Clippers stripped of FIVE first-round picks and slapped with $30m fine as NBA rules on Kawhi Leonard secret payment scandal
The NBA is stripping the Los Angeles Clippers of five first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to billionaire owner Steve Ballmer and suspending the former Microsoft CEO for one year following an investigation into improper payments to All-Star Kawhi Leonard, the league announced Wednesday.
‘The investigation found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules,’ read the league statement.
Leonard will pay $700,000 restitution for improper benefits he and his uncle/representative Dennis Robertson received from the Clippers. However, the 35-year-old Leonard will not have any contracts voided by the league as a result of the NBA investigation.
The Clippers recently agreed to trade Leonard back to Toronto, where he won an NBA title in 2019, but the deal with the Raptors was placed on hold as the league investigation continued over the summer. It remains unclear where Leonard will be playing in 2026-27.
As for Leonard’s uncle, Robertson has been banned from any business dealings with the NBA.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s predecessor, the late David Stern, similarly stripped the Minnesota Timberwolves of five first-round picks after discovering the team had circumvented the salary cap to pay star forward Joe Smith in 2000.
Since the allegations first surfaced on Pablo Torre’s podcast nearly one year ago, the NBA has been investigating the Clippers and Ballmer for allegedly facilitating an under-the-table side deal for Leonard in an effort to circumvent the cap. The team has denied the accusations, while Ballmer stated he had no knowledge of Leonard’s alleged $21 million ‘no-show’ endorsement deal with the doomed financial services firm, Aspiration.
The NBA is stripping the Los Angeles Clippers of five first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to billionaire owner Steve Ballmer
Kawhi Leonard came out of the year-long investigation with his earnings nearly intact
Torre made the claim against the Clippers by citing a 2025 bankruptcy filing that names the team and a company owned by Leonard under the list of creditors for Aspiration QFZ, LLC, a subsidiary of fintech and sustainability brand Aspiration Partners Inc.
Torre claimed to have contracts showing Aspiration QFZ, LLC entered into a $28 million ‘no-show’ agreement with Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire LLC, and later claimed – following a report from the Boston Sports Journal – that Leonard also received a separate $20million ‘side deal’ from Aspiration.
Ballmer invested $50million in Aspiration.
The bankruptcy filing from federal court in Delaware, obtained by the Daily Mail, also shows unsecured claims of $30 million and $7 million for the Clippers and Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire LLC, respectively.
And while Ballmer said he was ’embarrassed’ that he didn’t pick up on any financial trouble from Aspiration, he defended his and the Clippers actions and said they ‘weren’t involved’ in the company’s deal with Leonard.
Aspiration Partners Inc. co-founder Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in 2025 for what authorities described as a $248million scheme to defraud investors.
The team, as it pointed out in a statement, ‘ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligation.’
Furthermore, as reported by Torre, Aspiration QFZ’s alleged payments to KL2 Aspire were sent to Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and advisor, who was previously investigated by the NBA in 2019 for allegedly requesting impermissible benefits for his nephew and himself.
Daily Mail obtained a federal bankruptcy filing showing unsecured claims of $30 million and $7 million for the LA Clippers and Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire LLC, respectively
That 2019 investigation did not find any impermissible benefits going from the Clippers to Leonard or anyone working on his behalf.
A year later, a self-described acquaintance of Leonard and Robertson named Johnny Wilkes sued the Clippers, claiming he was still owed $2.5 million from the team for helping them to sign the former Spurs and Raptors star.
Wilkes, a self-described acquaintance of Robertson, claimed in the lawsuit that Ballmer would ‘fund a $100,000,000.00 marketing campaign for Kawhi Leonard’ and the uncle would get his own Southern California home if the All-Star forward agreed to sign with the Clippers.
That lawsuit was ultimately dismissed and neither the Clippers nor Robertson admitted to any wrongdoing.
