The NBA is stripping the Los Angeles Clippers of five first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to billionaire owner Steve Ballmer and suspending the former Microsoft CEO for one year following an investigation into improper payments to All-Star Kawhi Leonard, the league announced Wednesday.
The NBA has been investigating allegations that the Clippers circumvented the salary cap by funneling money to Leonard through an endorsement deal with companies including Aspiration, a green banking firm that has since gone bankrupt as its co-founder Joseph Sandberg admitted to defrauding investors out of $248 million.
‘The investigation found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules,’ read the league statement.
Although he was not suspended, Leonard was ordered to pay $700,000 in restitution for improper benefits he and his uncle/representative Dennis Robertson received from the Clippers and other organizations. However, the 35-year-old Leonard will not have any contracts voided by the league as a result of the NBA investigation.
Robertson, meanwhile, has been banned from any business dealings with the NBA.
Additionally, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank has been suspened without pay for six months while president of business operations Gillian Zucker got a one-year ban.
The NBA is stripping the Los Angeles Clippers of five first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to billionaire owner Steve Ballmer
Kawhi Leonard came out of the year-long investigation with his earnings nearly intact
All punishments are binding, according to the league and players’ union.
Despite this, the Clippers are not done fighting this ruling, the team explained in a statement.
‘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,’ read the team 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 Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure it’s 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. 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.’
According to the a summary report prepared by law firm Wachtell Lipton, the Clippers violated NBA rules by ‘initiating off-court income opportunities between Mr. Leonard and four companies doing business with the team.’
Those companies include Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance.
Additionally, the Clippers are accused of facilitating endorsement deals, inducing companies to enter into these agreements by offering other business with the team, and paying personal expenses on behalf of Leonard and his representatives.
Lastly, the team failed to report improper solicitations made on Leonard’s behalf by Robertson.
The Clippers should have been aware of the rules, according to the Wachtell Lipton report, because they had previously been found in violation of these same mandates.
‘In 2015, in circumstances similar to the matter at hand, the Clippers engaged in efforts to facilitate an endorsement agreement between DeAndre Jordan—a player the Clippers were then seeking to sign in free agency—and an incoming team sponsor,’ read the report. ‘The League investigated this matter, determined that the rules had been broken, and fined the Clippers $250,000.’
NBA commissioner Adam Silver did follow some precedent with his punishment for LA
Meanwhile, Leonard and Robertson were found to have pressured ‘the Clippers to assist [Leonard] in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities, and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses,’ according to the statement.
The Clippers recently agreed to trade Leonard back to Toronto, where he won an NBA title in 2019 before signing with LA. The deal was placed on hold as the league investigation continued over the summer, but as Leonard revealed in his statement, it appears he is now headed back to the shores of Lake Ontario.
‘Integrity and respect for this game are fundamental to who I am,’ Leonard said in a statement issued by his agent. ‘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.
‘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.
‘For 15 years, my priority has been giving everything to my family, the game, and those I share the court with. As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.’
There is precedent for at least a portion of the NBA’s punishment for the Clippers.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s predecessor, the late David Stern, similarly stripped the Minnesota Timberwolves of five first-round picks after discovering the team had circumvented the salary cap to improperly pay star forward Joe Smith in 2000.
However, the Wolves were fined only $3.5 million at the time, and because the team cooperated with the league, some of the picks were ultimately returned to Minnesota.
Silver explained his ruling in the league statement.
‘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,’ Silver said in a statement. ‘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.’
NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s predecessor, the late David Stern (pictured), similarly stripped the Timberwolves of five first-round picks for an improper deal with Joe Smith
The Timberwolves allegedly circumvented the cap to pay Joe Smith additional salary in 2000
Leonard’s arrival in his native Southern California was supposed to usher in a new era for the traditional NBA cellar-dwelling Clippers.
But in trying to lure Leonard, the Clippers traded for veteran All-Star Paul George from Oklahoma City in exchange for budding guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who would go on to win an NBA championship and league MVP honors with the Thunder.
In total, the Clippers officially paid Leonard $291 million over seven seasons, not to mention the millions funneled through other businesses and the $30 million fine the team has incurred for those violations.
Regrettably, the Clippers don’t have much to show for the Leonard era. After reaching the Western Conference Semis and Finals in 2020 and 2021, respectively, the team has failed to win a playoff series since.
Leonard (seen here with Ballmer in 2019) initially signed a three-year deal with LA for $103m
The allegations against the Clippers first surfaced on Pablo Torre’s podcast nearly one year ago.
Since then, NBA has been investigating the Clippers and Ballmer for allegedly facilitating an under-the-table side deal for Leonard that allowed the team to add other stars, such as Paul George. The team repeatedly denied the accusations, while Ballmer stated he had no knowledge of Leonard’s alleged $28 million ‘no-show’ endorsement deal with the doomed financial services firm, Aspiration.
Torre made the claim against the Clippers by citing a 2025 bankruptcy filing that names the team and a company owned by Leonard under the list of creditors for Aspiration QFZ, LLC, a subsidiary of fintech and sustainability brand Aspiration Partners Inc.
Torre claimed to have contracts showing Aspiration QFZ, LLC entered into a $28 million ‘no-show’ agreement with Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire LLC, and later claimed – following a report from the Boston Sports Journal – that Leonard also received a separate $20million ‘side deal’ from Aspiration.
Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration through an LLC in 2021 as the team was also embarking on a $300 million deal with the green bank. Then, in April of 2022, Aspiration signed Leonard to a $28 million endorsement deal, which has been characterized as a ‘no-show’ job. Leonard did not publicly endorse Aspiration at any point.
Leonard joined the Clippers in 2019 and went on to sign two extensions with LA
Daily Mail obtained a federal bankruptcy filing showing unsecured claims of $30 million and $7 million for the LA Clippers and Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire LLC, respectively
The bankruptcy filing from federal court in Delaware, obtained by the Daily Mail, also shows unsecured claims of $30 million and $7 million for the Clippers and Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire LLC, respectively.
And while Ballmer said last year he was ’embarrassed’ that he didn’t pick up on any financial trouble from Aspiration, he defended his and the Clippers actions and said they ‘weren’t involved’ in the company’s deal with Leonard.
The team, as it pointed out in a statement, ‘ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligation.’
Furthermore, as reported by Torre, Aspiration QFZ’s alleged payments to KL2 Aspire were sent to Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and advisor, who was previously investigated by the NBA in 2019 for allegedly requesting impermissible benefits for his nephew and himself.
That 2019 investigation did not find any impermissible benefits going from the Clippers to Leonard or anyone working on his behalf.
A year later, a self-described acquaintance of Leonard and Robertson named Johnny Wilkes sued the Clippers, claiming he was still owed $2.5 million from the team for helping them to sign the former Spurs and Raptors star.
Wilkes, a self-described acquaintance of Robertson, claimed in the lawsuit that Ballmer would ‘fund a $100,000,000.00 marketing campaign for Kawhi Leonard’ and the uncle would get his own Southern California home if the All-Star forward agreed to sign with the Clippers.
That lawsuit was ultimately dismissed and neither the Clippers nor Robertson admitted to any wrongdoing.
