The NBA on Wednesday suspended Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for one year as part of a broad array of sanctions on the basketball team and two senior executives for violating the league's salary cap circumvention rules related to star player Kawhi Leonard and four companies that did business with the team.
Ballmer "knowingly" sought to help Leonard, 35, obtain off-court income opportunities worth millions of dollars, and approved a business deal that the billionaire former Microsoft CEO "knew was a precondition for Aspiration [Partners] to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard," the league said in a statement.
The Clippers were also fined $30 million — the largest in NBA history — and will forfeit five first-round draft picks, one each year beginning in 2029.
The Clippers and their personnel will be subject to a compliance and monitoring program overseen by the league office for five years, according to the NBA.
Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker was suspended without pay for one year, and President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank was suspended without pay for six months. Zucker provided false and misleading statements to investigators, according to a summary of findings released Wednesday.
The league said that an investigation of the Clippers by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz "found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations" by the organization, which had previously violated salary cap circumvention rules.
"The three individuals most responsible for the Clippers' rule-breaking are Mr. Ballmer, Ms. Zucker, and Mr. Frank," a 36-page report by Wachtell, Lipton said.
Ballmer is the ninth-richest person in the world, according to Forbes' real-time billionaires list, which puts his fortune at more than $152 billion.
The Clippers, in a statement, said, "We vehemently reject the NBA's findings."
"We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process," the team said.
In a summary of its findings, Wachtell, Lipton said the organization's violations included "initiating off-court income opportunities between" the 35-year-old Leonard and four companies doing business with the team — Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance — and facilitating endorsement deals between those companies and the seven-time NBA All-Star.
The Clippers also induced those companies to enter into deals with Leonard by offering them business from the team, paying personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives, and failing "to report improper solicitations for off-court income opportunities made on Mr. Leonard's behalf through his then-business manager, Dennis Robertson," the summary said. Robertson is Leonard's uncle.
Leonard was ordered to pay the league $700,000 in connection with his own violations, through Robertson's conduct, which included pressuring the team to help Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses.
The NBA banned Robertson from conducting business or otherwise engaging with the league's teams and their affiliates, players or personnel for five years.
The report comes nearly a year to the day after the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out began a series of episodes alleging that the Clippers and Ballmer violated salary cap circumvention rules in dealings with the now-collapsed green energy financial company Aspiration Partners, which had a four-year, $28 million endorsement agreement with Leonard. The podcast reported that the agreement was never publicly announced, and that Leonard did not perform any services under it.
