Shortly after NBA commissioner Adam Silver handed the Los Angeles Clippers the most severe punishment for salary-cap circumvention in over a quarter of a century, star forward Kawhi Leonard, the central figure of the yearlong investigation, released a statement:
“Integrity and respect for this game are fundamental to who I am. 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.
“For 15 years, my priority has been giving everything to my family, the game, and those I share the court with. As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.”
Because of the scope and magnitude of the myriad offenses committed by all parties involved over the course of Leonard’s time with the franchise — as well as the potential ramifications that tend to follow major investigations — folks around the league expressed varied emotions: gratitude to the commissioner’s office for stepping in and course-correcting; admittance that the penalty was lessened to an extent and could be further ameliorated; and overall understanding that illegalities took place.
“I think it could have been worse,” an anonymous NBA player told Yahoo Sports. “Seven hundred-thousand dollars probably ain’t nothing to [Leonard], so he can just pay it and get back to playing. He didn’t get suspended or anything. Be careful. Watch what you got going on.”
“They gave a ruling that made it seem like [the circumvention offense] wasn’t right, but also they didn’t try to kill them all the way — to me,” an assistant coach said. “This is going to put everybody on notice to take that seriously. Glad something was done to help level the playing field a little bit.”
We don’t need to rehash the terms of the NBA’s ruling; I’m sure anyone reading this by now is well aware of the multimillion-dollar fines, suspensions and loss of draft capital that were levied against the Clippers. But there is a stunning lack of ownership and accountability in Leonard’s word salad that circumvents (no pun intended) the concept of wrongdoing and could actually do more harm than good.
“I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgement by people within my inner circle.”
Really?
Yes, I understand that Dennis Robertson (otherwise known as “Uncle Dennis,” who was ironically fired by Leonard in June when things began to pick up steam) bears the brunt of the decision from an engagement standpoint, being banned from conducting business with NBA franchises for five years. But are we really supposed to believe that the only lapses in judgement were made by him?
The investigation conducted by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz revealed that it was indeed Leonard who “pressured the Clippers into assisting him in obtaining off-court income opportunities.” This isn’t a Shohei Ohtani/Ippei Mizuhara unraveling, where a close confidant is actually a convicted fraudster. It’s much closer to home than Leonard would like us to see. Leonard signed a three-year, $103 million deal with the Clippers in 2019 at a time where the going rate for an All-NBA player coming off a championship run was higher. At every juncture, Leonard’s internal valuation was less than the market’s for his talent bracket. Following the findings, it’s clear that team governor Steve Ballmer was in lockstep with Leonard every step of the way. Leonard took less money to help ownership build a contender and ownership looked out on the back end.
I’ve been around my fair share of players over the years and seen a multitude of inner circles, some of which have empowered family members to take managerial positions. It’s extremely rare to find situations where a lone member — in this case a financial adviser — is operating as a lone wolf. Not for that long without the player having an understanding of what’s being done behind the scenes. Simply put, there’s no front-facing role for Uncle Dennis without Kawhi. There isn’t a need to engage in improper business, quid pro quo with various companies, without Kawhi. To immediately throw a former associate (and family member, for that matter) under the bus is an embarrassing turn of events and largely misses the mark.
There’s also the issue of his “good faith” claim regarding his initial Clippers contract. The investigation quite significantly proved the opposite to be true. Nothing was done in good faith from the time Leonard signed on the dotted line ’til now. The firm’s findings show that Leonard expected a plethora of perks and other various financial incentives — from trips and tickets to unexpensed personal items on Leonard’s behalf. A $700,000 restitution penalty doesn’t just establish itself out of thin air. This is a yearlong case we’re talking about.
As far as it concerns Leonard and the Raptors, this is the lightest possible punishment all things being considered. His $50 million salary, adjusted for Canadian tax laws and other league-related deductions, comes out to just under $700,000 every two weeks. In other words, Leonard has to essentially give back one of his paychecks over the 2026-27 season, a drop in a bucket.
(I’m curious to see the machinations of the impending Leonard-to-Toronto deal and not only if any amendments are made, but how the league office handles that aspect as well. Considering how aggressively the Clippers pushed back on the NBA’s decision — and the league’s immediate response — this could get interesting in the coming days. “I can’t imagine the Clippers going down without swinging and fighting back,” an agent said.)
But what does Leonard’s future hold?
He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after this season, which comes with its own questions. How does his 2026-27 production, along with his past, now public dealings, impact his future earnings? Does it even matter at this point? Are the Raptors the only team that will go near Leonard approaching age 36? (According to reports, Leonard plans on signing an extension with Toronto.) Could this impact his own personal future business interests outside of basketball, given how public this fiasco has become?
I don’t think this has any effect on the locker room he steps into; we’re still talking about one of the best players on the planet with his championship pedigree still very much intact. But these past 12 months have shown that what you say and what you do have real effects outside of your own environment, and the long arm of the law is very swift, very severe and very unforgiving.
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