You don’t have to be a sports fan to know who Steve Ballmer is. In fact, you’ve either seen his cringey dance-a-long with Bill Gates from a 1995 conference that went viral or you’ve seen his passionately fiery interviews related to either his successful tech career with Microsoft or his current passion-project, owning the Los Angeles Clippers.
Those very Clippers have been the laughingstock of the league for decades, never winning a championship despite numerous all-star rosters, dating back to their time as the San Diego Clippers with Bill Walton to now their new-arena era in Inglewood, where they recently traded their top player Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto to much controversy.
Leonard has repped the Clips’ colors for seven seasons after winning the championship with the Raptors in 2019, but will now return in what’s become the never-ending soap opera of the NBA offseason.
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To add to the drama, this wasn’t any ordinary trade. The deal was contingent upon on a league investigation which today was revealed to find many wrongdoing from multiple parties, including Leonard’s inner circle, whereas his uncle, Dennis Robertson, is banned from the NBA for five years.
Owner Steve Ballmer will be suspended for the entire 2026-27 NBA season for knowingly helping All-Star Kawhi Leonard obtain outside income, including approving a business deal that he knew was a precondition for financial-services company Aspiration to enter into a lucrative endorsement agreement behind closed doors.
Now, Leonard will reportedly have to pay back $700,000 in restitution himself, and the team’s future looks even dimmer now that the league has forced the Clippers to forfeit, not one, not two, or even three first-round draft picks, but five in total through 2033 — plus, a hefty $30 million fine.
Ouch.
“The NBA announced today that the LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard have been penalized for violating the salary cap circumvention rules contained in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA),” the league announced in a statement.
It’s safe to say the Lakers are the team to watch in LA this year as even the billionaire owner won’t be able to take his luxe seats he’s been known to occupy and fire up the crowd as the team’s unofficial cheerleader.
