Apr 11, 2025; Sacramento, California, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) reacts during the first quarter against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Apr 11, 2025; Sacramento, California, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) reacts during the first quarter against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Steve Ballmer and the Clippers are now chest-deep in troubled waters in the NBA after the league announced arguably the harshest punishment in its history over salary cap circumvention allegations involving Kawhi Leonard.
Consequently, the Clippers forfeited five first-round picks, were fined $30 million as a team, and lost two Presidents to suspensions, along with team owner Steve Ballmer’s one-year suspension from all team activities.
Brian Windhorst, ESPN’s senior NBA insider, recorded an episode of his podcast ‘The Hoop Collective’ with Tim McMahon, where he summarized and discussed the league’s findings in the latest report they released after the investigation reached a critical point.
“The Clippers have had a tool in this, and the tool was that they were building this arena. So, because they were building this arena and doing business with a whole bunch of extra companies and vendors, it had all these different pathways they could, essentially, potentially use for partnerships.”
“And so, you know, Daktronics, you’re not buying $100 million worth of Daktronics stuff every year, but when you’re building your arena, you are,” Windhorst explained.
“I felt the most compelling thing Pablo broke the story was amazing. He wor—he’s already won a Pulitzer and a Muro award, like he’s, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s gone great for him, but the Daktronics thing to me really was a huge thing from my perspective because that was just a Grade A kickback and so, um, because they were building that arena.”
“And here’s the other thing: Daktronics very, very clearly, like the investigators don’t quote the people. You’re trusting Wachtel, Lipton to a certain degree, but considering you’re putting this against a man with over a hundred billion dollars, I find their credibility reasonable. I would find them reasonable.”
“Well, Daktronics does business with virtually every NBA team. They intend to do business, I assume, with many NBA teams into the future. They were highly, highly incentivized to do two things. One, they were highly incentivized to do this deal with the Clippers because, as Pablo did in his reporting for Hunterbrook Media, they were in partnership there.”
“They pointed out that Daktronics had hit a rough patch and really kind of needed the deal. I mean, anybody could use a hundred million dollar order, but at that particular point, their finances were struggling, so they needed to do it.”
“The details in this report make it clear that Daktronics basically opened up and said what happened,” Windhorst said.
So the NBA’s findings apparently suggest that anonymous Daktronics employees became the smoking gun behind the league’s punishment of the Clippers. That, combined with Joe Sanberg’s testimony from prison, has collectively become the basis for this crackdown on the Clippers.
Steve Ballmer and the Clippers seemingly used Daktronics’ financial situation as leverage to pressure them into giving Kawhi Leonard a ‘multimillion-dollar endorsement deal,’ and their desire to continue working with other teams in the league with integrity has led some of their employees to come forward.
As for the finality of the decisions, the investigations apparently aren’t over, but Steve Ballmer and the Clippers have no other recourse to handle this internally and will have to accept the league’s findings. In an angry letter to Adam Silver, Steve Ballmer and the Clippers’ counsel said they will seek other legal remedies externally, in court.
But the question now is: has the league done enough to create a deterrent effect so teams do not replicate this conduct in the future? The common opinion across the media is that Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard got away with it easily while the Clippers organization took most of the blame.
Steve Ballmer reportedly earns over $300 million every quarter through his stock in Microsoft, so it will not take him more than 10 days to recover the $30 million fine the team will incur.
And Stephen A. Smith has repeatedly said the same thing across multiple channels: that Kawhi Leonard should have received a harsher punishment, since he was the main beneficiary of the allegations.
It will be interesting to see whether they find out if it was, in fact, Steve Ballmer who wanted to pressure Daktronics and the other partners to give Kawhi Leonard the additional benefits. But it surely does seem like this is the brainchild of someone on the Clippers.