books. Heck they properly audit all businesses for clues to drug money first and foremost. I think if the dirty grime of Stern's repertoire could allow such breachings of CBA for certain teams... This guy is all about money first and foremost and he sees the different dynamics that can make the NBA a ton legal or not.
Unfortunately, no, because NBA franchises are not (and are not allowed to be, iirc) publically traded. That's why there was a question in CBA negotiations about opening up the books to the union. But, just because they're privately owned doesn't mean there's no governance around them though. You're quite the conspiracy-theorist. Sure, there are crooked organizations that can do creative things with their money and hide it. But, they don't have the sorts of relationships that legitimate businesses maintain. They don't have 29 other franchises wanting them to prove their honesty. And, as a policy, no team wants a system in which players are paid under the table -- if other teams do that, they will have to do likewise to compete and costs will get out of hand. They have every incentive to provide transparency into their own organizations to ensure they can monitor everyone else.
^^^ So you don't think Stern could swing something to help at all? I think this man gets away with stuff like how the Tobacco company manages to swindle its way out of any type of liability.
You REALLY don't think, say, Dan Gilbert hasn't gone over those books about 394829 times in search of something to incriminate James? I know perfectly I would if I ran the Cavs, and what's Stern going to say if Gilbert wants to look at them with a fine-tooth comb?
If Stern were so inclined, I think he'd still have a hard time, because the franchise owners are his bosses, ultimately. Most of those guys (1) are savvy businessmen and (2) want to win. I can't envision them tolerating another team getting special treatment.
