The Los Angeles Clippers have formally challenged the NBA’s handling of its salary-cap investigation, sending a strongly worded letter to Commissioner Adam Silver after the league imposed sweeping penalties on the franchise and Kawhi Leonard.
In the letter, shared by Marc Stein on Wednesday, September 2, the Clippers argued that the investigation failed to meet the standards of “due process” and a “fundamental sense of fairness” that Silver had promised when the probe began nearly one year earlier.
The Clippers said owner Steve Ballmer spent nearly $50 million on the investigation conducted by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, while the organization produced more than 30,000 documents and made more than 20 witnesses available for 30 interviews.
The franchise also said Ballmer reimbursed the costs of at least six law firms, while Clippers employees spent thousands of hours reviewing documents, phones, messaging systems, accounting records and other materials.
The letter disputed the NBA’s conclusion that the Clippers and Leonard circumvented the league’s salary-cap rules through off-court business arrangements. The organization claimed league counsel had acknowledged privately that there was no agreement between the Clippers and Aspiration to funnel money to Leonard.
The Clippers also said league counsel agreed with the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission and a federal judge that Ballmer was a victim of Joe Sanberg’s alleged fraud rather than a participant.
According to the Clippers, the league ultimately relied on a different theory involving introductions between Leonard and team sponsors and vendors. The organization argued that such introductions are “proper and commonplace” throughout the NBA and said a previous league investigation more than seven years ago examined similar conduct involving Leonard without imposing a penalty.
The Clippers further criticized the NBA for issuing its investigative report and penalties with less than an hour’s warning and without giving the organization or its attorneys an opportunity to respond.
The NBA announced that the Clippers would forfeit their first-round picks in the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 drafts and pay a $30 million fine. Ballmer was suspended for one year, President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker for one year without pay, and President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank for six months without pay.
Leonard was fined $700,000, while his former business manager Dennis Robertson received a five-year ban from conducting business with NBA teams and affiliates on behalf of players or league personnel. The Clippers were also placed under a five-year league compliance and monitoring program.
The NBA said an independent Wachtell investigation found a “pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations,” including the facilitation of endorsement opportunities between Leonard and Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.
The league also said the Clippers offered team business to companies in connection with Leonard’s endorsement opportunities and paid personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives.
The penalties come after a 42-40 season in which the Clippers finished ninth in the Western Conference. Leonard averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 65 games while shooting 50.5% from the field and 38.7% from three-point range, earning All-NBA Second Team honors and finishing seventh in MVP voting.
The Clippers traded Leonard to the Toronto Raptors during the offseason, meaning the franchise is now confronting the league’s sanctions while beginning a new basketball era without the star who averaged 20.7 points over his 14-year NBA career.
The penalties are final and binding. The Clippers’ letter nevertheless states that the organization is “exploring every legal remedy” to challenge what it calls a “gross injustice,” leaving court action as its avenue for contesting the league’s decision.
