{"id":1040549,"date":"2026-09-03T09:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040549\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:17:12","slug":"nba-investigation-ends-with-la-clippers-sent-25-seasons-back-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040549\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA investigation ends with LA Clippers sent 25 seasons back in time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA\u2019s nearly year-long investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers has ended with one of the harshest punishments<\/a> in league history, sending the franchise back to territory last seen during Minnesota\u2019s Joe Smith salary-cap scandal 25 seasons ago.<\/p>\n

The League has concluded that the Clippers violated salary-cap circumvention rules by facilitating endorsement deals for Kawhi Leonard with Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance, as first reported by ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The investigation began after reporting by Torre, and the process was conducted<\/a> by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.<\/p>\n

The sanctions immediately reshape the Clippers\u2019 already-long-gone future:<\/p>\n

The scale of the punishment closely mirrors<\/a>, although it clearly tops it, the NBA\u2019s response to Minnesota in 2000. More than 25 years ago, former NBA commissioner David Stern stripped the Timberwolves of five first-round picks and fined the franchise $3.5 million after determining it had entered into an illegal secret agreement with Smith. Two of Minnesota\u2019s five picks were later returned.<\/p>\n

The Clippers\u2019 draft situation is particularly tough. After years of outgoing picks tied to the Paul George trade, the latest penalties leave Los Angeles without one of its own first-round selections until 2034 under the current setup. Sheesh\u2026<\/p>\n

The NBA suspended Ballmer for knowingly seeking to help Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities and approving a business arrangement connected to the Aspiration endorsement. Zucker was cited for being directly culpable in the endorsement arrangements and for providing false and misleading statements to investigators, while Frank was disciplined for his involvement and for approving impermissible expenses involving Leonard and his family.<\/p>\n

Funnily enough, Leonard\u2019s punishment differed significantly from Smith\u2019s 25 seasons earlier, as Kawhi came out pretty much unscathed. Smith\u2019s contract was voided in 2000, while the NBA decided to leave Leonard\u2019s contract intact and instead ordered him to pay $700,000 over improper benefits. Lots of money to us, pocket money for the Klaw.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles \u201cvehemently\u201d rejected the NBA\u2019s findings and said it intends to challenge the ruling through every available avenue. Meanwhile, Kawhi is still on his way to Canada<\/a> to play basketball north of the border next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA\u2019s nearly year-long investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers has ended with one of the harshest punishments…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1040550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[116655,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1040549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-knicks-news","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117206361648029443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040549","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=1040549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}