The NBA walloped the Los Angeles Clippers with a record US$30 million (HK$234 million) fine, stripped the team of five first-round draft picks and banned owner Steve Ballmer for a year after a probe uncovered major salary cap violations involving star Kawhi Leonard.
The Clippers, who said they plan to fight the punishments, will forfeit a first-round NBA Draft pick every year from 2029 to 2033 after having been found to have aided Leonard in evading salary cap rules in deals with team corporate sponsors when he signed in 2022.
Clippers owner Ballmer was banned from all league and team activities for one year, president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for a year and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months, while Leonard was fined US$700,000.
The US$30 million fine is the largest ever imposed on a team by the NBA, eclipsing the previous largest penalty of US$3.5 million against the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2000 for breaching salary cap rules.
“I’m deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.
“The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”
The Clippers, responding in a statement, said the probe was biased to fit what the team called a “predetermined narrative.”
“For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence,” the team said. “We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us.”
The Clippers agreed to trade Leonard to Toronto in July but the Raptors said they would await the result of the investigation before finalizing the deal.
The investigation was into allegations the Clippers compensated Leonard US$28 million through an endorsement deal with now-bankrupt Aspiration. It found “a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules.”
Leonard accepted responsibility for actions by his representatives but said he had no clue salary cap violations were involved.
“Integrity and respect for this game are fundamental to who I am. I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family,” the 35-year-old Leonard said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
