The NBA came down hard on the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday for violating salary cap circumvention rules, suspending owner Steve Ballmer for one year, fining the team $30 million and forcing the Clippers to forfeit five first-round draft picks.

Also, two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard was hit with a $700,000 penalty, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was banned for six months and team president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year.

The Clippers will give up one first-round pick in each draft from 2029–2033 in one of the harshest penalties ever levied by the league.

The closest precedent came in 2000, when the NBA voided Minnesota’s contract with Joe Smith, stripped the Timberwolves of five first-round picks and fined the team $3.5 million over a secret agreement involving the forward.

Today’s ruling came after a nearly yearlong investigation led by an outside law firm.

“I think that we’re going to be in the clear,” Leonard said in April, “so I’m not stressing it.”

At the same time, Frank said, “If you know Steve and know Steve’s integrity, you know there’s nothing to it. We believe, and we're very confident we’re on the right side of this.”

The team maintained that stance Wednesday.

“We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence,” the team said in a statement. “What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard players' union agreed to confirm the penalties as final and binding on all parties. It said the outside law firm continues to receive information involving the investigation, and the league “will consider further action as appropriate.”

“I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers' institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct,” Silver said in a statement. “The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”

The NBA began investigating in September 2025 whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC - a company that filed for bankruptcy last year - broke league rules, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre. Earlier this year, Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million.

The Clippers released a letter from Ballmer's attorney David Kelley to Silver in which he described the investigation as “a witch hunt” and the subsequent penalties as a “gross injustice.”

The NBA said Leonard, through his former business manager and uncle Dennis Robertson, “violated the circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities, and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses.”

“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,” Leonard said in his statement.

The league said Ballmer was suspended for “knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities,” among other issues.

Leonard's trade to the Toronto Raptors has been on hold pending the outcome of the investigation. The Raptors had said they still want Leonard, and he apparently is just as eager to return to the team where he won an NBA title and was Finals MVP in 2019.

“As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate,” Leonard said in his statement.

It's not the first time the Clippers have run afoul of NBA rules under Ballmer, who bought the team for $2 billion in August 2014.

They were fined $250,000 a year later for violating rules against offering unauthorized business or investment opportunities to players during their courting of free agent DeAndre Jordan. A presentation to him improperly included a $200,000-per-year deal with luxury carmaker Lexus.

Ballmer, 70, was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014.

BREAKING: The NBA has ruled on the Los Angeles Clippers in for salary cap circumvention investigations on Kawhi Leonard after yearlong probe -- stripping the franchise of 5 first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to owner Steve Ballmer and suspensions for Ballmer, Lawrence… pic.twitter.com/JCV5bI88BE

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 2, 2026