By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: 2026 Getty Images / Michael Buckner / Ron Jenkins
The NBA laid down the hammer on the Los Angeles Clippers after the Kawhi Leonard investigation.
It’s going to take years for the Clippers to get back on their feet. A franchise that had championship aspirations this decade will now suffer draft pick losses in the future. The Clippers will lose five future first-round picks, a $30 million fine, and owner Steve Ballmer will be suspended for one year.
Leonard will not be suspended, but he must pay the league a $700,000 fine. His uncle and former business manager, Dennis Robertson, was banned from doing business with NBA teams for five years. Other punishments have been handed down to the president of basketball operations, Lawrence Frank, and Gillian Zucker.
Frank is suspended without pay for six months. Zucker is suspended without pay for a year. The Clippers and their personnel will be under a league compliance and monitoring program for five years.
Leonard is a superstar and quite likable. It’s going to be hard to see a player like him the way he will be viewed by the public this upcoming season. The trade to the Toronto Raptors will be completed. However, it wouldn’t be surprise if he gets booed in certain arenas after this scandal broke out.
Journalist Pablo Torre broke the story in September 2025. While many people were critical of his journalistic intentions, Torre stuck to what he believed was right. He’s an investigative journalist and has demonstrated that you can do great work as an independent journalist. Torre is the host of the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast.
Torre has made several stops on numerous platforms, including, more recently, the Rich Eisen Show.
“Thanks to brave people who are willing to go on the record with me talking about the richest owner in American sports, Steve Ballmer,” Torre said. “What Wachtell Lipton found was that there was a pattern of behavior that Steve Ballmer and his two lieutenants, president of basketball operations and president of business Gillian Zucker, they orchestrated a scheme to use partners in the Intuit Dome like Aspiration, like Daktronics, like Locked in Insurance, like Boingo Wireless to get Kawhi Leonard money well beyond the salary cap.”
This work earned Torre the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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