Steve Ballmer got off light while the Clippers will pay for years

The NBA announced the punishment for Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers for circumventing the salary cap on Wednesday. The team was fined $30 million and docked five first-round draft picks. Meanwhile, owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for a year.

It was both eye-popping and underwhelming. After reading the report from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, even Pablo Torre briefly wondered if the league might make Ballmer sell , but that doesn't feel right. You want an owner like Ballmer. He just spent billions building his own stadium. He is willing to do whatever he possibly can to win. He's enthusiastic and cares about the team. In this case, it ended up hurting the team, but he was trying to win a title.

Kawhi on a basketball court is worth every penny the Clippers paid him. Not just in salary, but in every secret no-show deal. And then some. We all know his resume. He's an All-NBA player. He has won titles with multiple teams and is one of the best defenders the NBA has ever seen. Last season, at age 34, he played 32 minutes in 65 games and averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.9 steals a game. He finished seventh in MVP voting. In seven seasons, things just didn't work out, mostly because of injuries.

Jan 5, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer (left) with mascot Chuck the Condor after the game against the Golden State Warriors at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect (Reuters)

Combine that with all the team-building mistakes, and they really got nothing but a PR nightmare. The Clippers traded away a future MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And they lost all those picks getting Paul George so that Leonard would sign in the first place. That's a steep basketball price.

And from a basketball sense, there aren't any real victims here. Some teams were wronged, but none who were hurt. The Clippers actually saved them from a number of disappointing years of their own. They would have been the ones paying Kawhi a huge salary to not finish seasons. They would have had to deal with the annoyance of Uncle Dennis off the court. When you look at it that way, the Clippers actually saved the Lakers or Raptors or whoever else wanted him back in 2019 from a huge headache.

So the franchise and the fans have been through enough. Especially the fans, who may have been rooting for the team during the Donald Sterling era. For the longest time, this was considered one of sports' cursed franchises. Now they're back in another bad spot, which does suck for anyone who buys tickets.

REDMOND, WASHINGTON – APRIL 4: Former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates, left, and Steve Ballmer, center, pose for photos with CEO Satya Nadella during an event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Microsoft on April 4, 2025 in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft also highlighted updates in Copilot, the company's AI tool. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images) Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect (Reuters)

Didn't Steve Ballmer get off kind of light? For the purposes of this article, it sure seems like it! We know he's not allowed at the Intuit Dome this season, but his house probably has a sick Halo screen TV in a living room that's bigger than your whole house. With that and a League Pass subscription, there are worse setups to watch the upcoming season.

Sure, he has to pay a $30,000,000 fine, but that doesn't seem like much punishment for Steve Ballmer. According to Forbes he's worth over $150 billion, and according to math, that's less than two-thousandths of a percent of his current net worth.

No, seriously. Go do the math yourself if you have a calculator that can handle that many zeroes.

All things considered, the fine really should have been steeper. Since the wronged parties are the other teams, what if the punishment for Steve Ballmer had to pay all their salaries this year? The cap is set at just under $170 million this season. Multiply that by the other 29 franchises, and it comes out to $4.93 billion. Still just a drop in the bucket for Baller, but maybe a fair valuation for a full small-market franchise is a bit much. Even if he is one of the 10 richest people in the world.

So what's a fair compromise between $30 million and $4.93 billion?

Sep 30, 2024; Inglewood, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) talks with team owner Steve Ballmer during media day at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images Credit: USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect (Reuters)

That's the name of the trope where you give someone so much of something they want that they learn their lesson and don't want it anymore. Like making someone smoke a whole pack of cigarettes so they don't ever want to smoke again. Or in this case, making the person pay Kawhi Leonard's salary while he plays elsewhere.

That's right. It's all he's wanted to do over the last seven years so let him keep doing it. Let Ballmer pay Kawhi's salary in perpetuity. As long as he's on an NBA team, Ballmer should be forced to pick up the tab. For years he's found creative ways to get money to Leonard. Let him keep doing it. This time he can divert the checks through the league office.

Leonard's salary this season is $50.3 million. The Raptors just traded for him and he wants to be there so you have to assume there's an extension coming. Maybe it counts against the Raptors' cap total. Maybe not. But let Ballmer pay it. A complicated scheme deserves a complicated punishment.

Leonard just turned 35. He'll retire long before the Clippers make another first round pick, but he'll play long enough to remind Ballmer of his transgressions for a long, long time. Especially if he keeps signing those checks.