Clippers’ staggering Kawhi Leonard bill is almost too insane to believe

In the summer of 2019, the Los Angeles Clippers grabbed every single chip they could find and pushed them into the middle of the table. 

The result was Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and a revamped roster ready to compete for an NBA championship. A complete transformation of the team and superstars to put on the marquee.

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But in the NBA, when you go all-in to win a championship in the present, there’s always a price to pay down the road. 

The Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard gamble cost the team $30 million and an ultimate 10 first-round picks. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

And now somebody has come to collect and count those chips. 

The total cost to sign Leonard and trade for George is almost impossible to comprehend: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, five first-round picks sent to Oklahoma City, two first-round pick swaps, another five first-round picks forfeited to the NBA and a $30 million dollar fine. 

Oh, and toss in Danilo Gallinari, multiple front-office executives suspended — including the team owner in Steve Ballmer — and the fact that one of those picks to OKC became Jalen Williams, and what once looked like the greatest night in Clippers history has now aged like milk under the boiling Southern California sun. 

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All that for one Western Conference Finals appearance and still zero NBA championships in franchise history. 

The Clippers technically signed Leonard as a free agent in July 2019, but by acquiring George from the Thunder, they lost out on four unprotected first-round picks, a future MVP in SGA and several players. Leonard was the one who reportedly wanted George, and made it a condition of his signing with Los Angeles. 

That signing, and ultimately his re-signing in 2021, has now made us all look back on this controversy under a microscope. 

The NBA concluded Wednesday that the Clippers and Leonard violated the league’s salary-cap circumvention rules, hammering LA with the forfeiture of five more first-round picks — 2029 through 2033 — and a $30 million fine. Ballmer was suspended for one year, president of business operations Gillian Zucker for one year without…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/clippers-staggering-kawhi-leonard-bill-120000185.html

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Publish date : 2026-09-03 12:00:00

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