The NBA has imposed one of the largest penalties in league history on the Los Angeles Clippers after determining that the organization violated salary cap rules during its recruitment of Kawhi Leonard as a free agent.
The team will lose five first-round draft picks, leaving it without a natural selection in the draft from 2029 through 2033.
The Clippers were also fined $30m, and owner Steve Ballmer was suspended from all league and team activities for one year. Additionally, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank received a six-month unpaid suspension, while president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended without pay for one year due to their involvement in the matter.
Leonard was fined $700,000. The Clippers agreed earlier this summer to trade the seven-time All-Star to the Toronto Raptors, but the deal was placed on hold pending the outcome of the NBA investigation. Leonard is set to earn $50m in salary this season, while Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, has an estimated net worth of $152.7bn, according to Forbes.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated, “The NBA’s collectively bargained system for determining player compensation is a fundamental component of the basketball competition that the league oversees for the benefit of the teams and players and ultimately the fans. I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct. The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”
In a statement through his agent, Leonard said he took “full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family. I entered into my contract with the Clippers as well as the agreements in question in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone’s part to circumvent the salary cap.”
The team announced it will contest the investigation’s findings “through every avenue available to us” and expressed anticipation for “an ethical and impartial arbitration process.”
The Clippers stated, “We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence. What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure its fairness and accuracy. For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence.”
New York law firm Wachtell Lipton conducted the NBA investigation following reporting by journalist Pablo Torre. Torre, citing legal documents, alleged that Ballmer employed Leonard in a nonexistent role at a company Ballmer had invested in to bypass the NBA salary cap, which limits team spending on player salaries.
Torre claimed Ballmer partially funded a now-defunct tree-planting company called Aspiration. The company allegedly entered into a $28m agreement with KL2 Aspire, LLC, a company owned by Leonard. Torre reported he could find no evidence Leonard ever performed any work for Aspiration, and noted a contract clause allowing Leonard to be paid regardless of work performed. Another clause reportedly voided the deal if Leonard left the Clippers. One former Aspiration employee told him the deal with Leonard was arranged to “circumvent the salary cap.”
Wachtell Lipton concluded the Clippers broke NBA rules by “initiating off-court income opportunities between Mr Leonard and four companies doing business with the team: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance; facilitating endorsement agreements between these companies and Mr Leonard; inducing the companies to enter into these agreements by offering them business from the team; paying personal expenses on behalf of Mr Leonard and his representatives; and failing to report improper solicitations for off-court income opportunities made on Mr Leonard’s behalf through his then-business manager, Dennis Robertson.”
The 35-year-old Leonard, a two-time NBA champion and two-time defensive player of the year, began his career with the San Antonio Spurs before playing for the Raptors and Clippers. He led the Clippers to the Western Conference finals in the 2020-21 season, but the team has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since and missed the postseason entirely in 2025-26.
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