The NBA on Wednesday announced severe punishments for the LA Clippers — including the loss of five future first-round draft picks, a fine of $30 million and a yearlong suspension of owner Steve Ballmer — for violating salary cap circumvention rules in a case involving star Kawhi Leonard.

In a statement, the NBA said a near-yearlong investigation “found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules.”

As a result, the Clippers must forfeit first-round draft picks in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033. In addition to the $30 million fine, Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year “for “knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities,” among other issues. President of business operations Gillian Zucker is suspended without pay for one year. And president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank is suspended without pay for six months.

In addition, Leonard must pay the league $700,000.

All penalties are binding, the league and the players’ union said.

“The NBA’s collectively bargained system for determining player compensation is a fundamental component of the basketball competition that the league oversees for the benefit of the teams and players and ultimately the fans,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct. The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”

The Clippers, meanwhile, contested the league’s findings and said they will challenge them “through every avenue available to us.”

“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 Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure [its] fairness and accuracy.”

In September 2025, following a report by podcast journalist Pablo Torre, the league opened an investigation into whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC — a company that filed for bankruptcy last year — broke league rules, Earlier this year, Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million.

The league said Wednesday that Leonard, through his former business manager and uncle Dennis Robertson, “violated the circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities, and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses.” It said the Clippers broke rules by, in part, “initiating off-court income opportunities between Mr. Leonard and four companies doing business with the team: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance.”

Leonard, through his new agent, Harrison Gaines, said he accepted “full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family.”

“I entered into my contract with the Clippers as well as the agreements in question in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone’s part to circumvent the salary cap,” he said.

The investigation was conducted by New York law firm Wachtell Lipton, which released a summary report Wednesday.

The Clippers and Toronto Raptors agreed to a trade centered around Leonard earlier this summer, but that was put on hold until the NBA investigation was completed. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday that there is “full expectation” that the trade now will be completed.

“For 15 years, my priority has been giving everything to my family, the game, and those I share the court with,” Leonard said in the statement through his agent. “As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.”