The NBA has imposed sweeping penalties on the Los Angeles Clippers after a nearly year-long investigation found the franchise violated salary cap circumvention rules connected to a business deal involving star forward Kawhi Leonard. The league suspended team owner Steve Ballmer for one year, fined the Clippers $US30 million ($41.5 million), and forced the team to forfeit five draft picks.
Leonard was also fined $US700,000 ($977,000). Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was banned for six months, and team president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year. Both Frank and Zucker will lose their salaries during their bans, and Leonard’s former business manager and uncle, Dennis Robertson, was banned from doing business with NBA teams for five years.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement, “I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct. The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”
The league said Ballmer “knowingly sought to help Mr Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities,” approved a business deal he knew was a precondition for a company called Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC to enter into an endorsement contract with Leonard, and failed to ensure his team followed league rules. The NBA said Leonard, through 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.” Zucker was penalised for being “primarily and directly culpable” for the arrangements and for allegedly lying to investigators, while Frank was penalised for his involvement in the endorsement arrangements and for approving impermissible expenses for Leonard and his family.
The Clippers and their personnel will now be subject to a compliance and monitoring program overseen by the league for five years.
The NBA said it and the players’ union agreed the penalties would be treated as final and binding on all parties, though it noted the outside law firm that led the investigation continues to receive information and that the league “will consider further action as appropriate.”
The investigation began in September 2025 after journalist Pablo Torre reported on a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC, a company that later filed for bankruptcy. 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.
The Clippers strongly disputed the NBA’s findings. “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 said 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 Clippers released a letter from Ballmer’s attorney, David Kelley of O’Melveny and Myers, addressed to Silver, describing the investigation as “a witch hunt” and the penalties as a “gross injustice.” Kelley wrote that “League counsel has acknowledged in our discussions that the league does not believe there was an agreement between the Clippers and Aspiration to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard. League counsel also agreed with the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a federal judge that Mr. Ballmer was a victim of Joe Sanberg’s fraud — not a participant.” Kelley added that “Mr Ballmer’s reputation has been irreparably damaged as he now finds himself embroiled not only in this heavily biased investigation, but in civil litigation, the Aspiration bankruptcy proceeding, and more,” and argued that no league rule prohibits team personnel from making introductions to sponsors and vendors at a player’s request, calling it inconsistent with due process to “retroactively punish” the Clippers for violating a rule he said never existed.
Leonard, in a statement issued through his new agent, Harrison Gaines, said, “I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgement by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family.” He also said, “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.”
Before the ruling, both Leonard and Frank had expressed confidence the team would be cleared. In April, Leonard said, “I think that we’re going to be in the clear, so I’m not stressing it,” while Frank said, “If you know Steve and know Steve’s integrity, you know there’s nothing to it. We believe and we’ve very confident we’re on the right side of this.”
Leonard’s pending trade to the Toronto Raptors had been on hold pending the outcome of the investigation. In his statement, Leonard said, “As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.” The Raptors have said they still want Leonard, who won an NBA title and was named Finals MVP with the team in 2019.
It is not the first time the Clippers have faced NBA discipline under Ballmer, who bought the franchise for $2 billion in August 2014. The team was fined $250,000 in 2015 for violating rules against offering unauthorised business or investment opportunities to players, after a presentation to free agent DeAndre Jordan improperly included a $200,000-per-year deal with Lexus. Ballmer, 70, was chief executive of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014.
While the NBA has issued its penalties, the Clippers have stated they intend to challenge the findings through arbitration, and the matter remains a point of dispute between the team and the league going forward.
Source: ABC News (AU)
