By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-07-18 15:37:17
2026年3月6日星期五，在圣安东尼奥的霜银中心（Frost Bank Center），洛杉矶快船队前锋科怀·莱昂纳德 (Kawhi Leonard)（2号）在场上拼抢。NBA目前正在调查快船队是否涉嫌规避工资帽，这与莱昂纳德与现已倒闭的Aspiration公司之间签署的一笔价值2800万美元的“挂名”代言合同有关，快船队老板史蒂夫·鲍尔默 (Steve Ballmer) 曾是该公司的投资者。
还记得那些丑闻吗？在过去的老日子里，你时不时就能在体育版面上读到它们。
利益冲突会被曝光，或者道德底线会被逾越，所有相关人员都不得不尴尬地低下头，或者至少装出尴尬的样子。
那真是一去不复返的时光。
瞧，丑闻现在已经不复存在了，今年夏天就证明了这一点。例如，你可能听说过某位极具人气的NBA球星，众所周知，他与一家公司存在资金往来，而这家公司的整个商业模式就是建立在让球迷在体育博彩中输钱的基础之上的。
你可能还听说，这家公司在今年夏天鼓励并接受了关于这位超级球星下一步去向的投注。这简直是荒谬至极，对吧？道歉肯定马上就来？
事实上，并非如此。这里唯一明显的灰色地带在于，我们讨论的究竟是勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James) 与DraftKings，还是扬尼斯·阿德托昆博 (Giannis Antetokounmpo) 与Kalshi。
当当事人毫无羞耻感时，你很难称其为争议。上周，我们在德克萨斯理工大学（Texas Tech）发生的另一桩平淡无奇的事件中再次体会到了这一点，该事件涉及一位亿万富翁超级捐赠者和一名美国参议院候选人。
给那些没跟上进度的人回顾一下：
今年4月，红色突击者队（Red Raiders）四分卫布兰登·索尔斯比 (Brendan Sorsby)——一名从辛辛那提大学转学而来的备受瞩目的球员——宣布他将暂时离队以接受赌博成瘾治疗。ESPN等媒体报道称，他进行了“数千次在线投注”，其中甚至包括辛辛那提大学的比赛。
5月，索尔斯比聘请了律师，并向NCAA申请禁令以试图保留其参赛资格，尽管体育博彩是被明令禁止的。NCAA拒绝了他的复出请求，但在6月，德克萨斯州西部的一位法官批准了索尔斯比的禁令申请，允许他在2026年参赛。
但当有传言称大12联盟（Big 12）可能会因为德克萨斯理工大学让索尔斯比上场而对其进行制裁时，该校校董会主席显然决定采取主动。
根据《德克萨斯论坛报》的报道，校董会主席科迪·坎贝尔 (Cody Campbell)——近年来向红色突击者体育项目捐赠了数千万美元——于6月10日向一个支持总检察长肯·帕克斯顿 (Ken Paxton) 竞选参议员的筹款委员会捐赠了274,300美元。第二天，帕克斯顿的办公室发送了一封信函给大12联盟，警告该联盟，任何因让索尔斯比上场而做出的处罚都将是“非法的”，并可能导致高达2亿美元的潜在赔偿。
现在，你可能会好奇《论坛报》到底进行了怎样的深挖，才揭露了这起看似显而易见的权钱交易。你可能还会好奇，《论坛报》是如何发现坎贝尔在同一天还向梅斯·米德尔顿 (Mayes Middleton)——接替帕克斯顿担任总检察长的候选人——追加了10万美元捐款的。
额，事情是这样的：所有这些都是在向联邦选举委员会（Federal Election Committee）提交的竞选资金报告中自愿披露的。没有人试图隐瞒任何事情。德克萨斯理工大学没有，坎贝尔没有，帕克斯顿也没有。
所以，如果没有人感到羞耻，那丑闻又从何谈起呢？
这招真是高明，不是吗？我们正在发现一个规律：一个人越是肆无忌惮地跨越曾经被视为不可逾越的底线，就越难激起公众的愤怒。
例如，在未来的几周内，预计NBA将宣布对莱昂纳德与一家名为Aspiration的公司代言合同调查的处理结果。去年，播客节目“Pablo Torre Finds Out”进行的一项荣获普利策奖的调查表明，洛杉矶快船队利用与Aspiration签署的一笔价值2800万美元的代言合同来规避NBA的工资帽规则，而莱昂纳德似乎从未为该公司做过任何代言工作。
这种越界行为退一步说也是极其恶劣的。工资帽规则的神圣性被视为联盟诚信的基石。然而，就在NBA调查期间呢？
快船队竟然得以将莱昂纳德交易到多伦多，而猛龙队也迫不及待地想与这位曾带领他们在2019年夺冠的球员重聚。在NBA完成调查期间，这笔交易目前仍处于搁置状态，但如果他的合同和参赛资格保持不变，他可能会毫发无损地渡过难关。
那么明年冬天呢？莱昂纳德、詹姆斯和阿德托昆博可能会在东部联盟为同一个冠军头衔而战。他们中的一个人依然在数着一份无需干活就能拿到的薪水；另外两个人则在为那些仍在竭力让球迷倾家荡产的公司站台。
而且个个都能在丑闻中全身而退。
由生成式 AI 翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
查看原文：As this summer shows, sports scandals lack the bite they used to
As this summer shows, sports scandals lack the bite they used to
LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) goes after the ball at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio on Friday, March 6, 2026. The NBA is investigating the Clippers for possible salary cap circumvention in connection with a $28 million no-show endorsement deal between Leonard and the now-defunct Aspiration, a company in which Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was an investor.
Remember scandals? Way back in olden times, you’d read about them in the sports pages every now and then.
A conflict of interest would be exposed, or an ethical line would get crossed, and everybody involved had to hang their heads in embarrassment, or at least pretend to.
Those were the days.
See, scandals don’t exist anymore, and this summer proves it. You might have heard, for instance, about an immensely popular NBA player known to have a financial relationship with a company whose entire business model is built around turning fans into losing sports bettors.
You might also have heard that company encouraged and accepted bets this summer on where that immensely popular NBA player would decide to play next. Outrageously inappropriate, right? Apologies surely forthcoming?
Actually, not quite. The only apparent gray area here is whether we’re talking about LeBron James and DraftKings or Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kalshi.
It’s hard to find the controversy when there’s no shame, and we learned that again last week in regard to another ho-hum story out of Texas Tech, involving a billionaire megadonor and a U.S. Senate candidate.
To review, for those who haven’t been keeping up:
In April, Red Raiders quarterback Brendan Sorsby — a high-profile transfer from Cincinnati — announced he was taking a leave of absence to enter a treatment program for gambling addiction. ESPN and other outlets reported he made “thousands of online bets,” including on games at Cincinnati.
In May, Sorsby hired an attorney and filed an injunction against the NCAA in attempt to retain his eligibility, despite the fact that sports betting is expressly forbidden. The NCAA denied his request for reinstatement, but in June a West Texas judge granted Sorsby an injunction allowing him to play in 2026.
But when word began to spread that the Big 12 conference might sanction Tech for playing Sorsby, the chairman of the school’s board of regents apparently decided to get proactive.
According to a report by The Texas Tribune, Cody Campbell — the board chair who’s donated tens of millions of dollars to the Red Raiders athletic program in recent years — made a $274,300 donation on June 10 to a fundraising committee supporting attorney general Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign. The next day, Paxton’s office sent a letter to the Big 12 warning the conference that any punishment for playing Sorsby would be “unlawful,” and could result in $200 million in potential damages.
Now, you might be wondering what kind of digging the Tribune had to do to expose what looks to be an obvious example of quid pro quo. You might also wonder how the Tribune found out that Campbell made an additional $100,000 donation that same day to Mayes Middleton, a candidate to replace Paxton as attorney general.
Well, here’s the thing: all of this was voluntarily disclosed in campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Committee. Nobody was trying to hide any of it. Tech wasn’t. Campbell wasn’t. Paxton wasn’t.
So if there’s no shame, where’s the scandal?
This is a pretty neat trick, isn’t it? What we’re learning is that the more audaciously someone crosses lines that used to be considered uncrossable, the harder it is to get people riled up about it.
In the coming weeks, for instance, the NBA is expected to make an announcement regarding the fallout from an investigation into Kawhi Leonard’s sponsorship deal with a company called Aspiration. Last year, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” suggested that the Los Angeles Clippers used a $28-million endorsement deal with Aspiration to skirt NBA salary cap rules, and that Leonard appeared never to have done any endorsement work for the company.
The line-crossing appeared egregious, to say the least. The sanctity of salary-cap rules are considered fundamental to the integrity of the league. But in the middle of the NBA’s investigation?
The Clippers were able to trade Leonard to Toronto, where the Raptors couldn’t wait to reunite with the player who led them to a championship in 2019. That deal remains on hold while the NBA completes its investigation, but if his contract and eligibility remain intact, he might get through this unscathed.
And next winter? Leonard, James and Antetokounmpo might all be vying for the same Eastern Conference title. One of them still counting the money from a job where he didn’t have to do any work. Two of them hawking companies still trying to help fans go broke.
And all of them scandal-free.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News