NBA imposes unprecedented punishment on Clippers for Kawhi Leonard salary-cap circumvention

Published September 2, 2026 05:19 PM The L.A. Clippers were safe. Until they weren’t.In one of the most stunning examples of ESPN-on-ESPN crime on record, Shams Charania of ESPN reports that the NBA has levied unprecedented punishment on the L.A. Clippers for salary-cap circumvention in connection with Kawhi Leonard: Five first-round picks and a $30 million fine to owner Steve Ballmer. The NBA also has suspended Ballmer and others.The report comes only a few weeks after ESPN reported that the NBA has no evidence of salary-cap circumvention by the Clippers as to Leonard.The only way to harmonize the two reports is this — the NBA must have found a shitload (technical term) of evidence since August 17.It’s the harshest cap penalty ever levied, in any sport. The NFL hasn’t issued one in years (except for a “clerical payroll error” by the 49ers in 2024). Most recently, the NFL fined the Broncos a total of $1.918 million and stripped them of two-third round draft picks for a series of salary-cap violations in the 1990s. Before that, the NFL penalized the 49ers for a cap violation in 2000, taking a fifth-round pick in 2001 and a third-round pick in 2002; the league also fined former 49ers (then Browns) president Carmen Policy $400,000, and it fined 49ers vice-president Dwight Clark $200,000. That same year, the Steelers were fined $150,000 for a self-reported salary-cap violation. (Thanks to Team PFT for doing the research on this.)All of those examples pale in comparison to what the NBA has done to the Clippers. And it all traces to the reporting of Pablo Torre, whose efforts secured a Pulitzer Prize for Pablo Torre Finds Out. (After ESPN’s August 17 report, some were suggesting it should be rescinded.)That’s the true value of modern sports journalism. At a time when most are chasing transactional nuggets that will inevitably be announced (sometimes only minutes after the exclusive report), the best stuff to chase is the stuff they don’t want anyone to know about.But for Pablo, the Clippers’ infraction never would have been discovered.