Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been suspended for one year by the NBA. The league’s investigation found Ballmer and the Clippers were guilty of violating the salary cap circumvention rules. The Clippers have been stripped of five first-round picks and have been fined $30 million.
Page S3From§Eachthe early evening edition — 3 September 2026
NBA approves Ballmer's record $2 billion Clippers bid, suspends him twelve years later for cap circumvention
Hot Mic Moment
This reporter notes the Massachusetts Gaming Commission opened a public review of one man's betting admission on September 1st. The NBA needed twelve years, from a two-billion-dollar sale it approved by vote in 2014, to open a file on that same owner's conduct. One of those bodies answers to a state legislature. Put this reporter on the political desk before air.
Gushis side
This reporter has covered pro basketball long enough to know the NBA does not suspend an owner for a year lightly. Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft chief who won league approval to buy the Clippers back in 2004, has been suspended after the league found the franchise violated its salary cap circumvention rules on Kawhi Leonard's contract.
That price shattered the league's record that year — Ballmer's two billion dollars blowing past the roughly seven hundred fifty million paid for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Twelve years later, that same league has come calling. The Clippers were stripped of five first-round picks, this reporter believes running through 2030, and fined thirteen million dollars.
The violation itself concerns what the league calls off-court income opportunities for Leonard — this reporter took it for a standard signing bonus, the kind clubs hand out routinely.
Bill Simmons, writing for that outlet, called it a new rock bottom for the gals and fellas who follow this franchise — strong words from a man this reporter presumes never had his own finances examined.
Trudyher side
Sugar, check your notes — the league approved that sale May 30th, 2014, per ESPN. You're off by a decade, and on a two-billion-dollar deal, that's real money.
Not even close, hon. The Bucks sold for five hundred fifty million. Ballmer nearly quadrupled the record, and the league approved every dollar without blinking.
The picks run 2029 through 2033, all five, and the fine is thirty million dollars — more than double what you just said. Somebody get this man a nap before he loses the paper another zero.
It's not a bonus, it's the business-deal ruse the same paper detailed — arrangements built to funnel Leonard money outside his contract, the textbook definition of cap circumvention. Read past the headline, sugar.
"Gals and fellas" — it's 2026, sugar. And he's had his own finances examined this week: the Massachusetts Gaming Commission opened a review September 1st after Simmons admitted using his daughter's boyfriend as a proxy bettor on FanDuel. Get this man some mushrooms for his memory.
Nobody's deputizing a gaming commission into the league office, Gus. But you counted right for once — the Post reported the Commission's review opened September 1st, two days before the NBA's suspension landed September 3rd.
“The NBA blessed this $2 billion sale in 2014 and didn't blink for twelve years — then handed down a $30 million fine, about one and a half percent of what they let him pay for the team. That's not accountability, that's a receipt for doing business. The house collects its cut eventually; it just took them a decade to remember to send the invoice.”
“Look, the system worked exactly as designed — the league investigated itself, found itself culpable, and levied a fine. That's self-governance in action. Wait, did I just say the guy who approved the sale is also the guy grading his own homework? Forget I said that.”
The receipts
The NBA brought the hammer down on the Clippers for violating the league’s salary cap circumvention rules by “initiating off-court income opportunities” for star forward Kawhi Leonard. The franchise has been stripped of five first-round picks from 2029-2033.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is reviewing Bill Simmons’ recent confession to using his daughter’s boyfriend to proxy bet on his FanDuel account.
· In basketball, the NBA announces that it has approved the US$2 billion bid of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for the Los Angeles Clippers. The sale must still be approved by the league's owners, a from the morgue, 30 May 2014
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.