Source: https://www.pablo.show/p/it-happened

From Pablo Torre:

If you’ve been following our (ongoing) investigation into the Clippers and Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard, you know we’ve been waiting for this day for a year.

We published Part I on September 3rd, 2025.

This, Part 15, we streamed, live, last night — on September 2nd, 2026 — roughly 90 minutes after the NBA announced its punishment and the league’s outside counsel, Wachtell Lipton, dropped a detailed 35-page report.

Accountability for the wealthiest people on Earth is hard to come by.

Thank you for believing in the power of independent reporting to accomplish it.

(And, yes, more to come.)

Shams Charania has posted the following:

BREAKING: The NBA has ruled on the Los Angeles Clippers in for salary cap circumvention investigations on Kawhi Leonard after yearlong probe -- stripping the franchise of 5 first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to owner Steve Ballmer and suspensions for Ballmer, Lawrence Frank and Gillian Zucker, sources tell ESPN.

Kawhi Leonard will have to pay $700,000 in restitution for improper benefits by the Clippers for his uncle and former business rep, Dennis Robertson. No contract void or suspension for Leonard. And Robertson -- who was fired by Leonard in June -- is being banned by the NBA from all business dealings.

Link to the story: https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/5378a64df7b61

Follow up:

Per NBA: The Clippers shall forfeit five first-round draft picks, one in each of the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033 NBA Drafts.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year for knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities, for approving a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard, and for his failure to create conditions under which his organization abided by the NBA’s circumvention rules.

Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker is suspended without pay for one year for being primarily and directly culpable for the impermissible endorsement arrangements and for providing false and misleading statements to investigators.

Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank is suspended without pay for six months for his involvement with the impermissible endorsement arrangements and for approving impermissible expenses incurred by Mr. Leonard and his family.

The Clippers organization and personnel are subject to a compliance and monitoring program overseen by the league office for a period of five years.