The NBA released its findings in the Clippers–Kawhi Leonard case Wednesday afternoon, saying the team illegally circumvented the league’s salary cap by funneling millions of dollars to Leonard through third parties.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been banned from the league for a year, and the team has been stripped of five first-round picks and fined $30 million. The draft penalties begin in 2029.
On Sept. 3, 2025, podcaster Pablo Torre reported Ballmer had arranged a “no-show” job for Leonard with since-failed environmental start-up Aspiration worth millions of dollars. The NBA announced its investigation the same day.
The league said its investigation—conducted by lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz—found the Clippers used four companies to route payments to Leonard off the books. The companies were Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance. Lockton’s role in the scandal has not been previously reported.
“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,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “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.”
