The NBA fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million and stripped away five first-round draft picks to punish the franchise for violating salary cap circumvention rules involving star forward Kawhi Leonard, who was ordered to pay $700,000, the league announced Wednesday. The NBA’s investigation, conducted independently over the course of a year, “found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules,” the league said in a statement. The heart of the issue was the team introducing Leonard to club sponsors for off-court income opportunities and endorsement agreements, offering the companies business from the team as inducements and paying personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives, among other violations.
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