NBA hands Clippers heavy punishment

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for one year by the NBA, and the team was ordered to forfeit five first-round draft picks and pay a $30 million fine Wednesday for violating salary cap circumvention rules in a case involving Kawhi Leonard. Also, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank has been banned for six months and team president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year. Leonard was hit with a $700,000 penalty. The league came down hard on the organization after a nearly year-long investigation led by an outside law firm. The Clippers had said multiple times that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be exonerated. The team maintained that stance 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 Clippers 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." The NBA opened the investigation in September 2025 into whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC — a company that filed for bankruptcy last year — broke league rules, following a report by podcast journalist Pablo Torre. 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. "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," said Leonard in a statement issued through his new agent, Harrison Gaines. The NBA said 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." "I 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," said Leonard in his statement. The league said Ballmer was suspended for "knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities," among other issues. Leonard's trade to the Toronto Raptors has been on hold pending the outcome of the investigation. The Raptors had said they still want Leonard, and he apparently is just as eager to return to the team where he won an NBA title in 2019, when he was Finals MVP. "As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate," said Leonard in his statement.