The NBA has fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million and ordered the team to forfeit five first-round draft picks after finding that it breached salary-cap circumvention rules in dealings involving Kawhi Leonard.
The penalties, announced on Wednesday, cover the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 NBA Drafts. The league said the sanctions followed an independent investigation by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Investigators found that the Clippers initiated and helped arrange off-court income opportunities for Leonard with four companies linked to the team: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.
The NBA said the organisation facilitated endorsement agreements, encouraged the companies to enter into them by offering team business, and paid personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives. It also found that the Clippers failed to report improper requests made on Leonard’s behalf by his then-business manager and uncle, Dennis Robertson.
NBA imposes suspensions over Kawhi Leonard arrangements
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been suspended from all league and team activities for one year. The NBA said he knowingly sought to help Leonard secure off-court income, approved a business arrangement that was a precondition for the Aspiration endorsement deal, and failed to ensure the organisation complied with league rules.
Gillian Zucker, the Clippers’ president of business operations, has been suspended without pay for a year after being found primarily responsible for the impermissible endorsement arrangements and for providing false or misleading information to investigators.
Lawrence Frank, the team’s president of basketball operations, has received a six-month unpaid suspension for his involvement in the arrangements and for approving unauthorised expenses incurred by Leonard and his family.
Leonard has been ordered to pay the NBA $700,000. Robertson has been banned from conducting business with NBA teams and their affiliates for five years.
The investigators said they conducted 73 interviews with 60 people and reviewed more than 200,000 pages of documents. Their report said Leonard’s agreements with Boingo, Daktronics and Lockton were worth a combined $18 million, all of which had been paid by August 2021.
The Clippers and their personnel will also be subject to a five-year compliance and monitoring programme overseen by the league office. The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have agreed that the penalties are final and binding.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he was “deeply disappointed” by what he described as “flagrant violations” and by the “institutional and leadership failures” within the Clippers. He said the severity of the punishment reflected the seriousness of the breaches.
