NBA suspends Clippers president Gillian Zucker for a year over illegal endorsement deals

The NBA released a report concluding that Los Angeles Clippers president Gillian Zucker led a scheme to funnel money to star forward Kawhi Leonard through prohibited endorsement deals. The investigation, conducted by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, found Zucker acted as the point person for agreements with companies including Boingo, Daktronics, Lockton and Aspiration, and that she provided false statements to investigators.

As a result, Zucker received a one-year suspension without pay, owner Steve Ballmer was banned for a year, and basketball operations head Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months. The Clippers were also ordered to surrender five first-round draft picks and pay a $30 million fine.

"Ms. Zucker was the point person on all four deals between these companies and the Clippers, and directly initiated, facilitated, and induced each of Mr. Leonard’s endorsement agreements with those companies," the league’s findings state.

The report also detailed that Zucker fabricated introductory emails to make it appear that the businesses had approached Leonard, while the team actually initiated the partnerships. In one instance, a "spend back" arrangement was proposed to Daktronics, linking the company’s bid for the Intuit Dome to an endorsement deal with Leonard.

The Clippers denied any wrongdoing in statements from the organization and its legal counsel. A former employee, speaking anonymously, described Zucker as a loyal aide to Ballmer who was willing to take extensive measures to satisfy the owner’s objectives.

Zucker, hired by Ballmer in 2014 to revamp the franchise’s marketing and business operations, had previously been involved in a 2015 incident where the team offered center DeAndre Jordan a sponsorship with Lexus, resulting in a $250,000 fine for the club. The new sanctions represent some of the harshest penalties the NBA has imposed for salary-cap violations.