The NBA dropped one of the heaviest punishments in league history on the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, suspending owner Steve Ballmer for one year, fining the organization $30 million, and stripping the team of five first-round draft picks from 2029 to 2033.
According to reports from Yahoo Sports and CBS Sports, the penalties came after a nearly yearlong investigation led by an outside law firm into whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Kawhi Leonard and a company called Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC broke league salary cap rules. The investigation began in September 2025, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre.
Two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard was fined $700,000 but was not suspended. President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was banned for six months. President of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year without pay. Dennis Robertson, Leonard's uncle and former business manager, received a five-year ban from conducting business with NBA teams or personnel.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver did not hold back in his response to the findings. "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 league said Ballmer knowingly sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income deals and approved a business arrangement that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement contract with Leonard. Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison earlier this year after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million.
Leonard issued a 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.
The Clippers rejected the findings in sharp terms. "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 team added that it 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 and the players' union agreed to confirm the penalties as final and binding on all parties, though the NBA said its outside law firm continues to receive information and that it will consider further action as appropriate.
CBS Sports noted that the Clippers' punishment mirrors what the Minnesota Timberwolves received more than 25 years ago in the Joe Smith cap circumvention case, the last major incident of its kind. The key difference involves what happened to the players. In the Smith case, there was a written agreement between Smith and the Timberwolves to sign smaller deals to help keep the team's cap sheet clean before he was given a larger contract. That evidence made the case straightforward, and Smith had his $86 million deal voided, ultimately losing tens of millions of dollars.
In Leonard's case, investigators found evidence that the Clippers helped facilitate what were described as no-show endorsement deals, but found nothing to indicate those deals were a direct condition of Leonard signing with the team. Without a written agreement tying the endorsement arrangements to his decision to sign or re-sign with the Clippers, the league would have had a much harder time proving a direct connection to Leonard and almost certainly would have faced an appeal from the Players Association. Instead, Leonard accepted the $700,000 fine, allowing the league to close the case without going through an appeals process.
Leonard, who has one season remaining on his current contract, is still expected to be traded.
