Angus, I know your ass is sore after all those years following the Kings, but you need to get over it and stop crying.
Doing something that contravenes the rules, especially when done to gain an unfair advantage, is cheating.
It's not "Only Cheating if you get caught."
If you break the rules (whether or not you are caught or penalised) that is Cheating.
If you break the rules, and for whatever reason the league doesn't penalise you, that is still Cheating.
If you break the rules, and for some bizarre reason the league says "yeah cool, whatever" that is still Cheating against the other teams.
Cheating can also be violating the spirit of the rules.
If a team went out and hired 6 current NBA players offering them $20M each per season, would that be ok?
The combination of the soft cap and marquee rules, was designed to improve the quality of the league as a whole, and bring back Aussie stars that would otherwise be playing in Europe of China. It wasn't meant to only benefit the Kings. I really don't think it's fair that one team gobble up all the expat talent, then sign 3 imports on top, including poaching the best players from elsewhere.
Didi did not qualify as a Next Star. Simple and straightforward. At any other time, and for any other team, he would be an import.
Its cheating, pure and simple.
Having the league come out, after he was signed, and say "oh yeah, we changed the rules and just forgot to tell anyone but Sydney" does not make it any less cheating.
Whichever way you want to cut and slice it, Sydney have cheated on the 5-man cap. And please spare me your bullshit theories about how everyone at Sydney is playing for minimum wage. Just look at the benches around the league and in fact look at Sydneys own bench.
You dont sign guys like Walker, Hunter, and Kuany, unless you are hard up against the cap.
Using an import to replace Lisch was fine. Using an import to replace one of your capped bench players is cheating.
Signing Cooks is just taking the piss.
As somebody said, whats next?