NBA suspends Clippers owner Ballmer, fines team $30M, Kawhi Leonard $700K in cap circumvention case

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been suspended for one year by the NBA, the team will forfeit five first-round draft picks from 2029 to 2033, and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank has been banned for six months for violating salary cap circumvention rules.

The league came down hard on the organization after a nearly year-long investigation led by an outside law firm.

The Clippers had said multiple times that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be exonerated.

Also, president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year, the team was fined $30 million, and star player Kawhi Leonard was hit with a $700,000 penalty.

“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,” Leonard said in a statement issued through his new agent, Harrison Gaines.

The NBA said Leonard, through his former business manager and uncle Dennis Robertson, “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.”

“I entered into my contract with the Clippers as well as the agreements in question in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone’s part to circumvent the salary cap,” Leonard said in his statement.

The league said Ballmer was suspended for “knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities,” among other issues.

See AP’s full NBA coverage here