The Los Angeles Clippers-Kawhi Leonard scandal, in the eyes of the NBA, is over.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Tuesday that the discipline the league handed out earlier this month in the wake of the scandal “is final.”
The NBA determined that the Clippers and Leonard circumvented the salary cap through deals with third-party companies, something that was first brought to light through a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation from the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast.
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That led to several significant punishments, which included stripping the Clippers of five first-round draft picks. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was fined $30 million and banned from all league and team activities for a year, and Leonard was fined $700,000, too.
Ballmer had long denied the allegations against him and his team, and they said they “vehemently” rejected the league’s findings while calling the investigation a “witch hunt.” But with few paths forward, Ballmer finally relented on Sunday night. While he said he still has “disagreements” with the NBA’s findings, he wants to move on.
“We are committing to put this chapter behind us,” Ballmer said, in part. “We have communicated to the NBA that we are complying with the penalties assessed by the league, have paid the fine, and are moving forward. While there are still disagreements concerning the findings in the report, this is not where I want to focus. Team owners should support, not distract.”
Leonard has since been traded to the Toronto Raptors, a deal that had been on hold due to the investigation, and will be allowed to start the 2026-27 season normally. He wasn’t suspended reportedly because the league didn’t have enough evidence to make that move.
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As for the punishments that were handed down, the Clippers are in a tough spot. They now don’t have a first-round draft pick from 2029-2033, which is undoubtedly detrimental to the franchise.
The Minnesota Timberwolves were involved in a similar cap circumvention case in 2000, and actually had two of the five first-round draft picks they were stripped of return after the team took responsibility for violating the rules. It’s unclear if that will happen here, but Silver did say Tuesday that the league was looking for precedent when determining the Clippers’ punishment.
“That’s in some ways the most difficult part of adjudicating these disputes because while there have to be competitive consequences, in our view, if these rules are by are violated, we still want to be a 30-team league, and we recognize that in some ways we’re unfortunately punishing the fans of that team as well,” he said.
Silver was speaking during the NBA’s board of governors meetings this week in New York. The Clippers were not represented there, as they are still in the process of appointing a governor for the next year while Ballmer is suspended.
While there are still some things to figure out, it sounds like Silver and Ballmer are finally on the same page here. They want to move forward.
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