In one of the largest basketball-related penalties ever levied against an NBA franchise in the league’s history, the NBA on Wednesday fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million and star Kawhi Leonard $700,000, suspended the team’s owner, Steve Ballmer, and two top executives and stripped the franchise of five first-round picks after ruling the team had circumvented the league’s salary cap rules.Ballmer will be suspended from all league and team activities for one year for “knowingly seeking to help Mr.Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities, for approving a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr.
Leonard, and for his failure to create conditions under which his organization abided by the NBA’s circumvention rules,” the NBA ruled.NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement that he was “deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct.”“The NBA’s collectively bargained system for determining player compensation is a fundamental component of the basketball competition that the league oversees for the benefit of the teams and players and ultimately the fans,” Silver added.Last year, the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” reported Leonard had an endorsement deal with a former fintech company, Aspiration, worth millions that had never been publicly disclosed.The NBA enlisted the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz to perform an independent investigation that ultimately conducted 73 interviews of 60 people, according to a summary the league published Wednesday.According to the investigation, the Clippers broke league rules by initiating off-court income opportunities and facilitating endorsement agreements between Leonard and four companies that also did business with the team: Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.The Clippers were “induci...