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The Los Angeles Clippers vehemently refute the NBA’s findings in the Kawhi Leonard salary-cap circumvention investigation, but converting that opposition into legal action will be challenging. That’s mainly because of the finality of league decisions and judicial deference to decisions of private associations.
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The NBA on Wednesday concluded that the Clippers and several team officials, including owner Steve Ballmer, conspired to violate the salary cap by arranging for Leonard to receive extra compensation through endorsement deals for which the player did not have to perform services. Article XIII of the CBA prohibits salary-cap circumvention, meaning arrangements by teams to compensate players outside their employment contracts. Those arrangements undermine fair play and furnish teams with an unfair advantage over competitors.
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The findings were based on a report issued by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which conducted 73 interviews with 60 people and reviewed more than 200,000 pages of documents obtained from individuals and organizations. Among other penalties, the NBA stripped the Clippers of five first-round picks, suspended Ballmer for a year and fined Leonard $700,000.
Of legal importance, the NBPA agreed with the league’s punishments, and Leonard signaled that he accepted responsibility for not carefully monitoring those around him. That eliminates the prospect of a grievance proceeding involving a neutral arbitrator, and it’s an important distinction from the last time an NBA commissioner stripped a team of five first-round picks.
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More than 25 years ago, the NBA imposed that punishment on the Minnesota Timberwolves for a cap-circumvention scheme in which they paid forward Joe Smith less on initial one-year contracts so they could sign other players, in exchange for promising to later sign Smith to a long-term, lucrative deal after acquiring his “Larry Bird rights,” which allowed the team to exceed the cap to retain a player.
The NBA also voided Smith’s 1999–2000 contract with the Timberwolves and his previous Timberwolves contract from 1998–99. Smith and…
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Publish date : 2026-09-03 19:40:00
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