NBA fines Clippers owner $30 million and removes five first-round picks over Kawhi Leonard salary-cap violation
The league penalized the Los Angeles Clippers with the loss of five first-round draft selections and fined owner Steve Ballmer $30 million after finding the team violated salary-cap circumvention rules involving Kawhi Leonard.
The NBA announced Wednesday that the Los Angeles Clippers will forfeit their first-round picks in the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 drafts and that owner Steve Ballmer will be fined $30 million. The penalties stem from a league investigation that concluded the team and Leonard received impermissible benefits that breached salary-cap rules. Leonard himself was also fined $700,000.
"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," Leonard said in a social-media statement following the announcement.
The investigation traced a $28 million agreement between Leonard and Aspiration, a now-bankrupt company in which Ballmer held a significant investment. The league determined the deal was used to funnel money to Leonard in violation of cap regulations. Earlier statements from the Clippers and Ballmer denied any wrongdoing, describing the allegations as "absurd" and asserting that the team had no oversight of the endorsement arrangement.
The case revives earlier scrutiny of Leonard’s free-agency negotiations, during which his uncle allegedly sought off-court benefits from multiple teams. While the NBA previously found no evidence of illegal benefits at the time of Leonard’s 2019 signing, the new findings prompted the current sanctions.
The penalties were imposed as the league prepared to conclude its probe ahead of the Board of Governors meeting in July, after a trade that would have sent Leonard back to the Toronto Raptors was placed on hold pending the investigation’s outcome.