The NBA has concluded its investigation of the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard, and the punishments are major. The league announced Wednesday that the independent probe, conducted by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, uncovered "a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules," and as such the team will have to forfeit five first-round picks. The NBA also issued fines and suspensions to various members of the Clippers organization.
The NBA opened an investigation almost one year ago, after Pablo Torre reported on a bizarre arrangement between Leonard and the scam greenwashing company Aspiration, in which the NBA player seemingly had a no-show marketing deal designed to funnel money from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer to Leonard and avoid the salary cap in the process. The law firm's report can read in full here; it's a breezy 35 pages.
As a result, the NBA docked the Clippers five-first rounders, one in each draft from 2029 to 2033. The team is also fined $30 million; Ballmer and team president Gillian Zucker are both suspended for one year, Zucker without pay; Clips GM Lawrence Frank is suspended for six months without pay; the organization will be subject to an NBA compliance and monitoring program for five years; Leonard will have to pay $700,000 to the NBA; and Leonard's nefarious uncle Dennis Robertson has been banned from dealing with anyone or anything related to the NBA for five years.
Losing five first-rounders is an extremely harsh punishment, and somewhat unexpected given the recent NBA media coverage of the investigation. Two weeks ago, ESPN published a big triple-bylined article claiming the league's investigation had cleared the Clippers of the big-time salary cap circumvention violations, and was instead focused on relatively ticky-tack stuff about which potential sponsors the team was allowed to introduce to Leonard and when. The NBA pushed back hard, decrying "numerous and significant inaccuracies" in the clearly Clippers-sourced report. If you read that article against the Wachtell report with a charitable eye, ESPN's reporting had the specifics—the primary finding in the Wachtell report is that the Clippers were "affirmatively initiating off-court income opportunities between Mr. Leonard and four different companies doing business with the team"—but blew the framing and context. Taken together, the less severe violations add up to cap circumvention.
One interesting thread in that ESPN story concerned the tensions between the league and its players union. The NBPA didn't want Leonard or the Clippers punished too severely, although according to the league's press release, the league and the union "entered into an agreement confirming these penalties are final and binding on all parties." The Clippers were not part of such an agreement, and have already said they "vehemently reject the NBA's findings" and plan to take it to arbitration, although their only option right now appears to be a lawsuit. For his part, Leonard released a short statement accepting "full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle," the second part of which undercuts the first.
From Kawhi Leonard
— Law Murray 📘 (@lawmurraythenu.bsky.social) 2026-09-02T20:28:50.464Z
The law firm's report supports Torre's reporting, with damning emails, a lot of good intra-Aspiration drama, and plentiful details on Uncle Dennis's role in pushing for the money. It shows that arrangements between Leonard and Aspiration, Daktronics, Boingo Wireless, and Lockton were all facilitated by Clippers personnel. There are a lot of good details, especially as it concerns the totally fictitious nature of Leonard's "marketing" deals:
Investigators did not uncover or receive evidence reflecting that the companies exercised their rights for meaningful player activation; the record reflects that Mr. Leonard’s only confirmed activity under any of the agreements was a visit to a military base on a single occasion under one agreement and signing some memorabilia under another.
[...]
A former executive of one of these companies told investigators that the consulting agreement entered into by the executive’s company and the Clippers was highly unusual, for at least the following reasons: (i) the company was not in the business of providing “consulting” services," ...
Leonard will not have his contract voided, which means the agreed-upon trade to send him to the Toronto Raptors will proceed. His era with the Clippers will conclude with two more forfeited first-rounders than playoff series wins.
