Sept 2 (Reuters) – The NBA came down hard on \u2060the Los Angeles Clippers, stripping the team of five first-round draft picks, imposing a $30 million fine and suspending owner Steve Ballmer for a year \u2060over salary cap circumvention tied to Kawhi Leonard.<\/p>\n
After a year-long probe, the NBA said in a statement on Wednesday that an independent \u200cinvestigation found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization.<\/p>\n
The league had launched an investigation into the Clippers following media reports that Leonard, a two-time NBA champion, was paid by a now-bankrupt environmental firm that had close ties toBallmer as a way to circumvent league rules that restrict the total amount a team can spend on its player payroll.<\/p>\n
The reports said Leonard had \u200ba four-year, $28-million endorsement contract with the firm but the twice NBA champion wasalleged to have provided \u2060no work as part of the deal.<\/p>\n
As part of the penalties \u2060announced by the NBA, Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year “for knowingly seeking to help Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities.”<\/p>\n
“I am \u2060deeply \u200cdisappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers\u2019 institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silversaid in a statement. “The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.\u201d<\/p>\n
CLIPPERS REJECT NBA FINDINGS, SEEK ARBITRATION <\/p>\n
The Clippers said in a statement they “vehemently reject” the NBA’s \u2060findings, calling themtheresult of a”biased” investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts \u200band evidence.<\/p>\n
“What the league told us privately differs from \u200cwhat it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner Silver set at the start of this investigation \u2060to ensure its fairness and \u200baccuracy,” the Clippers said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process.”<\/p>\n
According to the NBA, Leonard, through the conduct of his then-business manager Dennis Robertson acting on his behalf, violated the circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court \u2060income opportunities. Leonard is required to pay the league $700,000 in connection with his violations.<\/p>\n
During the \u200binvestigation, the Toronto Raptors put their planned trade for Leonard on pause as the NBA told them that they would assume the risk of any potential outcome of the investigation affecting the player who led them to a championship in 2019 before leaving for the Clippers.<\/p>\n
LEONARD EAGER TO CLOSE CHAPTER<\/p>\n
Leonard, in a separate statement on Wednesday, said he \u2060accepted full responsibility for what he called lapses in judgment by people within his inner circle, adding that he regretted the distraction the situation had caused his fans and familyand that he looked forward to returning to the Raptors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d Leonard said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 15 years, my priority has \u200bbeen giving everything to my family, the game, and those I share the court with. As I return to \u2060Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.”<\/p>\n
FIVE-YEAR NBA-MONITOREDCOMPLIANCE PROGRAM <\/p>\n
The Clippers will forfeit first-roundpicks in each of the \u200b2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 NBA Drafts.<\/p>\n
Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker was suspended without \u200cpay for one year for being “primarily and directly culpable for the impermissible endorsement \u200barrangements”, the NBA said.<\/p>\n
Lawrence Frank, the team’s president of basketball operations, was suspended without pay for six months for his involvement. The Clippers will also be subject to a compliance program overseen by the NBA for a period of five years.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in TorontoEditing by Toby Davis)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sept 2 (Reuters) – The NBA came down hard on \u2060the Los Angeles Clippers, stripping the team of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,6675,85],"class_list":["post-877964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-na","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}