Steve Ballmer built a $150 billion fortune running Microsoft, but as of Wednesday he cannot set foot in a Clippers locker room, front office or governors' meeting for a full year. The NBA closed the book on its marathon investigation into the franchise on September 2, 2026, ruling that the Los Angeles Clippers illegally routed money to Kawhi Leonard through a web of endorsement deals designed to dodge the salary cap, handing the franchise one of the harshest penalties the league has issued in years.

Investigators found the Clippers steered Leonard toward sponsorship arrangements with four companies — Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance — that were effectively preconditions for those firms doing business with the team itself. The probe zeroed in on a $28 million deal with the now-defunct green bank Aspiration that required little to no promotional work from Leonard, arranged not long after Ballmer personally invested $50 million in the startup.

Suspensions, a $30M fine, and five stripped picks

Commissioner Adam Silver suspended Ballmer for one year from all league and team activities, fined the Clippers $30 million and stripped the franchise of five first-round draft picks running from 2029 through 2033, according to NBC Sports' rundown of the ruling. One of those picks, a 2029 selection the Clippers had acquired from Indiana in the Ivica Zubac trade, is simply voided rather than returned to the Pacers. Team president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended a year without pay for what the league called being "primarily and directly culpable" for the scheme and for giving false and misleading statements to investigators, while president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank drew a six-month unpaid suspension. Leonard's uncle and longtime business manager, Dennis Robertson, was banned five years from conducting business with any NBA team on a player's behalf. Leonard himself was fined $700,000 but faces no suspension and no voided contract.

"The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations," Commissioner Adam Silver said, adding he was "deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules."

The case traces back to a September 2025 podcast episode from journalist Pablo Torre that first exposed the Aspiration arrangement as a no-show job, touching off a probe that stretched nearly a full year, as CNBC reported. The Clippers pushed back hard on the outcome, with the organization saying it "vehemently" rejects the findings and calling the investigation "heavily biased." Leonard struck a more conciliatory tone, saying he accepts "full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle" while maintaining he had no knowledge of any intent to circumvent the cap.

The timing lands awkwardly for a franchise already moving on from its longtime star. Leonard had agreed months ago to a trade sending him to the Toronto Raptors — the team he led to the 2019 championship — in a deal built around Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and multiple future first-round picks, per ESPN's reporting on the trade. That deal had been frozen since July pending the outcome of the league's investigation. With the ruling now final, the move can proceed, and Leonard is expected to sign a contract extension in Toronto once he officially changes uniforms.

For Ballmer, the punishment is financial and reputational rather than existential — the suspension doesn't touch his ownership stake. But spending a full year on the sidelines during a season the team hoped would mark a fresh start is a costly footnote to one of the most scrutinized ownership tenures in the league.