Ballmer Is Out for a Year and the Clippers Lost Five First-Round Picks

Caption: Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors players during a 2009 game. Credit: Eric Molina / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The NBA suspended Los Angeles Clippers governor Steve Ballmer for one year on September 2, fined the franchise 30 million dollars and ordered it to forfeit its first-round draft picks in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033. Kawhi Leonard was fined 700,000 dollars. The team is contesting the findings and none of it is settled. President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was suspended six months without pay and business operations president Gillian Zucker was suspended one year without pay. Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and former business manager, was barred from NBA business for five years. The team was also placed under a five-year compliance monitoring program.

What the League Found

The league’s finding centered on a 28 million dollar endorsement agreement between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC, a tree-planting company that had separately signed a reported 300 million dollar sponsorship with the Clippers in 2021 and later filed for bankruptcy. The NBA concluded that Leonard violated its circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to help him obtain off-court income, obtaining it, and failing to reimburse the payments. Reporting on the investigation also identified three additional companies, Boingo, Daktronics and Lockton, that structured deals with Leonard carrying minimal performance obligations.

The Company at the Center of It

Aspiration is no longer a going concern. Co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in prison for defrauding investors and lenders of at least 248 million dollars. The endorsement money that triggered the NBA’s inquiry came from a business that has since collapsed into a federal fraud case, which is part of why the league treated the arrangement as compensation rather than commerce.

Both Sides Have Answered

The Clippers rejected the outcome outright. In a statement, the organization said it vehemently rejects the NBA’s findings, which it called the result of a heavily biased investigation, and said it was prepared to challenge the penalties. Leonard took a different posture, saying he accepts full responsibility for lapses in judgment and that he entered the agreements in good faith.

Where the Appeal Goes

There is no internal NBA appeal available under league bylaws, and the National Basketball Players Association declined arbitration. That leaves the Clippers pointing toward court as the remaining venue, a step the organization has said it is willing to take. The nearest precedent is the Minnesota Timberwolves case involving Joe Smith, where five confiscated first-round picks were later reduced to three.

References: NBA announces penalties and findings arising from investigation of LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard | NBA suspends Clippers owner Ballmer, fines team $30M, Kawhi Leonard $700K in cap circumvention case | Clippers-Kawhi Leonard investigation details: What to know about the NBA’s historic punishment and what comes next