When it comes to salary cap subterfuge, as it does with practically all white-collar shenanigans, it pays to insulate.
This is why the NBA flattened the Los Angeles Clippers, owner Steve Ballmer and various other key figures in the Kawhi Leonard salary cap circumvention scheme with crushing penalties.
It’s also why Leonard, the player who seemingly pocketed millions of dollars from those deals, is walking away mostly unscathed.
Did Leonard get off light? In short: yes, he did.
Leonard was fined $700,000 and can seemingly continue his career without interruption. There was no mention of the millions that landed via direct deposits through these dubious endorsements.
Yet, the issue, as outlined in a report published by New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, is a little more complicated. Essentially, the deeply flawed structure for discipline in this case allowed for Leonard to get a slap on the wrist. The burden skewed heavily toward the franchise, which therefore somewhat absolved the player.
Put another way: this case set a precedent where a player (or his representatives) can ask for the moon and the sky and the stars — the only real infraction is if the team does not report it, particularly if the organization are repeat offenders.
Compare Leonard’s discipline to the onslaught facing the Clippers:
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The forfeiture of five first-round picks
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A year-long suspension of the team owner from all league activities
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A year-long suspension without pay of the team’s president of business operations
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A six-month suspension without pay of the team’s president of basketball operations
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A five-year compliance and monitoring program
The NBA clearly wanted to make an example of Ballmer’s Clippers, who were also fined $250,000 in August 2015 for “violating NBA rules prohibiting teams from offering players unauthorized business or investment opportunities” in their pursuit of then-free agent center DeAndre Jordan.
But Leonard is no ordinary player. And the Clippers had languished in Los Angeles, under the massive shadow of the crosstown Lakers. The two teams even played in the same venue for 25 seasons.
The prospect of landing a franchise-altering player like Leonard — the pressure to claw from irrelevance — is massive and unforgiving. So when a player exercises undue leverage to finagle shady dealings the way Leonard did, it creates an environment that allows for (if not encourages) smaller market and less popular teams to bend the rules when a player makes those asks.
This is not to condone the Clippers; it’s to propose that the penalty to Leonard and future players match in kind.
“Integrity and respect for this game are fundamental to who I am,” Leonard said Wednesday in a statement released through his agent. “I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family.
“I 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.”
Yet, the millions of dollars from the alleged no-show endorsement deals had to be going somewhere.
And while $700,000 is life-changing money for most American households, it represents a fraction of Leonard’s $50. 3 million salary for this upcoming season.
In fact, the fine represents just 1.4% of his pay this year and a staggeringly low 0.46% of the total value of his $149.5 million maximum extension signed in January 2024.
Granted, Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle, was banned from doing any NBA business for five years, essentially becoming the latest fall guy.
But all of this prompts one massive question: where did all those millions of dollars from the no-show endorsement deals go?
A $700,000 fine doesn’t come close to answering that.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Did Kawhi Leonard get off light in the NBA’s Clippers crackdown? | Opinion
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