Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been suspended for one year by the NBA, and the team must forfeit five first-round draft picks and pay a $30 million fine for violating salary cap circumvention rules in a case involving star forward Kawhi Leonard.
According to NPR, the penalties were announced Wednesday following a nearly year-long investigation led by an outside law firm. Lawrence Frank, the team's president of basketball operations, was banned for six months. Gillian Zucker, president of business operations, received a one-year suspension. Leonard himself was fined $700,000.
The NBA opened the investigation in September 2025 after a report by podcast journalist Pablo Torre raised questions about a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC, a company that later filed for bankruptcy. 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 league found that 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." The NBA said Ballmer was suspended for "knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities," among other issues.
The Clippers had maintained throughout the investigation that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be cleared. They kept that position after the league's announcement. "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 it's fairness and accuracy."
The team 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."
Leonard issued his own statement through his new agent, Harrison Gaines. "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. He also stated that he "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 five first-round pick forfeitures represent one of the steepest draft penalties in recent NBA history. The combination of the ownership suspension, the financial fine, and the loss of future picks puts the franchise in a difficult position as it attempts to rebuild around new players following Leonard's departure.
