Did the Clippers get away with it?
As the leaves turn orange, the costumes come out, and the NBA prepares to tip off its season, one thought has been in the back of my mind: The Los Angeles Clippers kind of got away with it.
Yes, of course, they were punished. Cynically, I was worried that might not even happen. The NBA’s investigation dragged on in silence over the course of a year. I began to think they would just sweep this whole thing under the rug as no one wanted to challenge Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, by far the richest in the league.
Thankfully, this was not the case. The NBA did do something. The question is, was it enough?
To recap, the NBA uses a salary cap, which means each team is limited to spending the same amount on player salaries, in order to keep rosters on a level playing field. The Clippers were caught circumventing the salary cap to sign superstar forward Kawhi Leonard.
Leonard signed “no show” endorsement deals with various companies, but never appeared in a single promotion for them. Ballmer then invested in these companies, effectively paying Leonard tens of millions of extra salary through these channels.
In response, the NBA dropped the toughest punishment in the history of the league. The Clippers were stripped of five first round picks, fined $30 million, and Steve Ballmer was suspended for one year, along with President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker. President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months. Kawhi Leonard was fined $700,000 with no suspension.
Five first round picks and being able to call it the “largest punishment in NBA history” all sounds nice, but I have a few issues with this.
First of all, the fine is pretty insignificant outside of being a big number that looks good on a tweet. 30 million is a mere 0.018% of Ballmer’s $165 billion net worth. Even for an NBA owner who is rich instead of being in the top ten wealthiest people on Earth, this is a hit that they can take.
Another problem, in the age of calling, texting, Zooming, or however you prefer to communicate, this suspension is essentially meaningless. Ballmer and co. will almost certainly have their hands on the team behind the scenes. All this really means is that there won’t be any incredible GIFs of Ballmer celebrating courtside for the next year.
Of course, the real meat of the punishment is the five first round picks. Again, this one sounds great on paper. The NBA has never taken this many picks away before. First round picks are the backbone of any serious rebuild. The Clippers are screwed. These all may be true, but when you start to think about it harder you see some cracks in the validity of this punishment.
The Kawhi Leonard era for the Clippers has been a walk of shame. The blown 3-1 lead, all this shady dealing, the publicized punishment, and only one conference finals appearance to point to as a positive memory. It’s easy to laugh at their misfortune, applaud the NBA’s punishment, and move on to the next story.
What if, however, the Clippers had achieved the ultimate goal? What if Kawhi Leonard hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy for the team paying him under the table? Suddenly, any punishment the team incurs becomes immediately worth it.
Ask any team owner if they’d drop $30 million for a championship. I think even John Fisher takes that deal.
In that same vein, ask any GM if they’d trade five first round picks for a championship. Just last year, the Orlando Magic traded five first round picks for Desmond Bane.
Not to mention, you only lose the five first round picks if you get caught. If Leonard had simply filmed a couple of commercials, something he could point to and say “I was being paid to do that,” who knows if there would have even been enough evidence to punish the Clippers.
All this to say, the punishment being only five first round picks leaves the rest of the league’s general managers with a very interesting risk to reward ratio to consider. Do you try the same scheme, knowing that if you get caught and lose the picks, you can just write it off as akin to what you would have traded for that player anyway? Most GMs probably aren’t that bold, but it leaves the door open in a way that the NBA shouldn’t have done.
Leonard escaping with almost no punishment is also a bad look. The $700,000 fine he paid is miniscule against his 2026-27 salary of $50 million. He will not miss any games to suspension, and the Clippers even traded him away from the dumpster fire their roster will inevitably become.
Leonard also bears responsibility in this situation, he wanted these hidden deals, and now he gets to ride off into the sunset, competing for championships with the team he has already won one with. Other players will take note of this, and I fear some will now feel emboldened to pressure teams to engage in their own hidden deals. Why not? Eat the fine, which is significantly less than the extra money you’re making, miss no games, and get the hell out of there while that team suffers.
Santa Monica College student Justin Rose said “I think Kawhi got off light…no suspensions seems extremely light.” Another student, Matt Wong, said Kawhi’s punishment was “probably not” fair and that he “used to be a big fan of him, but everything he’s done since [leaving the Toronto Raptors] is really not something that I can get behind.”
After all this complaining about what the NBA did wrong, I suppose it’s only fair that I offer a solution of my own. What should have been done? Well, when I said this was the largest punishment in NBA history, there was one huge asterisk behind that statement.
In 2014, team owner Donald Sterling was caught on tape saying incredibly racist and sexist remarks. He was famously banned for life from any association with the NBA. Plans were made to force Sterling to sell the team, but he and his wife did it of their own accord before this could happen. Ironically, this team was the Clippers, and this is where Steve Ballmer entered the story.
Morally speaking, Ballmer’s actions aren’t in the same stratosphere of evil as Sterling’s. However, I really think the nuclear option should still have been in play here. This type of scandal can seriously impact the competitive balance of the league if GMs and players start to believe they can get away with relatively light punishments.
Furthermore, this isn’t even the first time Ballmer tried this trick. He was caught and fined for offering DeAndre Jordan a Lexus sponsorship if he re-signed with the Clippers. This was back in 2015.
The league needed to send a serious message that cap circumvention would never happen again in the NBA, and if it did the consequences would be immense. Instead, the Clippers will suck for a decade or so before going back to normal, which really hurts their fans the most. Meanwhile, Leonard and Ballmer get to take their slap on the wrist and carry on. Others around the league will remember this.
In regards to the punishment, SMC basketball coach Malik Bray said “I think it will encourage teams not to do it, or not to get caught doing it.” That second part is my issue with this whole thing. Across all sports, teams are going to do whatever they can to get an advantage.
However, when the cheating is this blatant and advantageous, I believe the punishment needs to be so severe that no one will even have the thought of trying to do it without getting caught. The risk needs to severely outweigh the reward, and right now it simply doesn’t.
This was all kind of a pipe dream though, sadly. The NBA was never going to engage in full on war with a man whose net worth is more than triple that of the second wealthiest owner. Ballmer has been doing this for years because he knows he can get away with it, and while this setback will be huge for the Clippers, it kind of seems like he still can if he’s smarter about it next time. We can only hope that whatever ancient curse was placed upon this team continues to hold them back from reaching the mountaintop.