Right now, things are looking pretty good for Kawhi Leonard.
He agreed to a two-year, $115 million contract extension with the Raptors on Tuesday, including a player option for the 2028-29 season. The 35-year-old, who’s now under contract for three years, is expected to finish his career with the Raptors, according to ESPN.
Meanwhile, the Clippers — and their fans — have pretty much had a limb amputated.
LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard reacts on the court during the fourth quarter of a game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Jan. 7, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Following the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers and Leonard for violating salary cap circumvention rules when the team signed him to an extension in 2021, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for one year, the Clippers were ordered to forfeit five first-round draft picks and they were fined $30 million, among other penalties.
As for Leonard?
He got a $700,000 fine, which is pretty much a slap on the wrist, as well as having his uncle and former agent, Dennis Robertson, banned from all business dealings and league activities for five years.
Leonard wasn’t suspended. HIs trade to the Raptors went through. So, now he gets a fresh start alongside a team that he carried to a championship in 2019.
Not too bad.
This isn’t entirely over, though. The Justice Department has opened a criminal inquiry into the Clippers’ dealings with Leonard, according to The New York Times.
But as of now, Leonard gets to move forward while his former franchise will trudge through mud for the foreseeable future, an unfortunate situation for a team that has never won a championship while sharing a city with the 17-time champion Lakers.
As for Leonard. there are complaints that he’s getting off relatively scot-free. It’s unclear how much Leonard knew when he profited from no-show sponsorship deals involving Ballmer and the Clippers.
What we do know is Leonard signed a four-year, $28 million sponsorship deal with Aspiration and was given $20 million of equity in the company that went bankrupt. He also signed a deal with Boingo, Daktronics and Lockton, per the NBA’s findings.
FILE – Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer sits on the sideline before an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls on March 13, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. AP Photo/Ryan Sun
At the least, this raises a lot of questions.
Should Leonard have received a harsher punishment? How much was his uncle to blame? How blameless was he? Does this set a bad precedent for players in the future? Were the penalties leveraged against Ballmer and the Clippers enough to prevent this kind of thing from happening again?
Without being privy to every interview in the NBA’s lengthy investigation of the matter, it’s impossible to know the answer to these questions.
But all of it raises eyebrows.
In the meantime, one of the best two-way players of the last decade will be able to finish his career with dignity.
Instead of being mired in scandal, he’s going to be focused on carrying a franchise that hasn’t made it past the first round of the playoffs in the last six years back to relevance.
The same can’t be said about the Clippers, whose fans are the biggest losers in all of this.
They lost Leonard. Their future was dealt a debilitating blow. Their owner has been temporarily banished.
The Clippers’ curse continues.
And Leonard escaped its throes in the nick of time.
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