The figure that matters is $30 million, the largest fine in NBA history. The league hit the Los Angeles Clippers with it for breaking salary rules to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard.
The money is only part of it. The Clippers must give up five first-round draft picks between 2029 and 2033. Owner Steve Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for 12 months over his role in matters involving Leonard’s sponsorship contracts. Gillian Zucker, the club’s president of business operations, got a one-year suspension without pay for what the NBA called misleading statements to investigators. Leonard himself was fined $700,000.
How it started
The investigation was opened in September 2025, after podcast journalist Pablo Torre reported that a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC might have broken league rules. According to the NBA report, Leonard pressured the Clippers into obtaining off-court income opportunities, and he got them.
The league said its month-long investigation found “a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations” by a franchise that was already a prior offender on salary-cap circumvention. For the next five years the club’s organization and personnel will sit under a compliance and monitoring programme run by the league.
Commissioner Adam Silver said he was “deeply disappointed” by what he called flagrant violations, and that the penalties reflected their seriousness.
The Clippers fight back
The team said it would appeal “through every avenue available”. Its statement rejected the findings as “the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence.”
Ballmer’s attorney, David Kelley, went further in a statement released by the Clippers, according to ESPN. He called the case a “witch hunt” and the punishments a “gross injustice”. Ballmer, he said, now finds himself embroiled in the investigation, civil litigation and the Aspiration bankruptcy proceeding.
Leonard, 35, took a different line. He said he “accepts full responsibility” and regrets the distraction for fans and his family, while insisting on Instagram that he signed his contract in good faith and knew of no plan to circumvent the cap. The two-time NBA Finals MVP joined the Clippers in 2019 and spent seven years there before leaving this year. His move to the Toronto Raptors, put on hold during the investigation, is now expected to go through.
