NBA suspends Clippers owner Ballmer, fines team $30M, Kawhi Leonard $700K in cap circumvention case

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer sits on the sideline before an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls on March 13, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. Ryan Sun/AP hide caption

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for one year by the NBA, and the team was ordered to forfeit five first-round draft picks and pay a $30 million fine Wednesday for violating salary cap circumvention rules in a case involving Kawhi Leonard.

Also, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank has been banned for six months and team president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year. Leonard was hit with a $700,000 penalty.

The league came down hard on the organization after a nearly year-long investigation led by an outside law firm.

The Clippers had said multiple times that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be exonerated.

The team maintained that stance after the league's announcement.

"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 Commissioner (Adam) Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure it's fairness and accuracy."

The Clippers said they will "now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence. 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."