The NBA has put down the hammer on the Los Angeles Clippers, sending a message to the rest of the league of what happens if you break the rules in Adam Silver's NBA. The Clippers were charged with illegally circumventing the NBA's salary cap, by offering superstar Kawhi Leonard under the table money through a fake sponsorship opportunity, so that Leonard would accept less money on the contract, allowing the Clippers to be under the $112.4 Million cap (at the time of the deal). The NBA stripped the Clippers of five first-round draft picks, issuing owner Steve Ballmer a $30 Million fine, and year-long suspensions for Ballmer, Lawrence Frank (Clippers Pres. of Basketball Ops.), and Gillian Zucker (Clippers Pres. of Business Ops). Leonard himself is fined $700,000, and his former agent is banned by the NBA from all future business dealings. The punishment is one of the most severe in American sports history. As ESPN MLB Analyst Jeff Passan said: "For context, Major League Baseball stripped the Houston Astros of their first and second round picks in 2020 and 2021 as part of the penalty for the teams sign-stealing scheme during its World Series-winning 2017 season".
The story was first broken publicly by sports investigative journalist Pablo Torre on his show "Pablo Torre Finds Out". In September 2025, he stated that Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers entered into a no-show sponsorship deal with Aspiration, a "climate friendly technology and carbon-credit company". Many former Aspiration employees knew about the deal, with many of them being whistleblowers. They stated that it was an "open secret" that the deal was a way for the Clippers to get around the salary cap. The contract in question that Kawhi had signed was a four year, $176.3 Million max deal, with the fourth year having a player option. The Clippers also had to pay Paul George the same max deal, and five other players making over $10 million a year, while Ivica Zubac and Terrance Mann were owed new contracts the next year. The Clippers would be in cap hell without making multiple moves, so they decided to get creative. Once the NBA got ahold of the paper trail that Torre had accrued, they announced a full scale investigation into the Clippers and Kawhi. Their year-long inquiry found that Aspiration was not the Clippers only offense, but they circumvented the cap with three other team-connected vendors: Boingo Wirel;ess, Daktronics Scoreboards, and Lockton Insurance. They found that Leonard was funneled upwards of $66 million in pay from these "sponsorhips", while making no appearances, commercials, or any marketing work at all. While the investigation was ongoing, the Clippers traded Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, in exchange for Gradey Dick, Brandon Ingram, first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, second-round picks in 2030 and 2033, and a pick swap in 2027. The trade was agreed to in early July, and there was speculation that Kawhi's contract would become void as part of the NBA's punishment. The Raptors put the trade on hold until the end of the investigation, as they would not have allowed the trade to go through had the contract become void. As we now know, his contract was not void, and the trade will go through.
The Clippers and Leonard both released statements following the announcement of the punishment. Leonard stated that he "entered into (his) agreement with the Clippers in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling (his) obligations and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone's part to circumvent the salary cap... As I return to Toronto, I am focued on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate."
The Clippers, however, strongly opposed the NBA's findings: "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. What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure it’s fairness and accuracy. For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence. 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."
The Kawhi Leonard era on the Clippers may go down as one of the worst in NBA history. Kawhi told the Clippers he would only sign with the Clippers if they acquired Paul George from the Thunder, which they did, but in what is in hindsight a lopsided trade in favor of OKC. The Thunder acquired Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks, two pick swaps, and future MVP and Finals MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the Clippers. After signing both Leonard and Paul George in the 2019 offseason, the Clippers became title contenders on paper. However, that is the opposite of what happened. The Clippers made one Conference Final, in 2021, losing in six games to the Phoenix Suns. Leonard missed the entire series due to injury. His tenure with the Clippers will be remembered by load management, injuries, and missed expectations. And the Clippers future looks even more bleak with the forfeiture of the five first-rounders. For context, teams traded for superstars like Kevin Durant, James Harden, Rudy Gobert, Mikal Bridges, and Giannis Antetokounmpo were traded for four or five picks. The Clippers lose their picks without getting anything in return, and an inability to sign and develop rookies for the foreseeable future. All in all, with the penalties from the investigation, the Clippers acquisition of Leonard and George cost the team 10 first-rounders, two pick swaps, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, and over $30 million in fines, while never making it to the NBA Finals. The punishment sends shockwaves throughout the NBA, and sends a warning to the 29 other teams to make sure they play by the rules.