{"id":2125242,"date":"2026-09-02T22:50:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2125242"},"modified":"2026-09-02T22:50:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:50:44","slug":"what-to-know-about-nbas-punishment-of-clippers-kawhi-leonard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2125242","title":{"rendered":"What to know about NBA\u2019s punishment of Clippers, Kawhi Leonard"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adam Silver and the NBA dropped the hammer on the LA Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Dennis \u201cUncle Dennis\u201d Robertson after an investigation into allegations of cap circumvention regarding Kawhi Leonard. As first reported by Pablo Torre on his podcast, \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out,\u201d the Clippers were accused of using external companies to funnel money to Leonard during parts of his tenure with the franchise, circumventing the salary cap and limits to what the team could pay him.<\/p>\n

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Nearly one year after launching the investigation, the NBA concluded that the Clippers violated league rules<\/a> by facilitating endorsement deals for Leonard with four companies (Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance). The NBA levied the biggest team fine in league history ($30 million), suspended multiple Clippers executives, stripped the team of five first-round picks and fined Leonard $700,000.<\/p>\n

It harkens back to the late 1990s when the Minnesota Timberwolves were punished for circumventing the salary cap for Joe Smith. The Clippers were hit with about the same level of punishment, although Leonard received a very different punishment than Smith did.<\/p>\n

The Clippers released a statement that said they \u201cvehemently reject the NBA\u2019s findings\u201d in the investigation. They also said, \u201cWe intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process.\u201d There is no appeal or arbitration process for the Clippers, according to a source with knowledge of the league\u2019s rules who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ruling.<\/p>\n

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For now, here\u2019s what you need to know about each part of the penalty from this investigation:<\/p>\n

First-round draft picks stripped in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033<\/h2>\n

This is the most severe punishment for the Clippers. Stripping a team of first-round picks is the biggest way to affect its future and how it builds a roster, especially in today\u2019s era of first- and second-apron penalties.<\/p>\n

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This franchise was already living in draft-pick hell because of the Paul George trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder. That helped the Clippers land Leonard during 2019 free agency, as they gave up five first-round picks, two pick swaps and two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as part of the trade package. The Clippers still owe one more swap to OKC in the 2027 draft if the Thunder choose to exercise it.<\/p>\n

Law Murray laid out the 2022-to-2034 pick scenario<\/a> for the Clippers:<\/p>\n

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LA Clippers first round picks<\/p>\n

2018: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Blake Griffin trade), Jerome Robinson (own)<\/p>\n

2019: to MEM (Jeff Green trade)
2020: to NY (Marcus Morris trade)
2021: Keon Johnson
2022: to OKC (Paul George trade)
2023: swap to OKC
2024: to OKC
2025: swap to OKC
2026:\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Law Murray \ud83e\ude9b (@LawMurrayTheNU) September 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yikes! The draft process is expected to change after the 2029 draft, so we don\u2019t quite know what the system will be then. We just know the Clippers currently don\u2019t have any picks until 2034. When the Timberwolves were stripped of five first-round picks for the Smith fiasco, two were eventually returned to them. Perhaps the NBA will do the same with the Clippers.<\/p>\n

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Clippers fined $30 million<\/h2>\n

This is the largest team fine in NBA history. This eclipses the $3.5 million fine given to the Wolves back in 2000 for their cap circumvention violation.<\/p>\n

To put that in perspective, a crude Google search tells us that Steve Ballmer\u2019s net worth is $152.4 billion. It\u2019s the equivalent of fining someone who makes $100,000 a year almost $20.<\/p>\n

Ballmer suspended from all league and team activities for a year<\/h2>\n

This, after the draft picks, is probably the most devastating thing for Ballmer and the Clippers. Former Wolves owner Glen Taylor was suspended from Dec. 8, 2000, to Aug. 31, 2001. Ballmer is a highly influential and successful team governor, despite this violation and subsequent punishments. He\u2019s built the best basketball arena in the world and is a staple at everything Clippers. Not allowing him to be around the team for one year is definitely going to hit him hard.<\/p>\n

President of business operations Gillian Zucker suspended without pay for a year<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This also had to do with \u201cfalse and misleading statements to investigators,\u201d according to the NBA\u2019s ruling. Zucker won\u2019t be allowed to handle the business side for the Clippers for a year, and not getting paid is pretty significant.<\/p>\n

President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank suspended for 6 months<\/h2>\n

Roughly four months after the NBA opened the investigation, Frank was given a four-year extension with the Clippers. Suspending him now allows him to come back to help run the team before the postseason. It will not allow him to work through the trade deadline, though.<\/p>\n

Clippers subject to compliance and monitoring program for 5 years<\/h2>\n

I can\u2019t imagine this is any kind of significant punishment. The Clippers will be under surveillance with the stuff they do for the next five years. It only becomes significant if they attempt to do any circumvention again, according to the findings.<\/p>\n

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Leonard fined $700,000<\/h2>\n

Leonard\u2019s deal with Aspiration was around $28 million over four years. He received the majority of that before the company went under. That doesn\u2019t even include the endorsement money with the other three companies. He also still makes over $50 million this season.<\/p>\n

The NBA could have voided this final year of his contract, but it chose not to. I would imagine this helped the National Basketball Players Association get on board and not challenge the punishment.<\/p>\n

\u2018Uncle Dennis\u2019 not allowed to conduct business for 5 years<\/h2>\n

Leonard is Robertson\u2019s only client, as far as we know. Leonard turned 35 this summer. Robertson feels like a perfect fall guy. Uncle Dennis was also \u201cfired\u201d by Leonard earlier this summer; Leonard hired Harrison Gaines to handle future negotiations.<\/p>\n

Leonard is still expecting to be traded to the Toronto Raptors, where he\u2019ll try to work out a new contract extension. Otherwise, he\u2019ll be a free agent in 2027.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Silver and the NBA dropped the hammer on the LA Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Dennis \u201cUncle Dennis\u201d Robertson after an investigation into allegations of cap circumvention regarding Kawhi Leonard. As first reported by Pablo Torre on his podcast, \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out,\u201d the Clippers were accused of using external companies to funnel money to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2125242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2125242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2125242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2125242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2125242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}