NBA Punishes Clippers with Loss of Draft Picks and Fine
The NBA dropped a hammer on the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, stripping the franchise of five future first-round draft picks and fining owner Steve Ballmer $30 million after determining the team violated the league’s salary-cap circumvention rules in its dealings with Kawhi Leonard.
Leonard was hit as well, docked $700,000 by the league.
The punishment is staggering. The Clippers will forfeit their first-round picks in the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 NBA Drafts — a decade-long dent in the franchise’s ability to rebuild or reload through the top of the draft board.
A “pattern of misconduct”
In its announcement, the league said the sanctions were “for violating the salary cap circumvention rules” and pointed directly at the organization.
“The investigation found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules,” the league’s statement read.
The case centered on whether Leonard, during his time with the Clippers, received impermissible benefits that effectively boosted his compensation beyond what the salary cap allows.
Leonard, who has since been traded to the Toronto Raptors in a deal that was frozen for weeks while the investigation played out, responded with a statement on social media. He framed himself as blindsided by the findings but accepted the fallout around him.
“Integrity and respect for this game are fundamental to who I am. I 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.
“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.
“For 15 years, my priority has been giving everything to my family, the game, and those I share the court with. As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.”
The Aspiration deal that lit the fuse
The league’s probe accelerated months ago when journalist Pablo Torre, on his podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” detailed a financial arrangement that raised alarms in league offices.
Torre reported that Leonard had an agreement with Aspiration, a now-bankrupt company in which Ballmer was heavily invested. The deal, according to Torre, paid Leonard $28 million for minimal obligations. The central allegation: Ballmer used that $28 million endorsement arrangement as a backdoor way to sweeten Leonard’s earnings beyond what the Clippers could legally offer under the cap.
On the day Torre’s story first dropped, the Clippers and Ballmer pushed back hard. They issued a statement rejecting the idea that the franchise or its owner had manipulated the cap.
“Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap. The notion that Steve invested in Aspiration in order to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard is absurd ...” the team said.
“There is nothing unusual about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players on the same team. Neither Steve nor the Clippers organization had any oversight of Kawhi’s independent endorsement agreement with Aspiration. To say otherwise is flat-out wrong.”
Hours later, the NBA announced it was opening an investigation.
A long-running cloud over the 2019 signing
This was not the first time the league had looked into how Leonard landed in Los Angeles.
After Leonard signed with the Clippers in 2019 on a three-year, $104 million deal, the NBA investigated allegations that his camp — specifically his uncle, Dennis Robertson — had asked teams for impermissible benefits during free agency.
According to a 2019 report by The Athletic, Robertson sought “part ownership of the team, a private plane that would be available at all times, a house and — last but certainly not least — a guaranteed amount of off-court endorsement money that they could expect if Leonard played for their team.” Those requests were reportedly made to both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Raptors.
At that time, the NBA said it found no evidence the Clippers had granted illegal benefits to Leonard.
This time, the conclusion was very different.
Ballmer’s confidence, Torre’s trail
When the latest investigation launched in September, Ballmer publicly projected calm. Speaking at a Sports Business Journal event, he said he was “quite confident” the Clippers “abided by the rules” and welcomed the process, saying it would “get the facts out there.”
Torre kept digging. Across multiple episodes, he laid out more material suggesting the Clippers funneled money into Aspiration to ensure Leonard was paid on schedule, strengthening the perception that the endorsement arrangement functioned as an off-books supplement to his Clippers contract.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, speaking at a Board of Governors meeting in September, signaled he would need clear proof before acting.
“If there was the mere appearance of impropriety, I would be hesitant to act,” Silver told reporters.
Torre’s final deep dive came at the end of September, followed by a compilation video in December that stitched together all six episodes he devoted to the saga. After that, the public noise faded. The investigation did not.
A trade frozen in limbo
The issue roared back into the headlines in June when the Clippers agreed to send Leonard back to the Raptors in a blockbuster deal. Immediately, a new question surfaced: could the NBA allow the trade to go through while the investigation into Leonard’s compensation remained unresolved?
A few weeks later, both franchises acknowledged the uncertainty. The trade, they confirmed, was on hold.
In their statement, the Clippers again insisted they had done nothing wrong. The Raptors, meanwhile, revealed that the league had placed the risk squarely on them.
“The league office informed us that, as a result of the ongoing investigation involving the Clippers, we would assume the risk of any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Kawhi. In light of this we will wait until the league’s investigation is complete,” Toronto said.
On the same day, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the expectation remained that the trade would eventually be completed, indicating Leonard’s personal punishment was unlikely to be severe enough to scuttle the deal altogether.
Behind the scenes, the clock ticked toward the NBA’s July Board of Governors meeting, with reports suggesting the investigation might wrap before then. The league has now delivered its verdict. The path is clear for Toronto.
A turbulent final season in L.A.
All of this unfolded against a chaotic on-court backdrop in Los Angeles.
Despite pairing Leonard with James Harden, the Clippers stumbled badly out of the gate, opening the season 5–16. Leonard missed 10 of those games with ankle and foot injuries, and the team went 2–8 without him.
Once he returned consistently, the story changed. Leonard played at an MVP-caliber level, averaging a career-high 27.9 points per game and earning MVP votes for the first time in four seasons. His production dragged the Clippers back to respectability.
It wasn’t enough. The early damage stuck. Los Angeles finished 42–40, above .500 but short of expectations, and then bowed out in the play-in tournament against the Golden State Warriors.
With Leonard entering the final year of his contract, the franchise mired in an investigation and the roster seemingly stuck in neutral, the Clippers chose a reset. They traded the face of their era back to Toronto, even as the league’s probe hovered over the transaction.
Now the punishment is official, the picks are gone, and the fines are on the books.
The Clippers still have an expensive roster, a gleaming arena and an owner willing to spend. What they no longer have is the long-term draft capital that cushions mistakes — or the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the league’s most sacred financial rules.
