{"id":1039768,"date":"2026-09-02T23:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1039768\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T23:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:39:16","slug":"nba-suspends-clippers-owner-steve-ballmer-fines-kawhi-leonard-in-salary-cap-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1039768\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA suspends Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, fines Kawhi Leonard in salary cap scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The NBA imposed a sweeping punishment against the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> on Wednesday for violating salary cap circumvention rules, suspending owner Steve Ballmer<\/a> for one year, fining the team $30 million and forcing it to forfeit five first-round draft picks.<\/p>\n

Also, two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard<\/a> was hit with a $700,000 penalty, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was banned for six months and team president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year.<\/p>\n

The Clippers will give up one first-round pick in each draft from 2029-2033.<\/p>\n

The league came down hard on the organization after a nearly yearlong investigation led by an outside law firm.<\/p>\n

The Clippers had said multiple times that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be exonerated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we\u2019re going to be in the clear,\u201d Leonard said in April, \u201cso I\u2019m not stressing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Frank said, \u201cIf you know Steve and know Steve\u2019s integrity, you know there\u2019s nothing to it. We believe and we\u2019ve very confident we\u2019re on the right side of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team maintained that stance Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe vehemently reject the NBA\u2019s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence,\u201d the team said in a statement. \u201cWhat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clippers said they will \u201cnow 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league said it and the players\u2019 union agreed to confirm the penalties as final and binding on all parties. It said the outside law firm continues to receive information involving the investigation, and the league \u201cwill consider further action as appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers\u2019 institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct,\u201d Silver said in a statement. \u201cThe severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA began investigating in September 2025 whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC \u2014 a company that filed for bankruptcy last year \u2014 broke league rules, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

The Clippers released a letter from Ballmer\u2019s attorney David Kelley to Silver in which he described the investigation as \u201ca witch hunt\u201d and the subsequent penalties as a \u201cgross injustice.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kelley accused Silver of not keeping his promises that the investigation would be governed by due process and fundamental fairness as well as the burden being on the league to prove any violations through evidence. <\/p>\n

\u201cLeague 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\u2019s fraud \u2014 not a participant,\u201d wrote Kelley, a partner in the firm O\u2019Melveny and Myers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Ballmer\u2019s 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,\u201d Kelley wrote.<\/p>\n

Kelley wrote that no league rule prohibits team personnel making introductions to both sponsors and vendors in response to player requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cRetroactively punishing the Clippers for violating a rule that never existed is hardly consistent with due process,\u201d Kelley wrote.<\/p>\n

The league said Ballmer knowingly sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income deals, approved a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement contract with Leonard, and for failing to create conditions under which his team followed league rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Leonard said in a statement issued through his new agent, Harrison Gaines.<\/p>\n

The NBA said Leonard, through his former business manager and uncle Dennis Robertson, \u201cviolated 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019s part to circumvent the salary cap,\u201d Leonard said in his statement.<\/p>\n

The league said Ballmer was suspended for \u201cknowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities,\u201d among other issues.<\/p>\n

Leonard\u2019s trade<\/a> 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 and was Finals MVP in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate,\u201d Leonard said in his statement.<\/p>\n

The Clippers and their personnel will be under a compliance and monitoring program by the league for five years and Robertson was banned from doing business with NBA teams for five years.<\/p>\n

The league penalized Frank for his involvement with the impermissible endorsement arrangements and for approving impermissible expenses incurred by Leonard and his family. Zucker was banned for being primarily and directly culpable for the illegal endorsement arrangements and for lying to investigators. Both will lose their salaries during their bans.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time the Clippers have run afoul of NBA rules under Ballmer, who bought the team for $2 billion in August 2014.<\/p>\n

They were fined $250,000 a year later for violating rules against offering unauthorized business or investment opportunities to players during their courting of free agent DeAndre Jordan. A presentation to him improperly included a $200,000-per-year deal with luxury carmaker Lexus.<\/p>\n

Ballmer, 70, was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full NBA coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The NBA imposed a sweeping punishment against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1039769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[3881,1339,276,12111,415975,34305,415977,57,415974,415976,112169,3370,20199,3142,14229,1260,6326,2629,33249,62,49616,61,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1039768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ap-top-news","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-compensation-in-sports","tag-david-kelley","tag-deandre-jordan","tag-dennis-robertson","tag-general-news","tag-gillian-zucker","tag-harrison-gaines","tag-joseph-sanberg","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-lawrence-frank","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-microsoft-corp","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-nba-draft","tag-pablo-torre","tag-sports","tag-steve-ballmer","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117204088604925732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}