NBA tries to solve Luke Walton's problem

It's Friday afternoon, when every American sports league cancels the news, she prefers not to be seen. It's today that the NBA announced the results of the League's investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Luke Walton, coach of the Sacramento Kings.

Walton, the son of legendary basketball legend Bill Walton, was sued by sports journalist Kelli Tennant. In his lawsuit, filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, Tennant testified that Walton had sexually assaulted him at his hotel in 2014. When the lawsuit was filed, his lawyer, Mark Baute, called Tennant "an opportunist." , no victim "and had declared" his request is not credible. "

Today, the NBA announced that it – a sports league qualified to do nothing other than overseeing basketball games – had determined "that there was no sufficient basis to support the charges against Coach Walton ".

The statement leaves a lot of very important information, but the bottom line is this: Tennant's trial is still ongoing.

The last document filed in this case was that of Walton last month, a document in which he refutes Tennant's claims, according to the court's online registry. There is no indication that the trial was dismissed. Perhaps the NBA leaders are aware of knowing that the case will soon be settled or dismissed from court. But it is just as possible that the trial is going ahead and evidence is coming out that casts doubt on the version of Walton's events, embarrassing the league, as was the case in the Derrick Rose civil case. (Rose's lawyer in this case is the same as Walton's present attorney.)

The NBA has left this great detail in the statement because this statement has a function: Tell basketball fans that, anyway, this is not the fault of the NBA. It's Tennant. Because Tennant did not speak to the NBA for his investigation, but Walton did, which earned him a great reward: a clean slate with respect to the association.

It is ridiculous to ask a private person – who is not your employee and who remains involved in a lawsuit – to participate in your company's internal investigation about the employee being sued. Tennant owes nothing to the NBA, and his priority is and should be his trial. The NBA could have waited until the trial was resolved to carry out its own investigation, but its leaders almost certainly wanted to wrap up before the start of the training camps.

As a general rule, sports leagues should not be considered as judges and juries of sexual assault, because not only are their leaders extremely poorly qualified to conduct such investigations or impose sanctions, but their actions may cause more than wrong than good. Why bother to come forward when one of the most powerful sports leagues in the world stands up to the accused and then says: Well, we had to clear it because you did not follow the judicial process of cosplay.

It is no coincidence that the NFL used similar language to explain Josh Brown's suspension of the then, Josh Brown, in a match, claiming that the problem was that Brown's wife and the forces of the local orders would not help them and they were "limited our ability to investigate" reports of domestic violence. Similar wording was again raised when two Taekwondo coaches accused of sexual abuse were banned because the women said they did not want to testify when they were also called to testify in a massive civil lawsuit. The problem, in a way, is never the system. These are always the choices made by the victims.

The rest of the NBA statement does not make sense. It is said that more than 20 people were interviewed but that does not tell us who they were, which means that these people could be anybody, from Tennant's friends to Walton's friends. "The relevant documents have been examined", which does not tell us anything. If it was a real court of law – the strategy Tennant continues to follow – there would be answers to these questions, such as the names of the people called to testify and the documents filed with of the court. But it's not a court, it's a sports league claiming to be.

The NBA itself has left a trap, saying the case was closed "unless new evidence is available." Walton is back, unless something embarrassing comes up. What is to be remembered is that, like all other sports league surveys, is an element of public relations masquerading as substance. This is another cover under which fans can tweet "bitches lyin"and"the bitch lied. "The fans were still going to tweet that, but now they have an NBA-certified survey to prove that they're right. Because a public relations campaign, in this case, works like a crystal ball. It shows you everything you want to see.