The Green Line Wraps Up the Kawhi Leonard Story

The NBA can at times, have a very confusing relationship with their teams and individual players. Why do certain players have a ‘can-do-no-wrong’ reputation with the front office, while entire organizations feel like they exist only on the whims of the league? Why did Nico Harrison trade Luke Doncic to the Lakers, did NBA commissioner Adam Silver promise to rig the draft for him in return? Why was Paul George worth five first round picks? Is SGA at the stripe at this very moment?

When considered individually, perhaps these questions only demonstrate the innate entropy of organized competitive sports. At times, the system will be driven by some singular dominant force, frustratingly out of balance. Only to then be struck by such a catastrophic event that the average indicators for success over whichever time scale pleases you most, may have well as always been zero. A statement such as that would however, require the assumption that the NBA is a closed-system, subject to fundamental thermodynamics. An assumption, that is wrong.

The NBA has always meddled in the affairs of the players, coaches, and general managers, whether they are transparent about it or not. In 1980, Ted Stepien became the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Stepien was an advertising mogul, and seemingly Did Not Know Much Ball, which he acted on accordingly by driving the team into the ground. He wanted his purchase of the Cavs to pay off, and sought to draw big crowds by enacting splash trades for players who would win games. That’s why, in 1980 alone, he traded their ‘82, ‘84, ‘83 and ‘86 first round picks for five guys you literally have never heard of. So the NBA implemented the ‘Stepien Rule’ to ensure organizations couldn’t trade consecutive-year draft picks. In fact, when the league office implemented this rule, and Stepien sold the team in 1983, the NBA actually awarded compensatory picks back to the Cavs as a boost to their new ownership. Is it then fair to wonder, should the NBA have acted on this sooner? Three years is quite the time frame, especially when you’re staring a measly 66 combined wins in the face. How can that be contrasted to something like the 2013 Celtics-Nets deal? The Nets sent away consecutive first rounders in 2016 and ‘17 (albeit through a pick swap deal, so not violating Stepien’s aforementioned rule) and got Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Celtics. Is there a balanced state to the league where individuals can’t sink whole organizations, while maintaining the time honored tradition of fleecing historically mid teams?

At this time, it appears as though the Kawhi Leonard saga which has spanned the last two years, has finally come to a close as he touches down in Toronto. While the Clippers did not necessarily fleece the Raptors in their exchange, the spirit of such action definitely lingers. Having taken an entire calendar year to lay out action against the accused parties, the NBA announced on September 10th (when the last article came out? what are the odds of that) that they would fine the Clippers $30 Million, 5 1st-round picks, and a year’s suspension for Steve Ballmer. For his part, Kawhi had to pay $700,000 to Adam Silver’s Turkish hair transplant slush fund, but was not suspended. This neatly wraps up what was otherwise a tumultuous summer, as there was a real chance that the League ended Leonard’s career from orbit. Over the 2026 summer was saw:

The Aspiration INC former CEO was sentenced to 14 months in jail on June 1st, with Steve Ballmer actually formally writing to the judge to say he too, had been defrauded.
The Clippers and Raptors announce Kawhi is going to Toronto for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two firsts and some swaps, June 30th.
The Raptors and Clippers pause the trade entirely on July 9th with the implication that the NBA’s investigation had not gone away.
ESPN reports on August 17th that the NBA had no proof of under the table payments from Ballmer.
- The Clippers jump on this report and issue a statement saying they always follow the rules!
- ESPN also takes a victory lap on Pablo Torre that week
The NBA announces on September 2nd punishments for the Clippers and Kawhi
Also on September 2nd, Kawhi posts that he plays basketball with integrity and had “no knowledge of any intent on anyone’s part to circumvent the salary cap.”
The Clippers and Ballmer announce they reject the findings and will contest them with the NBA.
They give up almost immediately and accept the punishments on September 13th.
The trade to the Raptors processes on September 14th with Kawhi having not been suspended.

So how did Kawhi walk away from this practically unscathed? He seemingly possessed a shell company, named after himself, which existed solely to process payments from Aspiration for multiple years. He has been quite vocal about doing nothing wrong, consciously and unconsciously, paid his fine, and now sits comfortably in Canada. While on the inverse, several Clippers executives were fully barred from participating in the NBA. Kawhi’s tank is not empty, but he’s on the back half of his career, so is he really a big enough boon to the NBA to keep around like this? There are two perspectives to assess here; one, the historical example of the Timberwolves’ Joe Smith in 2000, and two, the idea that the NBA really does just want to leave their players with a huge breadth to do whatever while in the league.

Joe Smith, if you aren’t familiar, was like the late 90s Dennis Schroder, played for everyone but didn’t quite see the great moments of history like Jeff Teague has. Except, for that one time he created his own great moment. During the 2000 season, the League was informed (by some inter-player agent legal affairs) that Smith had been playing in Minnesota for three years, on subsequent vet mins, with the express promise that he would be paid a humongous $86 Million extension as soon as it was available. Smith had this in writing, and refused several market-level contracts from other teams during this tenure. The NBA voided Smith’s 99-00 contract (worth $2.5 Million), “suspended” GM Kevin McHale (go celtics) for a year, barred the majority owner from any team involvement for a year, and stripped the T-wolves’ 01-05 1st round picks (later returning 03 and 05). This is surprisingly on par with what the NBA doled out to the Clippers. It also points back to a bit of surprise with the Kawhi punishment, in that he paid a fine, and didn’t incur any retroactive voiding of contracts. Amongst tuned in basketball viewers, there was a real belief that Kawhi could lose at least a year’s salary and find himself a free agent. Perhaps some assets would have been returned to the Raptors in that case.

Strangely, the Joe Smith result may point in the direction of the second option. There is an idea that this Timberwolves punishment was a convenient excuse to dish out retribution for the 1998 NBA lockout. Without delving too far into those weeds, that lockout was spurred on by a huge offer to a young Kevin Garnett (go celtics), while his agents pointed to the fact that Shaq had walked from Orlando in 1996 to go to the big market Lakers. This eventually turned into a pay-structure battle between the owners group and the NBPA which introduced individual salary limits (what we now call Supermax deals) and minimum salaries. This took 6 months to resolve and effectively cut the 98 season in half. So if revenue reigns supreme with the NBA, then it is certainly in their best interest to place talent above franchise loyalty. But again, is Kawhi in a strong enough position to place over, an admittedly, under-appreciated Clippers organization? Maybe, but, maybe what the NBA really wants to do is imply that this sort of salary tampering should not affect the availability of players. If one were to read into that line of thought a bit further, then you have to ask who else is doing this?

At the moment, speculating on other Salary Bad Actors, is unwarranted as the player actions which necessitate a suspension prove the point just as well. Beat up another player (or fan) on the court like Ron Artest and the Malice at the Palace participants, or Isiah ‘Beef Stew’ Stewart on, well pick an occasion, unless you are Draymond Green who has only been suspended multiple games twice (and received only a team internal fine as reprimand for punching Jordan Poole in the face at a practice), and you’re out. After all, you’re endangering other talent. Gamble on yourself or be a lure for the Portland, Oregon mafia and get arrested by the FBI? Well Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups were already in FBI custody, so the NBA didn’t really have anything to lose by tacking on a suspension there. Or you’re Jontay Porter and you force the league to reassess their own betting guidelines before a sizable portion of the viewership inevitably has gambling legalized in their states (implying a reduction in NBA revenue when fans upset by their gambling losses pin it on insider action and protest the league). Perhaps you may be Ja Morant, who was suspended for 25 games for again brandishing a firearm on an instagram live after being told not to. Although it can be left up to interpretation on the NBA enforcing their CBA rule of ‘no guns on team trips or premises’ (Ja that time at an away game in Colorado) vs wanting the talent to not hurt themselves (maybe this one is a stretch).

Thankfully, none of this nonsense goes on with our Boston Celtics, and we just live with the impact of the second apron. At the end of the day, the league starts anew with an improved Raptors team, an even more hobbled Clippers team, and specifically the idea that Paul George is now worth ten first round picks. The final conclusion to the questions the Green Line Breakdown have been asking appears to be that it’s business as usual with the NBA. The ownership groups are mastermind schemers, the players don’t really know what’s best for themselves, and we will keep watching so long as the Celtics continue to march toward Banner 20.

Editor’s note: In the last article, at some point in the draft I wrote “Aspire” instead of “Aspiration” and then flipped the two in an edit. Aspiration, Inc was the name of the company in question.

This article takes reference from a Yahoo! Sports timeline report: https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/kawhi-leonard-punishment-investigation-timeline-why-nba-disciplined-clippers-steve-ballmer-over-salary-cap-violations-190220899.html