By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-08-27 16:36:41
圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)（1号）在2026年3月6日星期五于圣安东尼奥举行的NBA篮球比赛上半场，带球突破洛杉矶快船队的德里克·琼斯二世（右二）和科怀·伦纳德（2号）。（美联社照片/达伦·阿巴特）
七周前，维克托·文班亚马帮了球队一个大忙。这位22岁的中锋与马刺队达成了一份为期五年的巨额续约合同，尽管这份合同比他在追求NBA允许的最大合同时可能获得的金额少了约5000万美元。
这个折扣的意义可能难以理解。毕竟，对于一个辛苦工作的普通人来说，赚2.52亿美元和赚3.03亿美元之间的差距，就像乘坐火箭去月球和去火星之间的差别。大多数人都知道有区别，但我们永远无法亲身体验。
然而，在NBA球队建设的领域里，每年节省1000万美元的薪资空间可以将失败转化为胜利。理论上，以更低的价格签下文班亚马，可以让马刺在斯蒂芬·卡斯尔和迪伦·哈珀的续约生效后，有能力再引进一名经验丰富的老将。这或许还能让他们多留住达龙·福克斯一年。
而如果马刺打得一手好牌呢？原本可能在2028年、2029年或2030年止步于分区半决赛的季后赛之旅，或许就能变成总冠军，这一切都因为他们在NBA惩罚性的奢侈税围栏下有更多的操作灵活性。
所以，我们可以看到文班亚马的牺牲可能带来的回报。事实上，他们刚刚在NBA总决赛中输给了纽约尼克斯队，而尼克斯正是得益于他们的球星杰伦·布伦森类似的合同折扣。
但如果马刺能够在实现这一切的同时，仍然让文班亚马拿到他应得的钱呢？如果他们能够利用另一个涉及巨额资金的项目——比如说，建造一座新球馆——来确保他们的法国球星最终拿到他本应放弃的那额外5000万美元呢？
你不觉得联盟其他球队会有意见吗？你不觉得这会让那些本应给圣安东尼奥和俄克拉荷马城这样的市场一个与洛杉矶和纽约抗衡机会的规则沦为笑柄吗？你不觉得这会助长一种看法——既然每个人似乎都在以某种方式作弊，一个容忍这种行为同时又拥抱大量赌博资金的联盟，可能并不完全光明正大吗？
当然会。
这就是为什么马刺永远不会被允许逃脱这样的行为。
这也是为什么洛杉矶快船队也不应该被放过。
2026-27赛季NBA开幕日距今不到两个月，总裁亚当·萧华一再表示，他希望联盟在那个时候之前完成对快船队涉嫌规避工资帽的调查，涉及科怀·伦纳德。这大概意味着这件事很快就会有一个明确的结局。
根据调查记者巴勃罗·托雷在过去一年中通过一系列获得普利策奖的报道所揭露的所有证据，萧华和NBA应该有充分的理由做出严厉处罚。
处罚快船队及其老板史蒂夫·鲍尔默。处罚伦纳德及其代表。处罚措施包括取消合同、罚款、没收选秀权，甚至禁赛。
除非快船队能对他们公开解释之外提供更好的说法，否则这些处罚选项都不应被排除在外——毕竟这看起来就是一个公然藐视旨在维护NBA竞争平衡规则的阴谋。
上面设想的那个文班亚马的情景？据称，这就是快船队对伦纳德所做的。他们以低于市场价的价格签下他，从而获得了额外的薪资空间，而大约在同一时间，据称他与从快船队获得数百万美元资金的公司（Aspiration和Daktronics）达成了巨额（且大部分是秘密的）代言协议。
正如托雷所指出的，伦纳德显然从未为这些公司做过任何实际工作。虽然没有确凿的证据表明资金从鲍尔默流向Aspiration再流向伦纳德是为了规避工资帽，但这看起来确实就是那么回事。
尽管如此，仍然没有确凿的证据。而且，由于鲍尔默恰好是美国职业体育界最富有的老板，而当下NBA球队正被一群不体面的风险投资家和过度杠杆化的抵押贷款机构买卖，许多人仍然怀疑联盟是否会对他或他的球队下重手。
他的计划似乎并没有奏效，对吧？在他们据称绕过工资帽的整个时期，快船队大多表现平庸，而伦纳德大多在受伤。
但无能不应该成为借口，就像鲍尔默的数十亿美元不应该让他变得不可触碰一样。如果NBA想要被认真对待，就不能让快船队在这件事上蒙混过关。
如果他们最终只是被轻轻拍了一下手腕？那只会助长关于裁判、选秀抽签或联盟参与操纵比赛的每一个荒谬阴谋论。
如果是那样的话，马刺还不如直接给文班亚马他应得的钱。
也许他们可以通过H-E-B来输送这笔钱。
唯一的区别是，文班亚马真的会去拍广告。
由生成式 AI 翻译，翻译内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
查看原文：Why the NBA can’t let Clippers slide on Kawhi Leonard allegations
Why the NBA can’t let Clippers slide on Kawhi Leonard allegations
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) drives against Los Angeles Clippers’ Derrick Jones Jr., second from right, and Kawhi Leonard (2) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, March 6, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
Seven weeks ago, Victor Wembanyama did his franchise a favor. The 22-year-old center and the Spurs agreed to a massive five-year contract extension, albeit one that will pay him about $50 million less than he might have received if he sought the largest contract allowed by the NBA.
The significance of that discount can be hard to process. After all, to a hard-working stiff, the gap between making $252 million and $303 million is a lot like the gap between taking a rocket ship to the moon and one to Mars. Most of us recognize there’s a difference, but we’ll never come close to experiencing it firsthand.
In the realm of NBA team-building, though, salary-cap savings of $10 million per year can turn losses into victories. Theoretically, signing Wembanyama at that lower price point could enable the Spurs to add an extra veteran once extensions for Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper kick in. It might allow them to keep De’Aaron Fox an extra year.
And if the Spurs play their cards right? Playoff trips that might otherwise have ended in the conference semifinals in 2028, 2029 or 2030 might turn into league championships, all because they had a little more flexibility to operate under the NBA’s punitive luxury-tax aprons.
So it’s possible to see how Wembanyama’s sacrifice might pay off. In fact, they just lost in the NBA Finals to a New York Knicks team that benefited from a similar contract discount by their star player, Jalen Brunson.
But what if the Spurs were able to accomplish all of this, and still get Wembanyama his money anyway? What if they were able to use another project involving huge amounts of money — like, say, the construction of a new arena — to make sure their French star winds up with the extra $50 million he supposedly turned down?
Don’t you think the rest of the league would have a problem with that? Don’t you think it would make a mockery of the rules that were supposed to give markets like San Antonio and Oklahoma City a fighting chance against Los Angeles and New York in the first place? And don’t you think it would feed into the perception that, since everybody seems to be cheating in one way or another, a league that tolerates it while embracing boatloads of gambling money might not be completely above board?
Of course it would.
That’s why the Spurs never would be allowed to get away with something like that.
And it’s why the Los Angeles Clippers shouldn’t, either.
Opening day of the 2026-’27 NBA season is less than two months away, and commissioner Adam Silver repeatedly has said he wants the league’s probe into the Clippers’ alleged salary-cap circumvention with Kawhi Leonard resolved by then. Presumably, that means there will be a definitive end to this soon.
Based on all of the evidence uncovered by a Pulitzer Prize-winning string of episodes by investigative reporter Pablo Torre over the past year, Silver and the NBA should have no shortage of reasons to issue firm punishments.
Punishments of the Clippers and their owner, Steve Ballmer. Punishments of Leonard and his representatives. Punishments including voided contracts, fines, forfeited draft picks, and even suspensions.
None of that should be off the table unless the Clippers have a much better explanation than they’ve provided publicly for what sure looks like a brazen scheme to flout the rules meant to preserve the NBA’s competitive balance.
That imaginary Wembanyama scenario outlined above? Allegedly, that’s what the Clippers did with Leonard. They signed him to a below-market deal, giving them extra salary-cap room, right around the same time he allegedly agreed to huge (and mostly secret) endorsement deals with companies (Aspiration and Daktronics) that received millions of dollars from the Clippers.
As Torre noted, Leonard never did any apparent work for those companies. And while there is no incontrovertible proof that money went from Ballmer to Aspiration to Leonard as a way to skirt the salary cap, it sure looks like that’s what happened.
Still, there’s no smoking gun. And because Ballmer happens to be the richest owner in American professional sports, at a time when the NBA teams are being bought and sold by an undignified band of venture capitalists and overleveraged mortgage lenders, many remain skeptical the league will come down hard on him or his team.
It’s not as though his plan worked, right? Throughout the period when they allegedly were getting around the salary cap, the Clippers were mostly mediocre, and Leonard was mostly injured.
But ineptitude shouldn’t be an alibi, just as Ballmer’s billions shouldn’t make him untouchable. If the NBA wants to be taken seriously, it can’t let the Clippers slide on this.
If they wind up with a slap on the wrist? It only will feed into every ridiculous conspiracy theory about officiating, or about the draft lottery, or about how the league is in on the fix.
And in that case, the Spurs might as well get Wembanyama his money.
Maybe they can funnel it through H-E-B.
The only difference is, Wembanyama actually will do the commercials.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News