NBA suspends Clippers owner Ballmer for one year in Kawhi Leonard salary cap probe

The NBA on Wednesday said it had suspended Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for one year as part of a broad array of sanctions on the basketball team and its executives for violating the league's salary cap circumvention rules related to star player Kawhi Leonard.

"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," said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

"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," Silver said.

The NBA said that Leonard "violated the circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities, and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses."

Leonard was ordered to pay the league $700,000 in connection with his violations.

Ballmer "knowingly" sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities, and approved a business deal that "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," the NBA said.

As part of the sanctions issued Wednesday, the Clippers were fined $30 million and "shall forfeit five first-round draft picks, one in each of the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033 NBA Drafts," the league said.

In addition to Ballmer's suspension, "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," the league said.

Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank was suspended without pay for six months for his involvement with "impermissible endorsement arrangements and for approving impermissible expenses incurred by Mr. Leonard and his family," the NBA said.

The Clippers and its personnel will be subject to a compliance and monitoring program overseen by the league office for five years, according to the NBA.

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