"Honor among thieves" - Los Angeles Clippers' salary cap scandal has everyone airing out dirty laundry

This week will be crucial for the NBA - On Tuesday, the NBA’s board of governors holds its monthly meeting in New York for September. Then on Wednesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver is set to hold his regular post-meeting press conference.

And this month, the most important topic of discussion will be, of course, the Los Angeles Clippers-Kawhi Leonard controversy.With everyone talking about it, many former players and team executives have opened up about this scandal and what could really happen if any of the accusations against either the Clippers or their owner, Steve Ballmer, can be proved. And similarly important: what happens to Kawhi Leonard?

Why the Los Angeles Clippers scandal has everyone shaking their heads!

This is not the first time that an NBA team has tried to sweeten its deal by arranging an endorsement deal for a player.

This has happened quite a few times, and most importantly, it is not completely illegal in terms of salary cap circumvention. But as many anonymous sources have said over the last week, the Los Angeles Clippers' deal with Kawhi Leonard was quite excessive. To pay someone $28 million for doing absolutely nothing, this is not just trying to sweeten an already made deal; this is a different deal altogether.

“There’s sort of honor among thieves, an inbounds area that you can do things.

Everyone sort of knows what everyone does. I don’t think anyone has ever tried, to my knowledge, to give a player $24 million to $48 million under the table.”

As another source has revealed per The Ringer, another team tried something similar. The team GM arranged a $150,000 deal between a player they want on their roster and a local business, where the player will have to make a few promotional appearances. They make a few appearances here and there and get paid for it.

And so, the player gets the extra money and the team gets a player they want, but without doing something illegal.

But in the case of Leonard, it was a completely bogus "no-show" deal, where the endorsement was only on paper. The player never even uttered a word of promotional material to justify getting paid such a large amount. And this is why everyone is so completely baffled by it.

What could happen to the Los Angeles Clippers and Steve Ballmer?

The NBA has retained the New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation against the Los Angeles Clippers since the allegations against them were made public.

While the Clippers and their owner, Steve Ballmer, have continued to deny any wrongdoing, we will have to wait for the investigation to be completed to learn what really went on behind closed doors.

The NBA will only take action against the team and Ballmer if any of the misdoings can be reasonably proven; otherwise, it's just one's word against the other. But if the allegations are proven right, the consequences could be severe.

The team might even see a suspension for Ballmer and team executives, and not just hefty fines.And as for Kawhi Leonard, his contract could be voided, which also means the $7 million he is yet to receive from Aspiration won't come his way anymore, along with some other repercussions. Fans will learn more on Wednesday, during Adam Silver's press conference, although the investigation will probably take a while longer to complete. Also Read: Kawhi Leonard chose Los Angeles Clippers over Los Angeles Lakers to dodge LeBron James and $28M payout