Clippers' Business President Gillian Zucker Has A History Of Circumventing Rules For Steve Ballmer
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When Steve Ballmer bought the Clippers from Donald Sterling in 2014, Gillian Zucker was one of his first hires, replacing Andy Roeser, the team’s former president, who managed not just the business side of the franchise but also helped with player contract negotiations.
Soon after, in 2015, the Clippers offered one of the best free agents of the summer, center DeAndre Jordan, a chance to work as a spokesperson for Lexus to retain him.
Gillian Zucker, a newly hired team president, came up with the idea, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic. The Clippers were fined $250,000, and the matter was quickly swept under the rug.
Over a decade later, Gillian Zucker’s name has now become an even more pivotal figure in the investigation’s findings around the Kawhi Leonard controversy than team owner Steve Ballmer and Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ President of Basketball Operations.
Gillian Zucker’s name appeared 56 times in the NBA’s latest findings, while Steve Ballmer and Lawrence Frank’s names appeared 52 times each. She has become a scrutinized figure in this investigation and has hence received the one-year suspension, while her counterpart Frank is suspended for six months.
The league accused Zucker of acting as a middleman for Leonard’s unlawful sponsorship deals with Boingo, Daktronics, Lockton, an insurance brokerage, and ultimately Aspiration, claiming that Ballmer, Frank, and Zucker were primarily to blame for the rule violations.
“Ms. Zucker was the point person on all four deals between these companies and the Clippers, and directly initiated, facilitated, and induced each of Mr. Leonard’s endorsement agreements with those companies,” it reads.
“Ms. Zucker acted on Mr. Robertson’s demands to help Mr. Leonard achieve lucrative endorsement opportunities, and when interviewed, she made misleading and false statements to investigators about her and the Clippers’ role in doing so.”
According to a Clippers employee who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, Zucker was an ardent Ballmer supporter who would stop at nothing to satisfy the Clippers owner and didn’t seem to care about the consequences.
The NBA reported that Leonard’s uncle was pressuring Zucker and the Clippers over his nephew’s off-court income. According to the investigation, Zucker and the Clippers helped Leonard negotiate endorsement deals with several businesses, including three before the most controversial one with Aspiration.
The Clippers reportedly started the partnerships to increase Leonard’s earnings, but Zucker wrote fake introductory emails to make it seem like these companies had asked to meet with Leonard. According to the report, Zucker’s husband served as the chair of the board of directors for one of those businesses.
Daktronics was told the team wanted a spend-back arrangement in which the Clippers would guarantee their services in exchange for the company agreeing to do additional business with the team.
“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 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.”
So it seems clear that Zucker gave Daktronics the impression that giving Kawhi Leonard a ‘multimillion-dollar’ endorsement deal would help them further their business with the Clippers.
Additionally, Zucker “initiated and facilitated” the endorsement agreement with Aspiration and its co-founder, Joe Sanberg. She seemed to write introductory emails that gave the impression the companies had contacted her about the player, as in the earlier transactions.
“This ‘introduction’ came nine days after Ms. Zucker told Mr. Sanberg that she would call a business agent to help him structure an agreement with Mr. Leonard; eight days after Ms. Zucker conveyed to the agent financial terms for the deal; and one day after Ms. Zucker gave ‘input’ on the deal’s term sheet,” the report states.
“Based on this series of events, and based on the record related to Boingo, Daktronics, and Lockton, investigators find that the November 5 ‘introduction’ email from Ms. Zucker was drafted solely for record-making purposes and was not a genuine communication intended to kick off a dealmaking process for Mr. Leonard that was by this time already well underway.”
“Mr. Ballmer and Ms. Zucker told investigators the same: that the Clippers’ sole involvement in Mr. Leonard’s relationship with Aspiration was an introductory email. Based on the foregoing evidence, investigators find these statements to be inaccurate (at best) with respect to Mr. Ballmer and clearly false with respect to Ms. Zucker,” the report further says.
“The Clippers suggested to Aspiration that they enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard, asked a business agent to help structure the agreement, conveyed proposed deal terms to that agent, provided input on the proposed deal, and remained in communication about the agreement thereafter with both Aspiration and Mr. Leonard’s representatives.”
Next to Dennis Robertson and Kawhi Leonard, Gillian Zucker has arguably become the most criticized figure in this investigation. She has been suspended for one year without pay.
The league’s investigations have apparently not yet concluded, and we could see more information on Zucker’s involvement in this controversy. Unfortunately, Zucker’s alleged actions for Ballmer and Leonard may have set back the franchise by several years.