How the LA Clippers bent the financial rules to become the Manchester City of the NBA

Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before. Once upon a time there was a team that shared its home city with a far more successful and globally renowned rival. So, the less-vaunted club decided to bend the rules just a tad. In a league where regulations about the salary cap were supposedly strictly enforced, this unscrupulous outfit opted to cook their books and gain an illegal advantage.

Among the subterfuges deployed was an elaborate scheme ensuring their best player earned many multiples of his official wage through no-show contracts with outside companies that just so happened to have ties to the club owner. Imagine such a thing.