LA Clippers fined $30M, Kawhi Leonard penalized $700,000 in cap circumvention case

The NBA imposed a sweeping punishment against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday for violating salary cap circumvention rules, suspending owner Steve Ballmer for one year, fining the team $30 million and forcing it to forfeit five first-round draft picks.

Also, two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard was hit with a $700,000 penalty, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was banned for six months and team president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year.

The Clippers will give up one first-round pick in each draft from 2029-2033.

The league came down hard on the organization after a nearly yearlong investigation led by an outside law firm.

The Clippers had said multiple times that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be exonerated.

“I think that we’re going to be in the clear,” Leonard said in April, “so I’m not stressing it.”

At the same time, Frank said, “If you know Steve and know Steve’s integrity, you know there’s nothing to it. We believe and we’ve very confident we’re on the right side of this.”

The team maintained that stance Wednesday.

“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,” the team said in a statement. “What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner (Adam) Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure its fairness and accuracy.”

The Clippers said they will “now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence. We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process.”

The league said it and the players’ union agreed to confirm the penalties as final and binding on all parties. It said the outside law firm continues to receive information involving the investigation, and the league “will consider further action as appropriate.”

“I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct,” Silver said in a statement. “The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”

The NBA began investigating in September 2025 whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC — a company that filed for bankruptcy last year — broke league rules, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre. Earlier this year, Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million.

The Clippers released a letter from Ballmer’s attorney David Kelley to Silver in which he described the investigation as “a witch hunt” and the subsequent penalties as a “gross injustice.”

Kelley accused Silver of not keeping his promises that the investigation would be governed by due process and fundamental fairness, as well as the burden being on the league to prove any violations through evidence.

“League counsel has acknowledged in our discussions that the league does not believe there was an agreement between the Clippers and Aspiration to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard. League counsel also agreed with the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a federal judge that Mr. Ballmer was a victim of Joe Sanberg’s fraud — not a participant,” wrote Kelley, a partner in the firm O’Melveny and Myers.

“Mr. Ballmer’s reputation has been irreparably damaged as he now finds himself embroiled not only in this heavily biased investigation, but in civil litigation, the Aspiration bankruptcy proceeding, and more,” Kelley wrote.

Kelley wrote that no league rule prohibits team personnel from making introductions to both sponsors and vendors in response to player requests.

“Retroactively punishing the Clippers for violating a rule that never existed is hardly consistent with due process,” Kelley wrote.

The league said Ballmer knowingly sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income deals, approved a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement contract with Leonard, and failed to create conditions under which his team followed league rules.

“I accept 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,” Leonard said in a statement issued through his new agent, Harrison Gaines.

The NBA said Leonard, through his former business manager and uncle Dennis Robertson, “violated the circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities, and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses.”

“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,” Leonard said in his statement.

The league said Ballmer was suspended for “knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities,” among other issues.

Leonard’s trade to the Toronto Raptors has been on hold pending the outcome of the investigation. The Raptors had said they still want Leonard, and he apparently is just as eager to return to the team where he won an NBA title and was Finals MVP in 2019.

“As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate,” Leonard said in his statement.

The Clippers and their personnel will be under a compliance and monitoring program by the league for five years, and Robertson was banned from doing business with NBA teams for five years.

The league penalized Frank for his involvement with the impermissible endorsement arrangements and for approving impermissible expenses incurred by Leonard and his family. Zucker was banned for being primarily and directly culpable for the illegal endorsement arrangements and for lying to investigators. Both will lose their salaries during their bans.

It’s not the first time the Clippers have run afoul of NBA rules under Ballmer, who bought the team for $2 billion in August 2014.

They were fined $250,000 a year later for violating rules against offering unauthorized business or investment opportunities to players during their courting of free agent DeAndre Jordan. A presentation to him improperly included a $200,000-per-year deal with luxury carmaker Lexus.

Ballmer, 70, was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014.

Related

Western Conference Power Rankings, Part 3: How many real contenders?Western Conference Power Rankings, Part 2: Can the Suns crack top-6?Devin Booker still getting love as a top SG, this time from The Athletic’s HarperWestern Conference Power Rankings, Part 1: Dubs, Pels and Grizz bring intrigue at the bottomValley Suns schedule for 2026-27 season releasedBickley: Arizona sports need to find their way out of the yuck