After a year-long investigation, the NBA has handed down sanctions against Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers for improper payments received by Leonard by multiple companies in exchange for endorsements which never happened. Shams Charania of ESPN broke the news, with Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic providing important, augmenting details about the massive punishment [subscription required].
Leonard was accused of agreeing to endorsement deals with companies for which he provided no actual services
or endorsements, including companies that were official sponsors of the Clippers. Those agreements were reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars. Per the Athletic report, Wachtell Lipton, the firm hired by the NBA, found that the Clippers initiated deals with four different companies for Leonard—Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance—and that the team facilitated endorsement deals for Leonard with each of them. The NBA deems this a circumvention of the league’s salary cap and compensation rules for players.
The initial investigation was prompted after research by Pablo Torre on his podcast last September.
Penalties for the Clippers include:
- A $30 million fine
- The loss of five first-round NBA Draft picks between 2029 and 2033
- Suspensions for Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank, and President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker
Per ESPN, Leonard himself will have to pay a $700,000 fine for “improper benefits by the Clippers for his uncle and former business rep, Dennis Robertson.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued the following statement:
The NBA’s collectively bargained system for determining player compensation is a fundamental component of the basketball competition that the league oversees for the benefit of the teams and players and ultimately the fans. I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct. The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.
There is no word yet on any other potential penalties for Leonard. His personal assets are not the only matter at stake. The Clippers have agreed to trade the forward to the Toronto Raptors, a deal which hangs in limbo pending the results of these proceedings and any suspensions resulting therefrom. It’s possible that sanctions against Leonard have not been announced yet. It’s also possible that the fine for improper benefits to his agent/uncle are the only personal cost he will suffer.
Bidding was hot for Leonard in July, 2019 when he became an unrestricted free agent after winning an NBA Championship with the Raptors the season prior. He opted to sign with the Clippers. In six years with the franchise he has posted averages of 25.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in 33.1 minutes per game over 331 regular season appearances. During that span he has been named an NBA All Star four times, been nominated to the All-NBA First Team once, and earned three All-NBA Second Team nominations.
The Clippers reached the Western Conference Finals in Leonard’s first season with the team. They have lost three times in the first round of the playoffs since he came on board and failed to make the playoffs at all in two of Leonard’s seasons.
We’ll have more on this story as it develops.
