NBA crushes Clippers for Kawhi Leonard scandal with 5 first-round picks stripped, and more

The NBA's long investigation into Kawhi Leonard's cap circumvention scandal is finally over, and the league has decided to hammer the Los Angeles Clippers. ESPN insider Shams Charania first reported the punishment , and it threatens to set back the Clippers for the next decade.

The NBA is stripping the Clippers of five future first-round picks for Leonard's no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration, a carbon emissions offset company. Owner Steve Ballmer, general manager Lawrence Frank, and president of business operations Gillian Zucker will all be suspended, and Ballmer will be fined $30 million.

The Clippers are losing a first-round pick in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033, according to Charania . Ballmer is being suspended for one year, Zucker is being suspended without pay for a year, and Frank will be suspended for six months without pay. Here's how Charania framed the suspensions in his Twitter post:

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year for knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities, for approving a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard, and for his failure to create conditions under which his organization abided by the NBA's circumvention rules. Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker is suspended without pay for one year for being primarily and directly culpable for the impermissible endorsement arrangements and for providing false and misleading statements to investigators. Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank is suspended without pay for six months for his involvement with the impermissible endorsement arrangements and for approving impermissible expenses incurred by Mr. Leonard and his family.

I wrote a year ago that the NBA couldn't go soft on the Clippers if it wanted to deter future teams from trying to circumvent the salary cap in the second apron era. A few weeks ago, ESPN reported that the Clippers would evade a harsh punishment , which the league quickly refuted. Clearly, the NBA did not go soft on the Clippers. This is about as close to a "death penalty" as the league could issue. The next decade of Clippers basketball is going to be in a dark place without all those draft picks to trade or use themselves.

Leonard was traded to the Toronto Raptors over the offseason . Assuming that deal now officially goes through, the Clippers will be able to retain the future draft picks they received from the Raptors in the deal, because they don't technically own them at the time of the punishment. The Clippers scored Toronto's 2031 and 2033 unprotected first-round draft picks in the deal. Los Angeles also owns two picks in 2029 with an unprotected first-rounder from the Indiana Pacers as well as the Philadelphia 76ers. One of those picks will presumably be stripped.

The investigation into Leonard was started by journalist Pablo Torre . This ruling is a massive victory for Torre's journalism. He continued to report on the story over the last year, and kept finding loose threads that ultimately led to this punishment. The investigation was done by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Here's the full list of Collective Bargaining Agreement rules the Clippers broke in dealing with Leonard.

Ballmer initially $50 million in Aspiration to help offset carbon emissions from the building of the team's new arena, the Intuit Dome. Aspiration agreed to a $300 million sponsorship deal with the Clippers, and then Leonard agree to an endorsement contract with Aspiration that paid him $28 million over four years. Torre reported that Leonard's marketing deal was never announced, and he that he did zero work for his money. Leonard's $7 annual million deal dwarfed similar deals Aspiration made with celebrities like Robert Downey Jr. and Drake, who actually activated the partnership.

Aspiration was supposed to plant trees to offset carbon emissions, and Leonard was their highly-paid pitchman. Where were the trees that Leonard was supposed to help plant? They never existed, and he couldn't even do as much as like a social media post for his troubles in earning $28 million. Leonard's camp was reportedly asking other suitors for similar no-show endorsement deals during his 2019 free agency , and they finally got caught. The Clippers' failure to monitor the situation is why they received such a severe punishment while Leonard himself came out mostly unscathed.

Leonard must pay back $700K in restitution for improper benefits. The slight punishment for Leonard was likely done to avoid an appeal from the NBA Player's Association.

This ruling is pretty embarrassing for ESPN. ESPN did a soft-ball interview with Ballmer shortly after the scandal broke, then missed the mark by saying the Clippers would avoid major punishment. Torre showed ESPN what real journalism looks like even with a fraction of the resources.

Leonard has put out the following statement on social media:

The league has precedent for this penalty after stripping the Minnesota Timberwolves of five first-round picks for Joe Smith's cap circumvention scandal in 2000. In that case, Smith's current contract was void, while Leonard will enter the final year of his own deal before likely signing a lucrative extension with the Raptors.