The NBA released its findings in the Clippers-Kawhi Leonard case Wednesday afternoon, saying that the team illegally circumvented the league’s salary cap by funneling millions of dollars to Leonard through third parties.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been banned from the league for a year, and the team has been stripped of five first-round picks and fined $30 million. The draft penalties begin in 2029.
On Sept. 3, 2025, podcaster Pablo Torre reported that Ballmer had arranged a “no-show” job for Leonard with since-failed environmental startup Aspiration worth millions. The NBA announced its investigation the same day.
The league said that its investigation—conducted by lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz—found that the Clippers used four companies to route payments to Leonard off the books. The companies were Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance. Lockton’s role in the scandal has not been previously reported.
“The NBA’s collectively bargained system for determining player compensation is a fundamental component of the basketball competition that the league oversees for the benefit of the teams and players and ultimately the fans,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “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.”
Other punishments include:
- A one-year suspension for Gillian Zucker, the team’s president of business operations, who the league says lied to investigators and was “primarily and directly culpable for the impermissible endorsement arrangements.”
- A six-month suspension for president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank.
- A $700,000 fine for Leonard.
- A five-year NBA ban for Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson, who the league found pressured the Clippers into the outside deals.
There will be no appeal, as the league and union agreed to the punishments, and the law firm “continues to receive information relevant to the investigation.”
Leonard agreed to a three-year, $103 million deal with the Clippers in July 2019. The report says that the four companies paid Leonard $18 million in total, and that “all $18 million was paid to Mr. Leonard by August 2021.”
Earlier this summer, the Clippers and Raptors agreed to a trade to send Leonard to Toronto; the trade had been on hold for the league’s findings. In a statement Wednesday, Leonard said that he was moving to Toronto with a “clean slate” and blamed “lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle.” He said he had “no knowledge” of any illegal scheme to pay him extra money.
On Wednesday, Daktronics CEO said that the federal Securities and Exchange Commission was seeking information about its relationship with Leonard. Daktronics is a publicly traded company.
Torre did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. He won a Pulitzer for his Clippers reporting in May.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
