The NBA just put down it's biggest punishment of a team in 80 years. The Los Angeles Clippers have been disciplined for evading the salary cap by arranging to have Kawhi Leonard paid millions by an outside company, pretending it was an endorsement deal. The report is apparently very thorough and watertight. The Clippers have responded by saying "We never did those things, and anyway, everyone in the league does it. If you investigated other teams this hard you would find the same thing." There is an excellent Zach Lowe podcast detailing the scandal.
This resonates with many people because we are cynical about many businesses and entire industries. We are especially cynical about successful enterprises, believing that they must have cheated to come out on top. Medical billing is like that, as I learned at the hospital. Reformers were unpopular. We know at some level that all the kids are doing it is not a valid moral answer, but we often accept it anyway. Our kid is no worse than the others, really, nor is our Congressman, our university, our police force...why draw a line in the sand here? Why die on this particular hill?
But what jumps out in this particular scandal is that there is little evidence that everyone, or even most teams are doing anything like this. There is an attitude toward breaking the rules that rather inexorably leads us to the conclusion that everyone is doing it. But everyone isn't doing it. Sometimes saying "Well, politics is a dirty business" isn't just an excuse, it's a lie. Perhaps particularly in politics, who you think is more corrupt may depend greatly on what you sources have curated for you to see. This fits with the recent post on Trusting Your Gut. Your gut may be ill-informed.
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