Ever since Pablo Torre’s Pablo Torre Finds Out shined a light on the shady dealings between the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard, people have been waiting for the NBA to drop the hammer on Steve Ballmer’s organization. Well, on Wednesday, September 2, it finally happened. The NBA announced that Los Angeles will be stripped of five first-round draft picks (2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033). Ballmer, along with Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker and President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank, are also suspended from all league and team activities. On top of that, Ballmer was issued a $30 million fine, and Leonard has to fork over $700,000 for receiving improper benefits from the franchise.
“I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct. The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
The Ballmer-specific punishments mean very little in assessing the damage done to the Clippers. Losing $30 million means very little for somebody that wealthy, and the fans in Los Angeles aren’t required to care about his pockets. Losing five first-round picks is what really matters most here, and that could prove to be costly for the organization.
All in all, NBA fans should be happy that this happened, as this could prevent future offenses from other franchises. Fans should also be thrilled that this is finally over, as there has been a dark cloud hanging over the league for quite some time.
As far as betting implications go, there aren’t many. We shouldn’t change the way we view Los Angeles based on the availability of the team’s draft assets. However, now that this is in the rearview mirror, we should see the Clippers and Toronto Raptors revisit the Leonard trade. Throughout the offseason, reliable NBA media members noted that both teams expected that deal to go through, so we should ultimately see Leonard moved to the Raptors for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks (2031 and 2033), a 2027 first-round pick swap, and two second-round picks (2030 and 2033). We analyzed that deal in our NBA free agency reactions column.
