The NBA imposes a historic punishment on the Clippers for the Kawhi Leonard case
The NBA announced this Wednesday that Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the league’s salary cap through undercover payments to Kawhi Leonard and dispossessed the Los Angeles franchise of five first rounds of the draft between 2029 and 2033, in addition to imposing a fine of $30 million on the team and $700,000 on the player.
“The investigation revealed a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rule violations by the Clippers organization, who had already violated the rules on circumvention of the salary limit“, reported the North American league in a statement.
The NBA began an investigation last year into possible irregularities in the contract leonard with the Clippersafter the Los Angeles franchise was accused of paying $28 million to the player through a company owned by its owner to avoid the salary limit.
The investigations showed, according to the NBA, that the Clippers offered “income opportunities” to their player through four companies, facilitating and inducing them to reach sponsorship agreements.
The NBA also accuses the Clippers of paying the personal expenses of Leonard and his representatives, and of “failing to report improper requests for extrajudicial income opportunities made on Leonard’s behalf through his then-business representative, Dennis Robertson.”
As a result, the Los Angeles franchise was stripped of five first draft picks from 2029 and fined $30 million.
The league also suspended the team’s owner for one year. Clippersformer Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmerand announced sanctions against other team executives.
About the role of leonardthe NBA stated that the forward had violated, “through the conduct of Mr. Robertson on his behalf,” the salary avoidance rules and had pressured the Clippers to help him, for which it imposed a fine of $ 700,000.
Leonard, who played for the Clippers the last seven seasons, but was traded in the summer to the Toronto Raptorsaccepted in a statement “full responsibility for the errors of judgment” of people in his inner circle and regretted what happened.
“I signed my contract with the Clippers, as well as the agreements in question, in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations and without knowledge of any intention on the part of anyone to evade the salary cap,” he said, before saying that he wants to close this chapter after his return to Toronto.
