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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A record-setting punishment of the NBA and a generational change in big-time tennis. Howard Bryant joins us now. Good morning, Howard.
HOWARD BRYANT, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott. How are you?
SIMON: I'm fine, my friend. Thanks so much. Look, Wednesday, the NBA handed a historic punishment to the LA Clippers. They'll be fined $30 million. They'll lose five first-round picks. Their owner, Steve Ballmer, will be suspended for a year after an independent investigation determined the Clippers used business partners to pay Kawhi Leonard millions of dollars to evade the team's salary cap. By the way, all to finish ninth last year. Fair penalty, Howard?
BRYANT: (Laughter) Well, fair or unfair, it certainly is massive. And I think that's it's - what's - the message, obviously, that is being sent is the league is very protective of its salary cap. And when you start thinking about the different penalties across the board, this is obviously one of the biggest ones. And when you think about what actually happened, look at the dollar amounts that we're talking about. You already have Kawhi Leonard with hundreds of millions of dollars worth...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...As (inaudible). And then on top of that, you're funneling all of these different sort of side businesses to pay him and his uncle - family members even more. It just feels so brazen in a lot of ways, and the team wasn't even any good.
SIMON: Steve Ballmer bought the Clippers over 12 years ago, revamped the team, rejuvenated, built a new arena. His legacy's likely to be this scandal, obviously. Is the punishment going to put the Clippers in the hole even more for the years to come?
BRYANT: Yeah. I don't know, Scott. I just look at it this way. I mean, anytime you're replacing Donald Sterling, your legacy's probably in pretty good shape.
SIMON: (Laughter).
BRYANT: You're going to have to do a lot to be worse than your predecessor, but at the same time, yeah - I - these owners last forever. They're around so many years. I mean, let's not forget, George Steinbrenner was suspended back with the Yankees all those many, many moons ago. And then he came back, and suddenly the Yankees had a dynasty, and there you go.
SIMON: Yeah, yeah. All right.
BRYANT: And everybody forgets it. So I think it comes down to what he does when he comes back, but right now, the real big loser is the fan. If you care about the Clippers, your team's not going to be able to really improve for quite some time, at least through the draft. It's a devastating blow for the fans of that team.
SIMON: U.S. Open, Week 1 wrapping up. Generational contrast. Some of the great stars - Novak Djokovic, the Williams sisters in the doubles last night, Stan Wawrinka, Gael Monfils - all early exits. But some really young stars are shining, aren't they?
BRYANT: Yeah. It's time to say goodbye. I mean, I know that Venus and Serena wouldn't say anything about that, considering Venus is 46, and Serena will be 45 at the end of the month. But it was - this has been a tough one, especially if you're a fan of this generation of tennis. I mean, they're all leaving us now. Gael Monfils said goodbye, you know, in his second-round loss. Good to see that he got one in. Stan Wawrinka, who won this tournament back in 2016. And, yeah, it's - it is the changing of the guard. You can't play forever.
But when you watch this new generation of players coming up, they are exciting. You've got Rafael Jodar from - 19 years old from Spain, and you've got Alex Eala going up against Iva Jovic, the two youngsters. And so it's fun to watch in some ways, but it's also really bittersweet in others because when the players that you watch are leaving, what does that say when you look in the mirror? And it also does change something else, Scott...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...Which is really big for sports fans. And that is when you see your favorites go, were you watching the sport or were you watching them? You got to find new guys to root for, new players to root for.
SIMON: Yeah. Howard Bryant. Thanks so much.
BRYANT: My pleasure, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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