NBA Strips Clippers of Five Firsts, Suspends Ballmer One Year

The NBA fined the Clippers $30 million, took five first-round picks from 2029-33, and suspended Steve Ballmer for a year after a salary-cap probe.

After a year-long investigation, the NBA announced on Wednesday the largest punishment in league history: the Clippers will forfeit first-round picks in the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 drafts, pay a $30 million fine, and see owner Steve Ballmer suspended from all league and team activities for one year. Commissioner Adam Silver said the penalties reflect the seriousness of what investigators called flagrant violations of salary-cap circumvention rules.

The case is also a reversal of expectations: Silver had suggested in September 2025 that mere appearance of impropriety would not be enough to act. Instead, the Wachtell Lipton investigation concluded Ballmer knowingly sought to help Kawhi Leonard obtain off-court income and approved a business deal he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to sign Leonard.

The probe, launched after a Sept. 3, 2025 'Pablo Torre Finds Out' episode reported Leonard's $28 million no-show deal with Aspiration, expanded to cover deals with Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance. Investigators found Zucker introduced Leonard's uncle, Dennis Robertson, to executives at three companies in June 2020, and Leonard signed multimillion-dollar deals within weeks, collecting $18 million in a year. Leonard must repay the NBA $700,000, and Robertson is banned from dealing with NBA teams for five years.

President of business operations Gillian Zucker is suspended without pay for one year for being primarily and directly culpable for the endorsement arrangements and for providing false and misleading statements to investigators, while basketball operations president Lawrence Frank is suspended without pay for six months for approving impermissible expenses. The Clippers 'vehemently reject' the findings, calling the investigation heavily biased, and their attorney David N. Kelly told Silver in a letter it was a 'witch hunt.' NBC News reports the team faces a five-year league compliance and monitoring program.

Yardbarker notes the Clippers went 42-40 and missed the playoffs last season, had already traded Leonard to Toronto, and drafted Keaton Wagler fifth overall. Ballmer, who bought the team in 2014 after the Donald Sterling scandal, spent billions on the franchise and its Intuit Dome arena.

With the investigation closed, Leonard's long-held trade to the Toronto Raptors can now be finalized, and the NBA report says investigators 'continue to receive information relevant to the subjects discussed in this report.' Leonard, who won a title with Toronto in 2019, said in a statement that he accepts responsibility for lapses in judgment by people in his inner circle and is focused on 'moving forward with a clean slate' as he returns to Toronto. The Clippers say they will fight the penalties, though a source told The Athletic no appeal or arbitration process is available to the team.