Adam Silver just handed down the biggest and harshest organizational penalty on the Los Angeles Clippers in the history of NBA, and quite possibly sports! After months of investigation into salary cap circumvention, the league had come to a conclusion that the Clippers were guilty.
The penalty is as follows:
- Loss of five first-round picks from 2029-2033
- The team was fined $30 million dollars
- Owner Steve Ballmer suspended for an entire year
- Suspensions without pay to president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank (six months), president of business operations Gillian Zucker (one year)
- Kawhi Leonard fined $700K
These are serious and as significant punishments. Obviously, the most crippling will be the loss of the five first-round draft picks. That’s the kind of punishment that can set back a franchise for years.
The loss of top personnel in the front office and ownership will be damaging to the franchise for this upcoming season.
In the middle of all this, stands the rumored trade of Kawhi back to the Toronto Raptors. There are a lot of moving parts here, no pun intended. Does the trade still go through? Who takes over in the front office for at least the first six months of the season?
This will go down as the darkest day in Clippers history.
The Clippers won’t feel the effect of the first round picks loss for a few more seasons, but it’s coming and they can’t avoid it. Not seeing Balmer on the sidelines will be odd also.
At least it’s all over now. Sanctions have been handed out and the organization needs to move forward with the upcoming season. The next domino will be Leonard, so not all is answered yet.
The Clippers organization learned a harsh lesson. It was a warning shot for the league. Don’t mess with the rules or else you will be severely punished. Silver showed he’s not to be messed with and will always put the integrity of the league first, as he should.
Clippers will be starting camp in a month. A season will be played and the team needs to use this to rally and come together. Don’t turn off the lights on the Clippers, yet.