...and that's a timeout, not a funeral
A Clippers equipment staffer said it while waving off the NBA's move to strip five first-round picks and levy a $30m fine in the Kawhi Leonard salary-cap case.
Steve Ballmer drew a one-year ban, and the club loses its natural picks from 2029 through 2033. Inside the practice gym on Monday it registered like a scuff on the baseline. Coaches went back to stacking cones for closeouts.
The only live series left was a fight over a spare net in the storage cage. Two staffers yanked the mesh for twenty-six minutes while a third crouched with a phone, filming for the challenge. Veterans on the bench tracked every tug like a last-possession rebound. A fourth voice asked if the league office still took appeals on nets.
When the net finally snagged on a hook, the room roared as if Los Angeles had stolen a title, not a generation of draft capital.
