Just weeks ago, ESPN reported that the NBA had found “no evidence” that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to Kawhi Leonard to circumvent the league’s salary cap.
Now, the NBA’s completed investigation has produced a dramatically different picture.
The league announced Wednesday that the Clippers circumvented the salary cap by funneling millions of dollars to Leonard through third-party companies, including Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.
The consequences were enormous:
- Five first-round picks forfeited from 2029 through 2033
- $30 million fine for the Clippers
- Steve Ballmer suspended for one year
- Lawrence Frank suspended for six months
- Gillian Zucker suspended for one year
- Kawhi Leonard fined $700,000
- Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and former business representative, banned from the NBA for five years
The NBA’s investigative report says Ballmer, Zucker and Frank played roles in connecting Leonard with companies and facilitating endorsement agreements that ultimately resulted in impermissible compensation. The report specifically says Ballmer “knowingly sought to help” Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities.
That creates a stark contrast with the ESPN report published in August.
ESPN reporters Don Van Natta Jr., Baxter Holmes and Ramona Shelburne reported that the NBA had found no evidence showing Ballmer funneled money to Leonard. The NBA immediately pushed back, saying the ESPN article contained “numerous and significant inaccuracies.” ESPN responded that it stood by its reporting. (Front Office Sports)
Now the league has released its findings.
And the question isn’t simply whether ESPN got the story wrong.
It’s what ESPN’s sources knew, what the NBA knew at the time, and why the information presented privately to ESPN appeared so different from the league’s eventual public findings.
Front Office Sports now says the NBA’s punishment has put that disputed ESPN report directly under the microscope. (Front Office Sports)
The Clippers themselves aren’t accepting the NBA’s conclusions either. The organization has “vehemently reject[ed]” the findings and says it intends to challenge the sanctions, arguing that the investigation was heavily biased. (Front Office Sports)
So this story isn’t over.
The Clippers are fighting the NBA.
ESPN is standing by its reporting.
And the NBA’s own investigative findings have created a massive credibility question surrounding what was reported just weeks before the league handed down one of the harshest punishments in NBA history.
The Kawhi Leonard saga just became a media story, too.
