NBA Hits Los Angeles Clippers With Biggest-Ever Punishment Over Kawhi Leonard Salary-Cap Violations

Los Angeles: The NBA has imposed the biggest punishment in its history on the Los Angeles Clippers and team owner Steve Ballmer after a year-long investigation found that the franchise circumvented salary cap rules to benefit star player Kawhi Leonard, according to The New York Times.

As part of the punishment, the Clippers will forfeit five first-round draft picks from 2029 through 2033 and have been fined USD 30 million.

Ballmer has also been suspended for one year for knowingly attempting to help Leonard secure off-court business opportunities, according to the New York Times.

The league said Ballmer approved a business deal between the Clippers and Aspiration, an arrangement that investigators found was linked to Leonard's sponsorship agreement with the company.

NBA investigators said the Clippers attempted to bypass league rules by arguing that it was permissible to connect players with business partners when the player or their representatives requested such introductions. The NBA did not find that persuasive.

The Clippers, in a statement, refuted the findings of the investigation, which was funded by Ballmer, and said they would challenge the punishment. However, a source familiar with NBA rules said the team has no right to appeal or seek arbitration over the penalties.

“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 statement read, as quoted by The New York Times. “For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith, and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence.”

In a two-page letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, David N. Kelly, an attorney from O’Melveny & Myers representing the Clippers, described the league’s investigation as a “witch hunt.”

Kelly claimed that NBA officials had privately informed team executives that investigators found no agreement involving Aspiration to channel money to Leonard. In a two-page letter addressed to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, David N. Kelly of the law firm O’Melveny and Myers called the investigation a witch hunt.

The attorney representing the Clippers claimed that the league told team leaders privately that investigators found no agreement to funnel money to Leonard through Aspiration. Instead, Kelly contended, the league is punishing the Clippers under a new theory that they introduced Leonard to team business partners, the New York Times report added.

“This process was designed to substantiate a predetermined outcome,” wrote Kelly. “We are exploring every legal remedy to address this gross injustice,” the letter concluded, as quoted by the New York Times.

The announcement brings an end to a lengthy investigation that initially focused on whether the Clippers had violated the NBA’s salary-cap rules through Kawhi Leonard’s endorsement deal with Aspiration. The scope of the probe later widened as the investigation progressed. 

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)