LOS ANGELES (AP) — The NBA imposed a sweeping punishment against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday for violating salary cap circumvention rules, suspending owner Steve Ballmer for one year, fining the team $30 million and forcing it to forfeit five first-round draft picks.
Also, two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard was hit with a $700,000 penalty, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was banned for six months and team president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year.
The Clippers will give up one first-round pick in each draft from 2029-2033.
The league came down hard on the organization after a nearly yearlong investigation led by an outside law firm.
The Clippers had said multiple times that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be exonerated.
“I think that we’re going to be in the clear,” Leonard said in April, “so I’m not stressing it.”
At the same time, Frank said, “If you know Steve and know Steve’s integrity, you know there’s nothing to it. We believe and we’ve very confident we’re on the right side of this.”
The team maintained that stance Wednesday.
“We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence,” the team said in a statement. “What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner (Adam) Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure its fairness and accuracy.”
