Kawhi Got the Money. Clippers Fans Got the Punishment. Make Him Give Back the Improper Benefits.
Petition to: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the NBA Board of Governors and the National Basketball Players Association

Petition
I have supported the Los Angeles Clippers from Australia for 16 years.

I supported this franchise when being a Clippers fan was a punchline.

I stayed through the Donald Sterling scandal and the racism that engulfed the organisation at a time when the Clippers finally appeared capable of genuinely competing for a championship.

I stayed through the disappointments, injuries, playoff collapses and years of watching this franchise try to escape its reputation as the NBA's dysfunctional little brother in Los Angeles.

Then Steve Ballmer arrived.

For the first time, it felt different.

We had an owner who loved basketball. We had ambition. We built a spectacular new arena. We attracted superstar players. Clippers fans finally believed the days of embarrassment were behind us.

Now we know what was happening behind the scenes.

On September 2, 2026, the NBA formally found that the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard violated the league's salary-cap circumvention rules.

This is no longer speculation.

According to the NBA, Leonard — through the actions of his then-business manager Dennis Robertson on his behalf — pressured the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtained those opportunities and failed to reimburse personal expenses paid by the Clippers.

The Clippers deserve enormous blame for participating in this conduct. Steve Ballmer and the executives responsible should be held accountable for what they did.

But accountability cannot stop with the franchise.

Because there is one fundamental question the NBA has failed to adequately answer:

Why does Kawhi Leonard get to keep the financial benefit?
The independent investigation found that Leonard received $18 million through endorsement agreements with Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance. All $18 million had been paid by August 2021.

Investigators concluded those companies entered the agreements because the Clippers “initiated, facilitated, and induced” the arrangements through the prospect of lucrative business with the team.

Then there was Aspiration.

Investigators found that the final Leonard-Aspiration agreement called for $7 million in cash and $5 million in equity annually for four years — $48 million in total compensation. Experts consulted by investigators regarded the compensation as extraordinarily high considering Leonard's limited obligations under the agreement.

To be clear, this petition is not claiming Leonard received the entire $48 million.

It doesn't need to.

We already know from the independent investigation that $18 million was actually paid under three other arrangements, and the NBA has formally determined that Leonard himself violated its circumvention rules.

And yet Leonard's punishment?

$700,000.

The Clippers' punishment?

$30 million.

Steve Ballmer suspended for a year.

Senior executives suspended.

Five years of league compliance monitoring.

And, most devastatingly for the supporters of this franchise:

FIVE FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICKS GONE.
 
 
 
 
 
Five consecutive years in which the Clippers will enter the NBA Draft without their own first-round selection because of what happened here.

Think about the imbalance.

Kawhi received the money.

Clippers executives facilitated the arrangements.

Clippers management broke the rules.

But Clippers supporters — people who had absolutely nothing to do with any of it — will still be living with the basketball consequences in 2033.

That is seven years from now.

A five-year-old Clippers supporter today could be twelve before this punishment has completely run its course.

That is why this isn't simply about Kawhi Leonard.

It is about accountability.

It is about whether an NBA player should ever be permitted to retain the financial benefit of an arrangement that the NBA itself has determined violated its salary-cap rules.

Because if the answer is yes, what exactly is the deterrent?

The entire purpose of salary-cap rules is competitive fairness.

The independent investigators explained that the NBA's compensation system exists to create balanced competitive opportunity by controlling how teams compensate players, and the circumvention provisions specifically prohibit benefits and compensation outside authorised player contracts.

So when circumvention succeeds, the benefit of the circumvention should not survive the punishment.

It is an extraordinary outcome if someone can obtain millions of dollars through arrangements later determined to violate NBA rules and subsequently retain those millions after paying a penalty representing only a fraction of the benefit received.

That's not meaningful accountability.

That's a cost of doing business.

And Clippers fans are paying the real price.

Not because we're writing the NBA's $30 million cheque.

We're paying for it with something sports supporters understand far better:

the future of our team.

We're paying when draft night arrives and the Clippers don't have their first-round pick.

We're paying when another franchise selects a young star with a pick the Clippers forfeited.

We're paying when the franchise needs to rebuild and five years of premium draft capital are missing.

We're paying through years of reduced opportunity because people inside this organisation and those representing its highest-paid star decided the normal rules weren't enough.

Kawhi Leonard cannot reasonably be portrayed merely as an innocent beneficiary of conduct occurring around him.

The NBA expressly found that, through Robertson acting on his behalf, Leonard pressured the Clippers for these opportunities and successfully obtained them.

That finding matters.

Responsibility should follow benefit.

What we are asking for
We call upon Commissioner Adam Silver, the NBA Board of Governors and the NBPA to:

Require the forfeiture or repayment of compensation determined to have been obtained through arrangements that violated the NBA's salary-cap circumvention rules.
Determine the actual financial benefit Leonard received from each offending arrangement and distinguish legitimate fair-market endorsement income from compensation attributable to prohibited Clippers involvement.
Ensure that Leonard does not financially retain the portion of compensation obtained because of conduct the NBA has determined violated the CBA.
If the current CBA prevents full recovery, publicly explain why — and amend NBA rules so that no player in the future can profit financially from successful salary-cap circumvention.
Direct any recovered money toward charitable, grassroots basketball or fan/community initiatives rather than simply returning it to the Clippers organisation.
This isn't about pretending the Clippers are victims.

The Clippers organisation broke the rules.

They deserve punishment.

Steve Ballmer deserves responsibility.

Executives who participated deserve responsibility.

But Kawhi Leonard must accept meaningful responsibility too.

A $700,000 payment to the NBA while retaining millions obtained through arrangements the league determined violated its rules cannot reasonably be the end of the story.

For 16 years, I have supported this team from the other side of the world.

I've watched games at ridiculous hours.

I've bought the merchandise.

I've defended this franchise.

I've stayed when it would have been much easier to support somebody else.

And thousands of Clippers supporters have invested far more than money in this team.

We've invested years.

That loyalty shouldn't be treated as collateral damage.

We cannot undo what happened.

We cannot give Clippers supporters those years back.

But the NBA can establish one very simple principle:

YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO KEEP THE PROCEEDS OF SALARY-CAP CIRCUMVENTION.
Kawhi got the money.

Clippers fans got the punishment.

It's time for Kawhi Leonard to give back the improper financial benefit and take responsibility for the damage he helped cause.