Recent allegations about the Clippers circumventing the NBA salary cap have sparked debate about the uneven financial playing field of the NBA. The Clippers are alleged to have funneled money to Kawhi Leonard through a secret no-show endorsement deal. Whether or not the allegations are entirely true, and regardless of the NBA’s findings, this debate does show how smaller market teams like the Detroit Pistons can still be at a disadvantage in today’s NBA.
The Pistons don’t have the same luxuries as big market teams
One of the biggest frustrations with the Clippers’ alleged cap circumvention scheme is the exorbitant wealth of Clippers governor Steve Ballmer. Ballmer is worth upwards of $100 billion and is easily the richest NBA majority owner. His alleged use of this wealth to bolster his NBA team outside the rules of the CBA have frustrated other owners who don’t have nearly as much money to spare.
Pistons governor Tom Gores is worth a relatively meager $9 billion and does not have nearly the same wealth as Ballmer. In a league with specific hard salary caps to prevent the excessive influence of wealth, Gores and other owners in his position are naturally outraged to hear about deceitful tactics to cheat the rules.
Even if the Clippers’ public defense is true and they really had nothing to do with Kawhi Leonard’s endorsement deal, the situation still highlights the advantage of big-market teams. In a city like New York or Los Angeles, it will be much easier for players to find endorsement deals for millions of dollars from multiple local companies. Sometimes market sizes can affect the biggest free agency decisions in the sport: the LA market may have had an impact on LeBron James’ decision to sign with the Lakers in 2018. Of course, that worked out for Lebron on the court when he won a championship just two years later, but it also worked out off the court when he starred in Space Jam 2 in 2021.
A team like the Pistons can only lament this financial reality without being able to legally change players’ fortunes outside the boundaries of the typical salary cap. The Pistons might need to offer players more than big-market teams to win them over in free agency to make up for potential missed endorsements. Of course, a true superstar like Cade Cunningham will get his endorsement deals no matter where he plays but role players won’t get the same love in Detroit and the team must be prepared to find other ways to woo them.
Unfortunately, even with the egalitarian state of today’s NBA and the media equality brought about by social media and sites like FanSided, the teams in the biggest markets still enjoy a sizable financial advantage. There’s not much the NBA or other teams can do to stop this advantage, so teams like the Pistons will just need to do their best to overcome the uneven circumstances.