The NBA’s record fine to LA Clippers involves owner Steve Ballmer and former player Kawhi Leonard’s involvement in non-compliant off-court payments.
The NBA has stripped the Los Angeles Clippers of five first-round draft picks and issued a $30m fine against the franchise after finding the Clippers violated salary cap circumvention rules.
Alongside the fine and being stripped of its first-round picks from 2029-2033, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been suspended from all league and team activity for one year after finding he helped former player Kawhi Leonard to obtain off-court income opportunities.
Leonard has been fined $700,000 and his uncle and then-business partner, Dennis Robertson, has been banned from engaging in business with NBA players, employees and teams for five years for his involvement.
Clippers President of Business Operations, Gillian Zucker, has been suspended for one year without pay. Clippers President of Basketball Operations, Lawrence Frank, has been suspended for six months. The team has been placed under a compliance and monitoring programme for the next five years.
NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, said: “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.
“I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct. The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”
How the Clippers, Ballmer & Leonard broke salary cap rules
In September 2025, Pablo Torre revealed on his ‘Pablo Torre Finds Out’ podcast that a Ballmer-funded company called Aspiration had filed for bankruptcy.
Within the bankruptcy filing documents, it detailed $7m was to be paid out to ‘KL2 Aspire LLC’, which Leonard is registered with as a Manager. The former Clippers forward signed a four-year $28m sponsorship agreement with Aspiration in April 2022 via his KL2 Aspire company.
Aspiration received $50m in funding from Ballmer on September 14, 2021, followed by the announcement of a $300m partnership between the tree-planting company and the Clippers on September 27, 2021.
Leonard had not endorsed the company once as an investor. He also had a clause in his contract to opt-out or “no-show” any marketing obligations.
The NBA subsequently opened an independent investigation into the matter, led by the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Ballmer told ESPN in September 2025 before the investigation began: “I’d want the league to investigate”.
During the investigation, Leonard was part of a trade between the Clippers and Toronto Raptors during the 2026 free agency. However, due to ongoing investigation, the trade was not made official until a resolution could be made.
Ultimately, the NBA and Wachtell Lipton found the Clippers conducted improper off-court income opportunities for Leonard with Aspiration, as well as Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.
Leonard, through the conduct of Robertson, violated salary cap circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to assist in the off-court income opportunities and failed to file this as reimbursed payments as personal expenses.
Ballmer was found to have knowingly sought to help Leonard gain these income opportunities by approving the Aspiration business and failed to create conditions that would have complied with the NBA’s circumvention rules.
“I entered into my contract with the Clippers as well as the agreements in question in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone’s part to circumvent the salary cap,” said Leonard in a statement.
Leonard will still be able to move to the Raptors and complete the trade with the Clippers after being cleared by the NBA.
“For 15 years, my priority has been giving everything to my family, the game, and those I share the court with,” Leonard said. “As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.”
