The original The Producers movie ending with Gene Wilder’s Leo Bloom giving an impassioned pre-sentence speech that brought down the entire courtroom and seemed to portend leniency… until Zero Mostel’s Max Bialystock, as always, had to fill the long pregnant pause with, "And may I humbly add, your Honor, that we’ve learned our lesson. And we'll never do it again," thereby sealing their fate.
The Biggest Penalty the NBA Has Ever Handed Out
Earlier this month, the NBA levied the biggest penalties ever meted out to one of its teams and star player for methodically working with All-NBA Kawhi Leonard, his uncle-agent (almost always a bad combination), and other decidedly non-NBA companies to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap restrictions.
It’s a complicated story first reported by Pablo Torre Finds Out almost a year to the day of the NBA’s action. It will have lasting consequences and most certainly is, aside from the NBA, not remotely over yet.
The Clippers’ Lawyers Pull a Bialystock
For now, there’s this: the Clippers’ law firm’s initial reaction to the NBA’s sanctions. They started by complaining about how much the year-long investigation had interfered with the team’s day-to-day ‘operations.’ They tried to trivialize the matter as emanating from, gasp, a PODCAST! while failing to note that said podcast won a Pulitzer Prize for said investigation.
Worse, just before a not-so-veiled threat to sue the NBA, they pulled a variation of a Bialystock: “We are confident that if the League spent $50 million investigating any team it would find plenty of [similar] instances…”
Sometimes It’s Best to Say Nothing
Sometimes [read: always] it’s best to remain silent while considering a legal decision and contemplating a response.
We didn’t find it all that surprising that a week later the Clippers’ owner, Steve Ballmer (suspended for one year), fully accepted the NBA’s punishment and apologized.
Responding to a Ruling Against Your Business
Very few business owners will ever be on the receiving end of an NBA investigation. Plenty will be on the receiving end of something: a ruling on a motion, an arbitration award, a regulator’s findings, a judgment in a partnership dispute. The temptation is exactly the one the Clippers’ lawyers gave in to – answer immediately, loudly, and in public, and point out that everybody else does it too.
It almost never helps. Whatever gets said in the first angry hours – in a press release, an email to your partners, a post on LinkedIn, a text to the other side – is a document, and documents have a way of turning up later as exhibits. Telling the world that anyone would have found “plenty of [similar] instances” doesn’t defend what you did; it admits it. In other words, it’s the Bialystock: the courtroom was with you right up until the last line.
The better approach is the one the Clippers eventually got to, a week late. Say nothing. Read the decision, all of it. Talk to your litigation counsel about what can actually be challenged, what the fight will cost, and what it will do to the business while it’s going on. Then respond – once, in writing, after someone who isn’t angry has read it.
Talk to Hopkins Centrich
If your business is facing a ruling, an investigation, or a dispute that’s headed toward one, call us before you say anything to anyone else. Hopkins Centrich represents business owners in The Woodlands and across Texas, and we will tell you the truth even when it’s unpleasant – including when the best response is no response at all. Time is not your ally.