NBA suspends Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for one year, fines team $30 million, forfeits draft picks in salary cap violation case

The NBA on Wednesday said it had suspended Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for one year as part of a broad array of sanctions on the basketball team and two senior executives for violating the league's salary cap circumvention rules related to star player Kawhi Leonard and four companies that did business with the team.

Ballmer "knowingly" sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities worth millions of dollars, and approved a business deal that Ballmer "knew was a precondition for Aspiration [Partners] to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard," the league said.

The Clippers were also fined $30 million, and will forfeit five first-round picks in the NBA draft, one each year beginning with the 2029 draft. The Clippers and their personnel will be subject to a compliance and monitoring program overseen by the league office for five years, according to the NBA.

Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker was suspended without pay for one year, and President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank was suspended without pay for six months. Zucker provided false and misleading statements to investigators, according to a summary of findings released Wednesday.

The league said that an investigation of the Clippers by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz "found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations" by the organization, which had previously violated salary cap circumvention rules.

"The three individuals most responsible for the Clippers' rule-breaking are Mr. Ballmer, Ms. Zucker, and Mr. Frank," a 36-page report by Wachtell, Lipton said.

In a statement, the Clippers said "We vehemently reject the NBA's findings," adding that, "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."

In a summary of its findings, Wachtell, Lipton said the organization's violations included "initiating off-court income opportunities between Mr. Leonard and four companies doing business with the team: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance," and facilitating endorsement deals between those companies and Leonard.

The Clippers also induced those companies to enter into deals with Leonard by offering them business from the team, paying personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives, and failing "to report improper solicitations for off-court income opportunities made on Mr. Leonard's behalf through his then-business manager, Dennis Robertson," the summary said. Robertson is Leonard's uncle.

Leonard was ordered to pay the league $700,000 in connection with his own violations, through Robertson's conduct, which included pressuring the team to help Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses.

The NBA banned Robertson from conducting business or otherwise engaging with the league's teams and their affiliates, players or personnel for five years.

The report comes nearly a year to the day after the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out began a series of episodes alleging that the Clippers and Ballmer violated salary cap circumvention rules in dealings with the now-collapsed green energy financial company Aspiration Partners, which had a four-year, $28 million endorsement agreement with Leonard. The podcast reported that the agreement was never publicly announced, and that Leonard did not perform any services under it.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, in a statement Wednesday, said, "The NBA's collectively bargained system for determining player compensation is a fundamental component of the basketball competition that the league oversees for the benefit of the teams and players and ultimately the fans."

"I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers' institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct. The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations," Silver said.

Leonard, in a statement through his new agent, said, "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.

"I entered into my contract with the Clippers as well as the agreements in question in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone's part to circumvent the salary cap," Leonard said.

The close of the probe could clear the way for the Clippers and Leonard to part ways. A trade that would send Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, the last team he played for before the Clippers, was put on hold this summer while the investigation concluded.

"As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate," he said.

In its own statement, the Clippers said the report's findings "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 [its] fairness and accuracy," the team said.

"For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence."