The NBA handed down one of the biggest punishments in league history Wednesday when it fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million, suspended owner Steve Ballmer for a year and stripped the team of five future first-round picks in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 for "violating the salary cap circumvention rules." "The investigation 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 press release. Additionally, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he was "deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations" of NBA rules. In addition to the aforementioned penalties, the league also suspended Clippers president of business operations Gillian Zucker without pay for one year and suspended Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank without pay for six months, ordered Kawhi Leonard to pay $700,000 "in connection with his violations" and banned Leonard's uncle and business manager, Dennis Robertson from "conducting business or otherwise engaging with NBA teams and their affiliates on behalf of or with respect to any player, employee, or other league or team personnel" for five years.
The Clippers subsequently released a scathing statement saying they "vehemently reject" the NBA's findings and will "vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us." The Clippers characterized the investigation, conducted by a law firm at the NBA's behest, as "heavily biased" and "seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence." Now that the investigation is complete, let's take a look at some interesting aspects you may have missed: By now, everyone who has followed this story is familiar with the now-bankrupt company Aspiration, which was at the center of this scandal. However, that was not the only company involved. The investigation found that the Clippers "initiated, facilitated and induced Boingo, Daktronics and Lockton to enter into agreements with Mr.
Leonard." Boingo is a provider of wireless and other communications networks, Daktronics is a manufacturer of scoreboards and video displays and Lockton is an insurance brokerage. Here's more from the summary report prepared by Wachtell Lipton: "In early July 2020, within a month of Ms. Robertson with Boingo, Daktronics, and Lockton, Mr.
Leonard signed (on the same day) multi-year, multi-million dollar endorsement agreements with two of the companies. By the end of August 2020, he had signed a similar endorsement agreement with the third company. By early September 2020, Mr.
Leonard had received payments under each of these three endorsement agreements. Leonard under the Boingo, Daktronics, and Lockton agreements was $18 million. All $18 million was paid to Mr.
Leonard by August 2021." "The highly unusual nature of these three endorsement agreements with Mr. Leonard caused investigators to question why each company entered into them. The investigative record supplies the answer: because the Clippers initiated, facilitated, and induced these companies to enter into agreements with Mr.
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