When All You Have Is A Hammer, Every Headline Looks Like A Nail

As the media has covered the NBA’s severe punishment of Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers as a result of the Kawhi Leonard investigation, a common idiom has emerged: League commissioner Adam Silver dropped the hammer on them. He did not throw the book at the Clippers, or take a crowbar to their knees. No, there was only one tool in his toolbox, and it was dropped on the perpetrators.

Obviously, this phrase is not unique to this specific scandal; anyone old enough will remember NFL commissioner Roger “Ginger Hammer” Goodell in the 2010s, when he was playing Whack-A-Mole so intently that he inadvertently created a league value system in which smoking weed was treated more harshly than domestic violence. But “dropping the hammer” is effective shorthand, a way to declare in a few words that authority has been wielded and a problem has been definitively solved. The book has been closed on the matter, perhaps because a hammer has nailed it shut. Silver and the NBA will happily accept this framing. It’s so easy that even Shams Charania and his endless metaphors couldn’t complicate it—if he hadn’t biffed the story, that is.

Still, it’s funny to see how many places are running with this exact choice of words. Some of these outlets add a little flair by specifying the type of hammer, or elucidating who was or wasn’t struck by it. Sometimes the hammer drops; sometimes it is brought down; sometimes “hammer” is the verb, leaving open the question of what hammer-like implement was used. (Could it have been a truncheon?) Below is a list of some hammerings.

(Full disclosure: When I edited Patrick’s first article on the Clippers’ punishment, I considered using the phrase for the headline but went in another direction. Fuller disclosure: That didn’t stop us from using it anyway in the body of another post.)

USA Today: “NBA fines Clippers $30M, drops hammer on Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard”
Yahoo Sports: “By dropping a sledgehammer, Adam Silver squares off against the league’s richest owner”
Yahoo Sports (again): “The NBA drops the hammer on the Clippers”
No Dunks: “NBA Hammers Clippers After Kawhi Probe”
The Athletic: “Kawhi Leonard’s Uncle Dennis pushed Clippers until NBA laid down the hammer”
TMZ: “NBA Drops Hammer On Clippers, Steve Ballmer In Kawhi Salary Cap Probe”
Forbes: “NBA Drops Hammer On Clippers For Circumventing Salary Cap”
Boston Sports Journal: “The NBA just brought the hammer down on the Clippers”
Los Angeles Times: “NBA hammers Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard following investigation”
Los Angeles Times (again): “NBA drops the hammer on The Cheatin’ Clippers, and they can’t shed the stink”
CBS Sports: “NBA hammers Clippers over Kawhi Leonard scandal; Dante Moore No. 1 in CFB QB rankings”
New York Post: “How Kawhi Leonard escaped NBA’s hammer in Clippers scandal”
New York Post (again): “Clippers will be irrelevant for years after NBA drops hammer on franchise”
Toronto Sun: “Kawhi Leonard free to join Raptors as hammer falls on Clippers, owner Steve Ballmer”
ClutchPoints: “NBA drops punishment hammer on Steve Ballmer, Clippers after Kawhi Leonard investigation”
Wall Street Journal: “Steve Ballmer and the Clippers Get the NBA’s Doomsday Hammer”
Bright Side of the Sun: “Stop. Hammer time. The Clippers finally got what was coming”
Sports Illustrated: “The NBA Brought Down the Hammer on the Clippers. The Bucks Could Be Next.”