I see what you're saying and I hope that's how it turns out.
Buuuuuuut ... that's not how Buzbee operates. He has levied a threat and will go scorched earth if the Spurs don't pay up. The only way he doesn't is if he doesn't have anything -- but that press release makes it sound like he has at least has a few things he's holding over the franchise's head.
A big problem for the Spurs is that Primo is a small fish in this situation. Buzbee won't be able to get much money from him. This isn't a Watson situation where he's looking at $200-$300 million in career earnings forthcoming. The most likely scenario is Primo either never plays in the NBA again or gets one more shot but doesn't do enough to get his big payday. He has the ~$8 million coming to him but that will be eaten up by taxes, debt and now possibly lawyers.
Buzbee took aim at the Spurs with that press release and barely mentioned Primo. That's not by accident. If the Spurs settle, my guess is Buzbee wouldn't even sue Primo because there's not enough money there to be worth the effort.
While generally correct I think you are giving Buzbee too much credit. The spotlight is award enough for him. He’d definitely be willing to go after the Spurs (or any other franchise) with a case that only has a 20% chance of success. He doesn’t need to stick with home runs, he’s out there taking as many swings at the fences as he can and soaking in the publicity along the way
Good breakdown. Agreed on all points. Primo is unlikely to be a target by Buzbee. If Primo gets a good lawyer (he doesn't have one now because his release to ESPN was something so stupid that he obviously didn't consult a lawyer before sending it to Woj), there's a pretty decent chance he walks away from this with a six figure settlement.
No no no. You can settle before or after discovery. We are not yet before discovery. No suit filed. We dont know what damages they're speaking. Discovery is $ so a settlement before hand makes sense.
you CAN settle at anytime, but that isn’t the point. The maximum pre-discovery leverage is lost once you go public is the point. The Spurs aren’t going to be compelled to settle after a press conference is announced but before it happens. That ain’t the way it works
It is hard to reconcile the victim and the lawyer in this case, honestly, but also I don't want to cast any aspersions on a victim so IDK.
Interesting. But what is justiciable is only what an organization does after an allegation has been made. I am not sure if any public statement was made about Primo that questioned the alleged victim or belittled her. So essentially Buzbee is aiming for reputational loss, by airing dirty laundry in public when there isn't any dirty laundry on the Spurs' public statements' side.
Sure you can always settle, but part of settling is to keep the dirt from ever seeing the light of day. If he comes out and s all over the Spurs that damage is done and there's a lot less to motivate a settlement if you've already taken that L.
as an old ag, i couldn't agree more: most TAMU regents are total a-holes.
FWIW its going to have to be really bad for the Spurs to look awful in this. If they did their due diligence at each step of the way, and that doesn't mean immediately waving Primo the moment they had an accusation, then they will probably be "fine" in the court of public opinion. That doesn't mean the Spurs haven't extremely ed up here (although they may not have). I just think that they'll have had to done a ton of covering for Primo in order to come across badly and I simply find that really unlikely.
I feel like you're saying contradictory things and then acting confused by the contradictions you made up. If the Spurs are the big fish, it behooves Buzbee to get as much as he can out of them. The Spurs want to save as much PR as possible. That means the longer this goes on, the less happy both are. The most lucrative thing for both sides is to look for a low-key exit strategy that pays really well. For the Spurs, if they settle now, they lose a ton of PR they haven't lost yet. Folks would assume they're guilty, and they aren't doing that now. So the Spurs want to be exonerated. The only person who can do that is the psychologist. So you can have a settlement based on a press conference that doesn't focus on the Spurs. That preserves the leverage Buzbee has, and it gives the Spurs the best exit strategy.
The press conference isn't being teased as actual accusations against the Spurs. It's more of an examination of the part they played in it. I wouldn't be surprised if it were phrased that way deliberately to give the Spurs this sort of out. The goal is to make the Spurs think it's worth it to settle for as long as possible. Assuming the Spurs don't have a rotten core they're hiding, the longer this goes on, the lower the settlement amount will get. Buzbee doesn't want that, so actually running in and blasting the Spurs -- especially if those blasts aren't particularly well supported -- is a bad thing. But going in and sort of exonerating the Spurs? That is something the organization might be willing to pay for.
As far as the timing, that agreement would obviously be reached before the press conference. But you wouldn't announce that until after, because then a) the press conference would likely not happen (which is something the Spurs don't want) and b) even if it did happen, it would feel tainted by the settlement. The only person who might benefit from this getting nastier is Buzbee himself, as it could help his reputation as a man who isn't afraid to get nasty to "get results", but he'd still have to get those results.
Yeah, the I've seen them do during my time there was incredible. Not to mention all the things they've done post 2020 due to the Sul Ross statue. Total pieces of .
Typically I'd agree but Buzbee's press release was vague enough that it doesn't paint the Spurs in a bad light. Plus, the general public would assume the Spurs handled it correctly ... so if the Spurs successfully settle now, it will be forgetten and no one would even remember the threat of the tell-all press conference.
Buzbee giving the Spurs 72 hours with vieled threats looks like a classic shakedown by a plantiff's attorney. I'm sure Buzbee is aiming for exposure too but if this was only for expsoure and not $$$, he could have broken the story with a press conference when the world was wondering WTF happened with Primo instead of planting the ticking time bomb.
Its also possible the Spurs short circuited his plan by immediately waving Primo. We've never heard of a team waving a player like that before news broke. And even though Primo isn't a Watson level player, he's not nothing.
I believe the Aggie Honor Code was meant to be aspirational, but a lot of rich Aggies treat it like an en lement: nobody is allowed to call them out on their dishonest behavior, because as Aggies they are incapable of lying, cheating, stealing.
Arguably theres a big gulf between the spurs take the L, and on the other end have to pay over $5million and lose draft picks. Busbee has to know the league will stand behind a shakedown attempt. It all depends on what we dont know happened behind the scenes. Im betting its a big wife. They slime the spurs but no real evidence of culpability.
On a tangent, the spurs are definitely in new territory, one they typically try to avoid, which is dealing with the press, which is why I think they will settle. They are in a tough spot: there’s no way they can defend Primo, but they don’t want to come across as attacking the victim either. I do think the press conference is the real trial so to speak, and I don’t see much benefit for the spurs trying to plead their case to the public because it looks awkward, and again, it’s something they never do.
Honestly I think that's probably a good bet. Its hard for me not to give the Spurs the benefit of the doubt, but also I am worried that we're wrong to do that. But still, I have a hard time believing they ed up hugely. But like ES said in this thread, it would be peak white liberal to spew all the woke then turn around and do the opposite behind the scenes.
Also, if the Spurs don’t settle, I’m sure the lawyer will continue to get himself on camera with the hope of Skip or Stephen A rambling about this. The press conference isn’t necessarily the end but the beginning?
One thing no one should ever lose sight of: Tony Buzbee is a legit media desperate for attention. Like Thomas J Henry/Donald Trump/Michael Avenatti level attention . He ran for Mayor of Houston in a very Trump-like manner, drawing many comparisons. He refused to concede the race and a few weeks later appeared with a food-themed reality show, then a little while later suddenly became the face of the Watson accusations. It’s not because of a rich history of defending women, it’s because he Avenatti’d his way in and now that is the mark he is trying to make for himself. My guess is that another run for office is coming.
I didn't think the teaser made it seem like he had a ton. Maybe I didn't read it right the first time, but I don't even remember it referencing them doing or failing to actually do anything. The implication that the team knew about it is already out, so why not just say that and say more details will be in the press conference? Is it a libel situation? You're painting Buzbee as this awesome chess player, but he has to know that settling is the Spurs admitting they knew, so if he doesn't think they did, then they aren't going to settle. And if they did know, then him saying it wouldn't change anything. Having such a measured release doesn't feel like a very calculated move. Saying less might've let the Spurs think it was worth it to settle. Saying more might've put more pressure on the Spurs to not let the details go out. But unless they have a Primo moment where they decide to just admit guilt before turtling up, it doesn't feel like this was the balance point.
And again, we keep trying to reduce the role of the psychologist here. She's supposed to speak, and she would've been the first person whose advice the team sought both as a victim and a professional. Unless she's going to basically "no comment" her way through her entire part, there are going to be lines she won't be able to cross like Buzbee can, both for HIPAA reasons and for her own professional integrity. I don't know that the press conference is going to be the slam dunk for them that you fear it would be.
What the Spurs have going for them is that this is San Antonio and Texas, not LA and California. This is unlikely to garner more than a couple of days of attention in the national media. Probably the one case where being on a ty market pays off.
Buzbee wins foremost. Everyone else loses to varying degrees, in a sense. The plaintiff looks to get paid but she may have to pursue an academic career after this. It’s weird.
"have to"? i don't think you understand how hard it is to pursue a career in academia.
Those arent the public statements he's talking about. He's talking about all the "high character" stuff the spurs said about Primo publicly, and he think he can show that they knew something about Primo's issues dating back to the draft. He'll use something like parading Primo as the face of Self as a case in point about their wanton disregard of these facts, etc., and how they acted in their own pecuniary interested regardless.
This could get bad.
Are we 100% sure Vassell didnt get caught up in this? I'm nervous we know more about Blake's knee than Devons at this point.
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