NBA fines Clippers $30M, strips five first-round picks for Kawhi Leonard salary cap violations

The NBA fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million and stripped five first-round picks for secretly paying Kawhi Leonard through sponsor deals.

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An investigation by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz found that the Clippers sought to provide Kawhi Leonard with extra income outside his contract by arranging business opportunities with four club-connected companies: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance. ^[1] The NBA fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million and stripped them of five first-round draft choices for the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 drafts as punishment for salary cap violations. ^[2] The NBA suspended Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for one year from all league and team activities because he knowingly helped Leonard find extra income, approved a business deal tied to the Aspiration sponsorship, and failed to ensure compliance with NBA rules. ^[3] The investigation also determined that the Clippers paid personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives and failed to report requests for additional earnings made by Leonard's then-manager Dennis Robertson. ^[4] The NBA suspended Gillian Zucker, the Clippers' team president of business operations, without pay for one year for being 'primarily and directly culpable' for the endorsement arrangements and for providing false and misleading statements to investigators. ^[5]

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The NBA fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million and stripped them of five first-round draft choices for the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 drafts as punishment for salary cap violations. · 24sata

The NBA suspended Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for one year from all league and team activities because he knowingly helped Leonard find extra income, approved a business deal tied to the Aspiration sponsorship, and failed to ensure compliance with NBA rules. · 24sata

The investigation also determined that the Clippers paid personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives and failed to report requests for additional earnings made by Leonard's then-manager Dennis Robertson. · 24sata

The NBA suspended Gillian Zucker, the Clippers' team president of business operations, without pay for one year for being 'primarily and directly culpable' for the endorsement arrangements and for providing false and misleading statements to investigators. · Al Jazeera

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