Clippers to Fight NBA Penalties After Losing Five First-Round Picks Over Kawhi Leonard Deals

The Los Angeles Clippers have said they will contest one of the heaviest disciplinary rulings in NBA history, after the league stripped the club of five first-round draft picks, fined it $30 million and suspended owner Steve Ballmer for a year over Kawhi Leonard's off-court endorsement deals.

The sanctions were announced on Wednesday at the end of a nearly year-long independent investigation carried out by the New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which released a 36-page summary report alongside the league's statement. The Clippers rejected the findings the same day and said they would take the case to arbitration.

The Penalties in Full

The Clippers forfeit a first-round pick in each of the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 drafts. The $30 million fine reflects the maximum penalty of $7.5 million permitted under the collective bargaining agreement for cap circumvention, applied once for each of the four companies the league found the team had used.

Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year. Gillian Zucker, the club's president of business operations, is suspended for a year without pay. Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations, is suspended for six months without pay. ESPN's Brian Windhorst has reported that general manager Trent Redden is likely to run the front office in Frank's absence.

Leonard must pay the league $700,000. He was not suspended and his contract was not voided. Dennis Robertson, his uncle and former business manager, is banned for five years from conducting business or engaging with NBA teams on behalf of any player or team employee.

The organisation will also operate under a compliance and monitoring programme overseen by the league office for the next five years.

The Club's Response

The Clippers issued a statement rejecting the ruling within hours. "We vehemently reject the NBA's findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence," it read. "We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process."

David Kelley, an attorney for Ballmer, described the investigation as a witch hunt and the penalties as a gross injustice, and said he would explore every legal remedy available.

The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have agreed that the penalties are final and binding as between the league and the union. That agreement does not resolve the club's own challenge. Wachtell Lipton is continuing to receive information, and the league has said it will consider further action if warranted.

What the Investigation Found

The league said the Clippers initiated off-court income opportunities between Leonard and four companies doing business with the team: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance. It found the club facilitated endorsement agreements between those companies and Leonard, covered personal expenses on his behalf, and failed to report improper solicitations made by Robertson, who investigators found had pressed the club to secure Leonard roughly $10 million a year in off-court income.

Zucker was the point person on all four deals. Investigators found she made three introductions within six days in June 2020, during the pandemic shutdown, and found no evidence that any of the companies had initiated contact. They concluded she made false and misleading statements when interviewed. Frank was described as having facilitated the circumvention.

The Wachtell report states that Ballmer knowingly sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income and approved a business arrangement he understood to be a precondition for Aspiration entering into an endorsement contract with the player. It also found he had failed to create conditions in which his organisation followed the league's rules. ESPN reported that the summary does not set out direct evidence that Ballmer knew the arrangements were structured to circumvent the cap.

Leonard has said he had no knowledge of any intent to circumvent the cap. Investigators found he was involved in negotiating the Aspiration agreement, including a request to alter the balance between its cash and equity components.

How It Started

Aspiration Partners, a climate finance company that had taken investment from Ballmer and held a sponsorship agreement with the Clippers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2025. Ballmer had put $50 million into the company in September 2021 and a further $10 million in March 2023, and the club signed a sponsorship deal reported at $300 million in September 2021.

The league opened its investigation the following September, after the podcast journalist Pablo Torre reported the existence of a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. Leonard responded at the time that the reporting was clickbait. "The NBA is going to do they job," he said in September 2025. "None of us did no wrong doing. That's it. We invite the investigations."

The conduct examined by investigators spans a longer period than the endorsement contract itself. Zucker's introductions to Boingo, Daktronics and Lockton were made in June 2020, before Leonard signed a new four-year, $176.3 million contract with the Clippers in August 2021, and the Aspiration endorsement agreement was signed in April 2022.

Reaction and What Happens Next

Commissioner Adam Silver said he was "deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers' institutional and leadership failures", and said the severity of the penalties reflected the seriousness of the conduct.

Leonard, speaking through his new agent Harrison Gaines, said he accepted full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within his inner circle. He maintained that he entered his contract and the associated agreements in good faith and without knowledge of any intent to breach the cap rules, and said he was focused on moving forward as he returns to Toronto.

Because Leonard was not suspended and his contract was left intact, his trade to the Toronto Raptors can now proceed. The move had been placed on hold while the investigation ran, with the Raptors saying the league had told them they would carry the risk of any outcome affecting the player, and choosing to wait.

The nearest precedent is the ruling David Stern handed the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2000 over an under-the-table agreement with Joe Smith. Minnesota were also directed to forfeit five first-round picks, two of which were later restored, and owner Glen Taylor was suspended. The differences are substantial. Minnesota's fine was $3.5 million, and Smith's contract was voided and his Bird rights stripped, neither of which has happened to Leonard. Minnesota's first restored pick came in December 2000 as part of an arrangement in which Taylor accepted a leave of absence and dropped his arbitration case. The Clippers are pursuing arbitration rather than forgoing it.