The NBA announced the punishment for Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers over accusations of cap circumvention on Thursday. The NBA fined the team $30 million and took away five first round draft picks. They also suspended a number of team executives, including team owner Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer has been suspended for a year. Team president of business operations Gillian Zucker has been suspended without pay for a year. And president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank has been suspended without pay for six months.
The team lost their 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 first round picks.
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Leonard apparently collected millions in no-show contracts from Aspiration as well as a number of other companies connected to the Clippers. Those companies include Daktronics, the team that made the huge Halo scoreboard in the Intuit Dome. The other companies were Boingo Wireless and Lockton Insurance.
For his role in the cap circumvention, Leonard has been fined $700,000.
Leonard, through his new agent, Harrison Gaines, said he accepted “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.” He also said he meant to meet his obligations and had no knowledge he was circumventing the cap.
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Adam Silver on the Clippers
Here’s what Adam Silver had to say about the Clippers situation, via ESPN:
“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,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “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.”
The trade sending Leonard to the Toronto Raptors can now presumably be completed.
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