What started out as a wild podcast report from journalist Pablo Torre a year ago has finally blown up into one of the biggest punishments in NBA history.
The Clippers have officially been hit hard for skirting the league’s salary cap rules in a case tied to Kawhi Leonard, and now the debate isn’t just about whether the punishment was fair. Now it’s about whether there’s more coming.
ESPN Insider’s Claims Los Angeles Clippers Should Accept Punishment for Kawhi Leonard Scandal
On the latest episode of “Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective,” co-host Tim MacMahon didn’t hold back. He said the penalties the league just dropped on the Clippers might not even be the end of it.
According to MacMahon, the NBA could end up inflicting even more punishment on the Clippers down the road.
“By the way, all these penalties we’re talking about, it’s at least five first-round picks. It’s at least $30 million because one very important line here: Wachtell Lipton continues to receive information relevant to the investigation, and the league will consider further action as appropriate.”
“So they might keep stacking stuff on, just like all the companies started. Like, it went from one to two. Now it’s four. And the league’s basically saying, hey, we might just be getting started here. But look, they needed a conclusion for the simple fact that a massive trade was being held up,” MacMahon said during the segment.
Brian Windhorst also advised the Clippers front office to accept the penalties handed down by the league and make it clear that it does not want the situation to escalate any further.
“Here’s my unsolicited advice to the Clippers organization. Accept the penalty and ask for one provision that no more penalties are levied,” Windhorst added.
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania broke the news of exactly how severe the league’s ruling turned out to be. The Clippers are losing five first-round draft picks in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033, which is about as brutal as it gets for a franchise trying to build for the future. On top of that, the team was slapped with a $30 million fine.
Owner Steve Ballmer didn’t escape either. He has been banned from any team or league business for a full year, with the NBA saying he knowingly tried to help Leonard secure off-court income opportunities that weren’t permitted under the cap rules.
Two other top executives got caught up in it, too. Business operations president Gillian Zucker is out for a year without pay, and basketball operations president Lawrence Frank is sitting out six months without pay. As for Leonard himself, the two-time Finals MVP wasn’t suspended, but he does have to pay back $700,000 to the league.
Despite the size of the punishment, the Clippers made it clear on Wednesday that they’re not just going to accept it quietly. In a statement, the organization pushed back against the league’s conclusions and said it plans to challenge the findings.
“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.”
“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,” the team said in a statement, as per ESPN.
For now, the Clippers are facing one of the most damaging punishments handed down by the NBA in recent times. But MacMahon’s comments suggest the organization may need to prepare for an even longer battle.
