The dust is far from settled after the NBA dropped a historic hammer on the Los Angeles Clippers. The aftermath now goes beyond just draft forfeitures and trade movement. Media executive and podcast host Patrick Bet-David has outlined an explosive scenario in which the Clippers could retaliate against the NBA following historic penalties for salary cap violations. Speaking on his podcast, Bet-David warned that the franchise could unleash private investigators to uncover financial workarounds across the league. Former NBA stars like Charles Barkley have already confirmed this is a common practice. And Bet-David implies the Clippers could start with the crosstown rivals.
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The podcaster felt that suing the NBA might not be the only pushback from the Clippers. He believes they could bring down other teams, citing historical precedents such as Magic Johnson’s equity deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“If the Clippers flip and say, ‘Oh really? You’re going to do this to us? No problem.’ The Clippers are now going to hire investigators—you don’t think they’ve not already done that?” Bet-David asserted. “They’re going to indirectly drop stories on three, five, or ten other organizations that have done this with different players. If this goes through and results in public humiliation like this for the Clippers… you could have a few other teams in the next 6, 12, or 24 months dealing with a similar story.”
While the Clippers didn’t facilitate it, the NBA is already investigating the Milwaukee Bucks on alleged cap circumvention regarding Gary Trent Jr.’s contract. So these stories might be spilling out with or without that. But there’s a lot more upheaval in LA besides the Clippers.
Highlighting how financial arrangements between franchises and marquee stars have evolved over time, Bet-David drew a direct line to how Lakers legend Magic Johnson acquired an ownership stake under late owner Dr. Jerry Buss.
“You mean to tell me other people haven’t creatively found a way to funnel money to players? Really? You don’t remember how Magic Johnson got 5% equity in the Lakers 40 years ago?” Bet-David asked. “I don’t know what the number was, but he got equity in the Lakers. This was pre-like, you couldn’t do it anymore, but I think Magic got a ton of equity in the Lakers because everybody wanted Magic Johnson and Jerry Buss helped them. Magic Johnson sold his 4.5% stake in the Lakers in October 2010 for roughly $27 to $30 million. By the way, you know what that 4.5% would be worth today? $500 million.”
As Bet-David said, Magic Johnson bought a 4.5% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers in 1994 shortly after his retirement. It was reportedly worth $10 million at the time. He’d sell it in 2010 to fellow minority owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, for an estimated $27 million.
The Lakers were reportedly a $600 million franchise at the time. Now they’ve gone through a double seismic shift in ownership. Jeanie Buss first sold the team in June 2025 for a record-breaking $10 billion to Mark Walter, the Dodgers mogul who has ownership ties to Magic. In 14 months, amid a federal investigation into his corporate entities, Walter sold the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion.
So, yes, Magic could’ve had a 4.5% chunk of that multi-billion dollar pie twice. Unsurprisingly, Pablo Torre is already bringing out his connection to the Lakers sale. Ironically, Patrick Soon-Shiong has refused to sell that stake to either Jeanie Buss or the new owners, intending to remain in the Lakers’ ownership.
While Magic’s ownership stake didn’t raise eyebrows after his retirement, the Clippers saga is forcing everything to be viewed through the lens of cap manipulation.
The commentary follows the NBA’s landmark disciplinary action against the Clippers organization, team owner Steve Ballmer, and forward Kawhi Leonard after an independent investigation by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz uncovered cap circumvention.
The league determined that the Clippers initiated unauthorized off-court income opportunities for Leonard through third-party endorsement arrangements, including a $28 million deal with the now-bankrupt sustainability firm Aspiration Partners.
As a result, Commissioner Adam Silver handed down some of the harshest penalties in NBA history: stripping the Clippers of five consecutive first-round draft picks, levying a $30 million fine against the franchise, suspending Ballmer for one year, and handing out multi-month suspensions to top front-office executives.
The crisis deepened further after federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York launched a separate criminal investigation into whether secret sponsorship contracts were structured to illegally bypass the league’s salary cap.
Prosecutors have issued subpoenas as part of the inquiry, adding criminal exposure to the league’s civil administrative penalties.
Addressing the severity of losing five first-round picks, Bet-David argued that the Clippers’ legal team will fight to reduce the penalty, drawing a parallel to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 2000 cap-circumvention scandal involving Joe Smith.
“The Minnesota Timberwolves when they went through this, they lost draft picks, then they lowered it. So they were supposed to lose five, they ended up losing two,” Bet-David noted. “I do think as their lawyers come back to the NBA—because you know what five first-round draft picks means. You don’t even have anything to trade for. You’re crushed. And [Steve] Ballmer was the kind of owner that actually ghosted the games like [Mark] Cuban.”
With the Clippers actively weighing a lawsuit against the NBA seeking a temporary restraining order, the standoff threatens to expose financial practices across the professional sports landscape.