It may be Pennant Race baseball season.  Yes the College football preseason poll is out.  And the NFL preseason games are in full force.

But the Clippers and the Lakers slam-dunked their way into the sports headlines on a steamy August afternoon.

CLIPPERS…The 11-month Kawhi Leonard-Salary Cp violation probe is apparently complete.  The report:  Owner Steve Ballmer did not funnel money thru companies he did business with to pay Leonard additional cash beyond his (50M) a year contract.

The NBA probe did show the Clippers introduced Leonard and his agent to 4-different big money clients, but no involvement in whether endorsement packages were created for the prize forward.

At issue right now is whether the Clippers violated any part of the NBA-CBA about helping make those contacts and where is the language in the CBA against making those contacts?

Unresolved too is an allegation that Leonard failed to repay travel expenses run up by handlers travelling with the team…money owed to the owner.

Add on, they are rolling out ‘barbed wire’ infront of the league office.  The Players Association says it will file a grievance if the NBA tries to sanction Leonard for taking endorsement money from any of those companies.  That would involve legal action, hearings, discovery.

And Ballmer himself says he will file a grievance and go to arbitration if the NBA sanctions him for helping make the Leonard contacts with a video company, a cell phone company, and the banking company that went bankrupt.

So what does the league do to Ballmer..to Leonard..to an impending fight with the Union?

Does this become ‘Much-Ado-About Nothing’ or does this look like a ‘Whitewash’?

Resolved probe-somewhat..but not completed…fireworks still to come.

-0-

LAKERS….Now it is official, the 47-year run of the Buss family ownership of the franchise is over.  

The Laker Family Trust said the Buss Trust-Foundation decision to sell its (17.5%) remaining stock to the Bob Iger-Josh Kushner consortium, giving them (83%) control of the team.

Jeannie Buss would step down as the Governor and would leave the franchise.  But she said she was against the sale and that the 3-Board members of the Trust all have to vote ‘yes’ for the sale.

Sources say Buss was so upset at the sudden Mark Walter sale, without advanced notice, after just 11-months of ownership, she felt it best the Buss name be removed from the ownership ranks.

We don’t know if the SEC probe of Walter’s (21M) financial dealings in Delaware mean more trouble is coming for the guy who also owns the Dodgers and other pro sports franchises.

But we do know for sure, the owners of the team who brought us Showtime, Wilt, Kareem, West-Kobe-Shaq and so much more are exiting the Purple & Gold.

Some Monday in sports.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming…the Dodgers state of collapse..the Padres playoff chase…the Rams-Chargers fight for LA…USC-UCLA relevance in the Big 10.

==============