NBA hits Clippers with picks, fine, Ballmer suspension
The NBA on Wednesday announced severe punishments for the LA Clippers, including the loss of five future first-round picks and a fine of $30 million, for violating salary cap circumvention rules when they signed star Kawhi Leonard in 2022. The league said a near-yearlong investigation "found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules."
The punishments include forfeiture of one first-round draft pick each in the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 NBA drafts, along with the $30 million fine. Owner Steve Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year. President of business operations Gillian Zucker is suspended without pay for one year, and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank is suspended without pay for six months. Leonard must pay the league $700,000.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he was "deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers' institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct," adding that "the severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations." Leonard, through his new agent Harrison Gaines, said he accepted "full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle" and said he entered his contract and…
The investigation, conducted by law firm Wachtell Lipton, followed allegations that the Clippers compensated Leonard through a $28 million endorsement deal he signed in 2022 with the now-bankrupt company Aspiration, which also had a 23-year, $300 million endorsement deal with the Clippers.
The Clippers said they intend to challenge the findings "through every avenue available to us" and are looking forward to "an ethical and impartial arbitration process." The team said in a statement it "vehemently" rejects the NBA's findings, calling the investigation "heavily biased," and said it cooperated fully for the past year and "will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence." A Clippers-Raptors trade centered around Leonard, agreed to…