NBA Suspends Ballmer, Strips Clippers of Five Picks

The NBA suspended Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for one year on Wednesday and hit the franchise with a $30 million fine after a year-long investigation found the team circumvented the league's salary cap by arranging off-court money for star forward Kawhi Leonard.

The Clippers must also forfeit five first-round draft picks — one each in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033.

Leonard was ordered to pay the league $700,000. His uncle and former business representative, Dennis Robertson, was banned by the NBA from all business dealings.

Clippers president of business operations Gillian Zucker and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank were also suspended, for periods the league did not spell out in its announcement, according to the New York Post.

What the League Found

The NBA said its investigation, summarized in a report prepared by law firm Wachtell Lipton, "found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules."

On Leonard, the league said he "violated the circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities, and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses" — conduct carried out through Robertson on his behalf.

Ballmer, the league said, "knowingly" sought to help Leonard land off-court income and approved a business deal "that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard," and failed "to create conditions under which his organization abided by the NBA's circumvention rules."

At the center of the case is a $28 million, four-year endorsement contract between Leonard and the company Aspiration. Leonard received a $1.75 million payment nine days after a Clippers minority owner invested in Aspiration, and the contract included a clause letting Leonard's company decline any work while still collecting the money — so long as he remained a Clipper.