Five drafts, gone
2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033. The Clippers will not have a first-round pick in any of them. On top of that, a $30 million fine, the largest the NBA has ever handed a team.
The charge is salary-cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz ran the investigation for a year and found a pattern of breaches, along with several major violations, at a franchise that has been here before.
The mechanics were not complicated. The Clippers steered Leonard toward sponsors and helped him line up off-court money. Those companies got commercial deals with the team in return. The franchise also covered personal expenses for Leonard and for people around him. Four companies appear in the report: Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, Lockton Insurance and Aspiration Partners, the fintech that collapsed last year after handing Leonard a $28 million contract.
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A year on the sidelines for Ballmer
The individual penalties bite. Owner Steve Ballmer is suspended for a year from all league and team business. Gillian Zucker, president of business operations, loses a year of pay. Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations, sits six months. Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and former business manager, cannot deal with any NBA team for five years.
Leonard was fined $700,000. The 35-year-old maintains he knew nothing about any effort to work around the cap and says the only thing he is answerable for is the bad judgment of people close to him.
Los Angeles is not accepting any of it. The team called the investigation heavily biased and said it will pursue every avenue open to it, arbitration included. Adam Silver called the violations clear and said he was deeply disappointed.
Toronto has been waiting on this
A trade has been sitting in limbo. On June 30 the Raptors and Clippers agreed to send Leonard back to Toronto, seven years after he won them a title. Everything froze until the investigation closed. ESPN reports it should go through within days.
The package heading to Los Angeles: Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round picks, two seconds and a swap. Leonard averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists across 65 games last season. The Clippers finished ninth in the West and lost their play-in game to Golden State.
Wachtell is still accepting information. Nobody at the league has said the file is closed.
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