Nine months after the jubilation of finally landing the superstar free agent they believed would transform their franchise, the Los Angeles Clippers were already feeling pressure to keep their prized acquisition happy. 

Dennis Robertson, Kawhi Leonard’s uncle and business manager, demanded $10 million per year in financial benefits outside the salary cap for his nephew and insisted the Clippers stop dragging their feet in helping obtain it.

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At the center of the Clippers efforts to funnel money to Leonard was the team’s top business executive Gillian Zucker, according to the results of a year-long investigation conducted at the NBA’s behest by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Zucker, 57, is a trail-blazing former Triple-A baseball assistant general manager and auto racing executive who in 2014 became Clippers’ owner Steve Ballmer’s first major hire as he sought to revitalize the long-struggling franchise.

Investigators describe Zucker as the intermediary between Robertson and four companies that were already doing business with the Clippers as the organization designed and constructed the $2 billion Intuit Dome. Zucker, the Wachtell report says, “directly initiated, facilitated and induced” Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, Lockton Insurance and, eventually, Aspiration into entering lucrative endorsement agreements with Leonard. 

Since investigators found that the Clippers audaciously circumvented salary-cap rules when they courted Leonard in free agency, the NBA handed down the harshest punishment in league history. The Clippers have vehemently denied wrongdoing, calling the investigation “heavily biased” and vowing to fight their $30 million fine and loss of five future first-round picks “through every avenue available to us.”

While investigators describe Ballmer, Zucker and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank as the “three individuals most responsible for the Clippers’ rule-breaking,” it’s Zucker who is portrayed in the harshest light. Her name appears 56 times in the 36-page Wachtell report, more than the 48 times that Frank and Ballmer are mentioned combined.

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Each time that Zucker assisted in Leonard landing an endorsement agreement, investigators say she went out of her way to send “introduction” (their quotes) emails meant to provide the Clippers with legal cover. Zucker allegedly made sure the emails were written to make it seem like the relevant company had requested to meet with Leonard, but the Wachtell report found that it was the Clippers who initiated the partnerships as a way to funnel money to Leonard outside the NBA’s pay structure.

Investigation focusses on Zucker

In spring 2020, Daktronics was competing for the chance to manufacture the Intuit Dome’s massive double-sided Halo Board and other video screens inside and outside the venue. The Clippers informed Daktronics that it could secure the project if the company agreed to provide some amount of business back to the team. 

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“Ms. Zucker thereafter suggested to a Daktronics senior executive that this ‘spend back’ could be accomplished through an endorsement agreement between Daktronics and Mr. Leonard,” the Wachtell report reads. “Daktronics believed that failing to enter into a commercial relationship with Mr. Leonard could jeopardize its ability to win the bid for the Intuit Dome.”

Investigators also found that Zucker also sent an “introductory email” connecting Leonard and Aspiration on November 5, 2021, after she had already helped structure an endorsement deal between the parties. That email “was drafted solely for record-making purposes,” according to the Wachtell report, “and was not a genuine communication intended to kick off a dealmaking process.”

It’s not hard to guess why the NBA suspended Zucker without pay for a full year but only stuck Frank with a six-month penalty. Investigators felt that Zucker impeded their progress by providing false or misleading answers. 

“Ms. Zucker made several statements that proved inconsistent with contemporaneous documents, other witness statements, and the broader chronology of events, professed a lack of recollection on important issues, placed responsibility on subordinates, and offered inconsistent renditions of facts in separate interviews,” the Wachtell report reads. “By contrast, Mr. Frank openly discussed with investigators his conduct from the relevant time period, recalled details of key events, took responsibility for the actions of subordinates, and was generally consistent across his interviews.”

Who is Gillian Zucker?

The results of the NBA’s investigation represent a stunning fall from grace for Zucker, who for years has been ranked among the most influential women in sports. Not bad for a woman whose first job was an unpaid internship with a minor-league hockey team during her senior year at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. 

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One of Zucker’s first jobs after college was running the concession stands for the Single-A High Desert Mavericks in Adelanto, California. While delivering the commencement address at her alma mater in 2022, Zucker described what it was like pulling up to the Mavericks’ tiny, cinder-block stadium in the Mojave Desert after a cross-country drive. 

“My step-mother turned to me and said, ‘I hope you didn’t just ruin your life,'” Zucker recalled with a chuckle. 

Zucker’s first big break as a sports executive came in 1998 when International Speedway Corporation, which owned and operated more than a dozen NASCAR racetracks across the country, recruited her to lead the development of a brand-new racetrack in Kansas. She then moved to Daytona before spending nine years in charge of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, the largest racetrack on the West Coast.

The challenge of selling tickets in a non-traditional NASCAR market was one that Zucker never fully solved, but empty seats in the grandstands certainly weren’t a result of lack of effort on her part. She improved the fan amenities at the track, tirelessly promoted races and somehow persuaded celebrities like Hilary Duff and Nick Lachey to journey the 50 miles from Hollywood to the Inland Empire. 

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When Ballmer sought to hire a new president of business operations after buying the Clippers in 2014, he interviewed more than two dozen candidates for the position. Zucker won him over with her boundless enthusiasm, her knowledge of the Southern California market and her innovative approach to marketing.

“What an exciting time to be part of the L.A. Clippers,” Zucker said at the time “There’s something special happening in this organization that has captured the attention of Los Angeles, the NBA and the nation. Steve Ballmer’s energy and enthusiasm is contagious and inspiring.”

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Over Zucker’s decade-plus with the Clippers, Ballmer entrusted her with rebranding the team, improving the fan experience and managing the design and construction of the $2 billion Intuit Dome. In return, Zucker only seemed to grow more loyal to Ballmer, describing him during her 2022 commencement speech at Hamilton as the “best owner in professional sports” and “one of the best minds in modern business and philanthropy.”

“He challenges, he questions, he cajoles,” Zucker continued. “But mostly he cares, deeply. He compels us to think critically, imagine boldly and to remember that when we think we’ve arrived, we’re only getting started on the next destination.”

In the wake of the NBA’s investigation into the Leonard scandal, the next destination for Zucker suddenly is a lot murkier. 

“Ms. Zucker acted on Mr. Robertson’s demands to help Mr. Leonard achieve lucrative endorsement opportunities,” the Wachtell report concludes, “and when interviewed, she made misleading and false statements to investigators about her and the Clippers’ role in doing so.”